CONTEMPORARY OPINIONS ON CURRENT EVENTS.

Tuapeka Times, Volume V, Issue 242, 19 September 1872, Page 5

CONTEMPORARY OPINIONS ON CURRENT EVENTS.

bdxler's member.

0 temporal 0 mores! 0 Eugene O'Conor ! But yesterday the word of Eugene Stood against the world ; now lies he,

And none so poor to do him reverence. It is a sorry spectacle. Faithful among the faithless, we were so faithful as to be foolish enough to say, only a few days ago, that in being designated "doubtful" Mr O'Conor was once more being " persecuted by malicious, evil minded enemies." Ouriaith was based upon a fact. That fact was that at Westport, a week or two before the session, when it was mildly hinted by one of his "political opponents" or "personal enemies" that there would soon be seen a change come o'er the spirit of his dream, through circumstances which were even then appearing on the surface, he boldly repelled the base insianation, and avowed himself, in the past and in the present, " a warm supporter of the Ministry." In almost apolor getic tones it was suggested that th was too great an interest being all of a den taken in the hon. member by Mr S ford and his satellites to be altogether for the moral health of a weak member, and the constituency were invited to watch the progress of events, and to mark the speaker's words, prophet of evil that he was, his words have come true ! Heralded into the House by Mr Arthur Collins as a probably injured man, handed over to the tender mor» cieß of a committee headed by Mr Gillies, watched for and welcomed on his return by Mx Stafford, Joseph fell upon the bosom of his new political step-father, and — kicked out right and left at his former friends. Mr Fox was friendly, it is true} but what is friendship ? Friendship — nothing more. And it was under these circumstances — when the value of one vote was enhanced io a degree which it is difficult to estimate — that a so-called "judicial inquiry" was conducted to its satisfactory close, with this satisfactory sequel ! The least satisfactory part of the whole proceeding is that not a word of all Mr O'Conor is reported to have Baid was, so far as we are aware, ever anticipated by Mr o 'Conor's constituency. Loud he was, as a member of the Nelson Provin* cial Council) in his praises of the Premier as compared with the Superintendent ; loud he was in his expressions of his admiration of the General Government administration, as compared with Provincial ; proud he was to the last that the Premier and he were on Buch friendly terms as to interchange private correspondence ; and strong he was, as we have said, in the assertion that he was a supporter of the Ministry. — Q. S. Argus.

A CONTRAST OF PARTIES.

On the one side we have a compact minority of thirty-seven, animated, we may fairly suppose, by much the same feelings, bound together by the same broad principles of policy and administration. On the other, we have the majority of forty, and of whom it is composed— politically speaking — no man mote tell. We know, ef course, that there is a small, very small, band called the Old Colonial party. This is Mr Stafford's more immediate following, and its principles, if it has any, are or have been diametrically opposed to the second section of the majority — the Ultra-Provincialists — who have fought for their own band, and because the Government would not weakly incur the danger of mangling its policy by complying with their demands. But this section, if carefully examined, will be seen to consist of two subsections, the leader and guide of one being Mr Fitzherbert, who haß views peculiarly lis own, or peculiarly local, to advance. The third section is that motley, straggling, and striving lot of free-lances — not to say camp-followers— who are found in every legislative body. Expectant, discontented — always willing and prepared to wound those from whom they have received nothing, and ready to strike on either side so long as they are striking for themselves — they are exceedingly dangerous friends because they may at any moment be converted into rabid enemies. Such, as far as can be made out at present, is the position — we can hardly say of parties, but of the House. The minority is compact, and therefore strong ; the majority is heterogeneous, antagonistic, ' and hungry, and therefore inherently weak. ' Looking also at the fact that Mr Stafford's majority of three comprises two of the Maori representatives, who, whatever their individual good qualities, have the capriciousness of their kind, it cannot be said that the battle is other than a drawn one. Two of his three winning votes are not to be depended upon with any degree of certainty, and his majority of three is convertible into a minority of one at very short notice, or without notice at all tor that matter. Further, the thirty-seven who have held together are men who, it must be assumed, firmly believe in the policy with which the name of the Fox-Vogel Cabinet will always be associated. . The forty — how suggestive of a certain nursery tale, which in some re--spects would not be inapplicable !—comprisesnien to whom progress and settlement are gall and wormwood, and it also comprises - men who, accepting either on compulsion or from conviction the principles of the public works policy, have peculiar — singularly peculiar — ideas as to how it should De carried out. Under such circumstances as we have described, with votes so narrowly divided and no question of policy at issue, it is natural that men should think of and advocate A COALITION : ITS CHANCES. The subject must be discussed apart from any personal or party considerations. It is not-— would a coalition meet the views of the leading men on both sides ; but, assuming for the nonce that a coalition is practicable,' would it conduce to the best interests of the Colony ? We submit that it would not, that concessions of an undesirable ' and possibly dangerous character would most likely have to be made, and that, finally, those who are in the-minority really represent the opinions, wishes, and expectations of the great bulk of the people. Mr Stafford has carried his resolutions solely by the aid of men of whom, without attributing te them any personal motives beyond those by which average human nature is actuated, it may be fairly said they have been battling for interests with which they are all personally identified, and on which some are personally dependent. These interests we

