The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE Proprietor. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1897.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 210, 16 November 1897, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE Proprietor. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1897.

Once more the Premier has refused to answer questions in the House. He gave as his reason that Ministers, owing to protracted sittings, had been unable to prepare answers. Capt. Russell protested, but of course without avail, any motion on the subject would have been treated as a " want of confidence," and the majority at the back of Ministers would have supported them.

The cause of the protracted sittings is the inability of the Premier to lead the House. He has not yet quite realised the fact that there are men now in Parliament who will not allow him to ride rough shod over them and their party. The reason questions are not answered is no doubt that the Premier is very reluctant to allow any of his colleagues to reply without first of all submitting the intended answers to him for approval. He recognises that at least two of his colleagues are utterly unfit for oflice, and are not to be trusted to speak except after careful coaching. This is a state of affairs which is disgusting to many of the more intelligent of Ministerial supporters in and out of (he House. It must be galling to them that the party cannot return to Parliament men of sufficient capacity to decently hold the positions which the possession of a majority places in the gift of their leader. It must also be a severe strain on the loyalty of the rank and file to see men with no more capacity than themselves placed in oflice for no other conceivable reason than that they are sufficiently pliant and wanting in backbone to satisfy the Premier. The assertive Minister is Mr McKenzie, and for some time past it has been very questionable whether be leads the Premier or the Premier leads him. The Horowhenua business certainly gives the impression that the Premier has in that case at any rate played only second fiddle.

Parliament has now been in session several weeks, and so little progress has been made with business that it is manifest that our assertion is true that the Premier is unable to lead the House oris not desirous to push on with many of the Pills which are already before it, or promised to be introduced before the close of the session. This will of course be attributed to the waste of time by the Opposition ; that is the term applied to every thwarting of the Premier's will, and the time taken in forcing information from Ministers is similarly termed. The most important measure promised in the Oovernor's speech, so far as Waikato is concerned, was the Sugar Beet Bill, that has not yet been introduced ; if it does not pass or is not introduced, the Waikato people will, no doubt, be told that, the fault is with the Opposition. Jf no business is transacted the fault is that of the Covernment ; they have a majority and provided the measures they introduce have the approval of the party they can be carried.

Every man who watches the. trend of public opinion must recognise that th 6 Government is gradually losing the confidence and rospect of their hitherto most ardent supporters. The Horowhenua and Bushy Park businesses with the two little bills of the Premier to follow, have been too much for the digestion of all but the least respectable and least intelligent of their supporters.