THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

Tuapeka Times, Volume VI, Issue 1294, 18 September 1873, Page 7

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

The following is one of the many excellent contributions which have been sent to the " Auckland Evening Star," during the present session of the Assembly by the special .reporter of that journal at Wellington :—: — The position of parties in the House at the present time is a curious study. It is impossible to imagine a state of more utter demoralization ; and probably the annals of New Zealand or of any other colony do not furnish another illustration of so purposeless opposition or so rampant government. That the Government has everything in its own way, but feebly describes the condition to which things have come, and when I say the Government, I mean Mr. Yogel, for the feeble minds that are associated with him in the Ministry not only exhibit their incapacity and want of knowledge of the affairs of their own departments in a manner patent to the most careless observer, but from time to time they are obliged to exhibit the humiliating position of being quietly snubbed.. The absence of the master from the Treasury benches, even for an hour, has generally the effect of reducing them to a state of helpless confusion that rapidly spreads through the House, and it is of the merciful dispensations of Providence that Mr. Vogel's great toe has realised the gravity of the occasion, and has largely refrained from disturbing tbe progress of the country. But if the condition of the ministerial band and its supporters excites our wondering admiration, the condition of the so-called Opposition presents a spectacle to gods and men. It is generally understood that the rallying j point of party is either measures or men. But the Opposition has no measures, nor has it any men to whom allegiance in any form is owned. From whatever cause it has arisen, faith in the former leaders of the House has failed, and only a species of guerilla and impotent warfare waged by those disliking the Ministry is carried on intermittently that is best described by the term " nagging," Tbe operation seems as hopeless as it is purposeless, and no one believes that it has or can have the smallest effect in putting a curb on the onward progress of the Ministry in whatever direction that course may be turned. Ever and anon some new idea is started apparently pregnant with great results ; but in a day or two men's hearts are failing them for fear, and nothing more is heard of it. If the I advocates of annual or biennial Parlia- \ ments desired a cogent argument to show the ill-effects of the lengthened duration of Parliaments, and the absolute necessity for the regeneration and purifying influences of a general election, they should take their Beats for- a few nights in the House, and watch the progress of proceedings. It would seem, as if familiarity breeds, if not contempt, at least a want of faith in political leaders, and probably mutual recognition of the character of tbe motives that actuate politicians has a disintegrating effect that is fatal to party action. Be that as- it may, the rank and file of the so-called Opposition have, and own that they have, no leaders, and. honestly, say that there is I noi; one among the whole party- whom | they are willing to follow. In such circumstances the easiest course is to submit to the leading of the one master mind that sways the destinies of the country, andthat, emboldened by the general; submission, does not hesitate to bear/idawn with resistless

force on any one that presumes to disturb the dull monotony of subjection. I believe there is a very general feeling in the House that, however admirable the great policy of colonization may be, the present condition of unbridled government is dangerous, and may prove disastrous to the colony. As for the professed followers of the Government the picture is more pitiful still. That they are corrupt is hardly denied. Every man has his price is an axiom as old as representative institutions. Mr. Yogel has shown his ability in discovering each man's price, and whether the door of entrance to the finer feelings of the heart is through humoring self-conceit, smiling on their pet measures, the granting of a waterrace, or a road, or an editorial chair, or the prospect of commissionerships, or immigration agencies, or the general fostering and favoring of whatever may be their little hopes and aspirations — the ways of the unwavering supporters of the Government are the ways of pleasantness, and their paths are the paths of peace. To listen to the servile sycophancy of some of the supporters of the Government is positively revolting to any mind that has one spark of manliness remaining. And it is at times refreshing to see the over-guehing zeal repressed of those who seem to admire not wisely but too well. There is one member, not unknown to the people of Auckland, who evidently regards himself as a vital joint, however nearthe tip, in the Ministerial tail. Like a cockrobin he goes jumping about from one bench to another, ever ready to peck at any one that ventures to trouble the Ministry. If returns are called for, he protests against the trouble and the expense, and he can show that all this can be found if the honourable member will only take the trouble to spend two minutes in turning up the blue books. And even when a question is asked, he supplements the explanation by another, to show the folly of the honourable member. From here, from there, from everywhere; from the right, from the left, and from the cross benches, his little crow is everywhere heard, and it is ever for the Ministry ; while fluttering up and throwing himself on the bench beside everybody, he pours out his little trill, while everybody goes on with his conversation or listens to the debate as if the fussy flutterer were non-existent. He is the type of many, not indeed so fussy, but who would apparently crawl on all fours to lick the dust off Vogel's feet. There is something so essentially servile in small minds that one can hardly wonder at the extraordinary ascendancy which the strong will of Mr. Yogel has established over those who lick the sugar off his hands. And it is in this firmness of will, as in Samson's hair, that beyond all question lies, the secret of Mr. Vogel's power. It is not in his power of eloquence, for he is an indifferent speaker on the floor of the House ; his ideas come forth with labour and considerable confusion, 'but having made himself acquainted with everything in the practice of Government, being gifted with irrepressible cheek, and an indomitable strength of purpose, he appears to bear down evreything that comes before him, while the extraordinary success that has attended his parliamentary career has a moral influence that is positively regarded with awe by his fawning followers, for there is nothing so successful as success. A lengthened acquaintance with the little wants and wishes of the members enables him to keep a large number on a string, and it is scarcely exaggeration to say that many of them appear as if they would do the most menial and unworthy thing to bask in his smiles. There being so much that is pleasant in the present and prospective among the ministerial circles, and there is so much that is cold and dreary and hopeless in the doleful cave of Adullam that it is hardly in human nature to expect any particular change in the state of political parties until the political atmosphere is swept by the thunderstorm of a general election. Certainly this session at least will show nothing but the scowl of discontent on the one side, and the insolence of defiance on the other. It may be that the recesß may develop a better state of things ; but members seem to know one another too well, and to have too little faith in each other's political purity and disinterested love of country to ever become blended together for concerted action. There is ability plenty in the House for conducting government without having recourse to the political hacks who have been so long prominently before the public eye, and it is the veriest cant to say, as is sometimes said, that a Government could not be formed but from the old stagers who have hitherto been playing shuttlecock with portfolios. Ido not hesitate to say that there are among the young members of the House, even as it exists at the present hour, as much ability, as much eloquence, and as much capacity for government as there are — or ever were — among the circles that claim a reversionary interest in Cabinets by prescriptive right. But there is a mutual jealousy and mistrust on the one band, and a determination to resist, encroachment by the rampant and | damnable spirit of old fogey ism on the other, that prevents the fostering and development in the House of that party of young blood which, as T predict, has in it the hope and the salvation of - New Zealand.