and destructive -ofpthe-in--~ terests represented by the minority, The former are either purely local or purely personal; the latter are colonial, general, aud "of vital' lmportance. The overtures for a coalition — for it is clear that overtures have been made and great pressure brought to bear— come from Mr Stafford and his friends. This, if nothing else did, shows their weakness, and is at the same time a tacit almission that the minority has all the strength of cohesion and all the elements of ultimate success. Conscious of this strength, /estimating clearly the extent of the admission which Mr fctafford has made, knowing the diverse and unworkable character of the majority, and feeling certain that the principles they represent must in the end be triumphant, because on them depends the peace and progress of the Colony, why should the minority entertain the idea of a coalition ? Nothing has been so clearly brought out during the debate as the fact that Ministers might have easily retained their seats if, forgetting their self-respect and sacrificing the interests of the Colony, they had acceded to the demands made by the Superintendent of Wellington and his immediate followers. The late Ministry have no reason to envy M r Stafford a victory which has been obtained at such a price. On the contrary, reviewing what they have accomplished, and bearing in mind what they have resisted on behalf of the Colony, they are entitled to claim their defeat as a merited honor, their teuiporary exclusion from office as an additional credit and a substantial claim to public confidence. — Lyttelton Times.

TRAVELLING MINISTERS.

The Auckland Star considers the second, of Mr Stafford's . resolutions, which condemned the habitual absence of Ministers from the seat of Government during the recess, clap-trap, and observes that had it not been provocative of jealousy and envy the flying of Ministers to and fro would have been by common consent regarded as evidencing zeal and assiduity of no ordinary kind. To the raising of the loan and the perfecting of the San Francisco Mail Service Mr Yogel stuck'^ith irrepressible tenacity ; and the movements of the other Ministers the^HKand breadth of the land, r to ahy fair mind as nccessiuliaf physical features of the Aivided interes's apd the outgrowth of

. rovm nors zn&z nave been confer ), the seeming pleasures of these t, c various Miststers, and the interference of their presence in the spheres of the various local gods of the country have been as gall and wormwood, and accordingly for the "efficient direction of public affaire, either executive or. legislative," they had much better have stayed in Wellington. ' GOVERNMENT PATRONAGE OF NEWSPAPERS.

In a leading article dealing with the above subject, the Lyttelton Times confirms the observations we made lately on the return, and remarks t "Virtually there is only one paper in Taranaki. The News lias had a sort of wheezy and intermittent existence, it is true, but if the Government wished the notifications they made to reach the public generally — and we presume they would — they were bound to employ the columns of the Herald. Of all papers in the colony, the Wellington Post has the least to complain of. Taking the relative position of the two papers published in that city, bearing in mind that the one circulates all over the Province, and that the other — as is the case with all evening papers— has merely a town circulation, the Post has been most liberally dealt with, both in advertising and printing. Again, there is no paper in the Colony which has so viciously, we may even say foully, abused the Government, individually and collectively, as the Wanganui Herald. It gets about L 250 of the public money from the same Government ; while the Chronicle, favorable to the Ministry, gets less than a fourth of that -sum. But the most striking fact of all ia, that the Olago Daily Times, an opponent of the 1 Government from the very day they took office, and in one respect peculiarly, almost personally, antagonistic to them, received more of the public money for advertising than any other paper in New Zealand. This miserable charge, which we should not have considered it necessary to discuss but for the misrepresentations that have been locally made, is entirely disproved by the return supplied by the Government, and to which we again invite the attention of the public. Before it can be substantiated, two things must be clearly proved. Starting from the basis that it is the duty of the Government to advertise mainly in such papers as they believe will give most general publicity ; and that, further, it is their duty to get their printing done at the cheapest rate consistent with efficiency— those who charge them with dispensing both so as to secure or reward support, must prove beyond any doubt that they have not been guided by the rules we have laid down. ' When they do this,- the charge will have some shadow of foundation. Till then it is simply a baseless and malicious calumny.