OUR LORDS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 203, 5 July 1879, Page 2

OUR LORDS.

Our contemporary the Lyttelton Times is publishing a series of amusing sketches of prominent members of the Legislative Council under the title of " Our Lords," one of which, descriptive of the present Colonial Secretary, we now reprint, and shall reproduce others of the series from time to time.

THE HON* GEORGE STODDART WHITMOKE, C.M.0., COLONIAL SECRETARY. We give precedence to Colonel Whitmore in deference to his Ministerial position. He is, as Colonial Secretary, the leader of the Legislative Council, Not that he really leads them anywhere, for each goes his own way, and at each division the result is, generally speaking, a delightful incertitude, If a majority happens to agree with tho Colonial Secretary, lie goes on his way rejoicing, and if, as is equally probable, it, happens to differ from him, he goes on his way with philosophic indifference. The Lords, we are told, arc above party feeling. Wearo not told why they should be so, and probably they know not why themselves. It may be that they think this negative quality gives them some kind of claim to intellectual superiority and to purer judg-. ment. The result is that their following any one man is out of the question. They lo.itter themselves over Unpolitical pastures and wander about at discretion. It ig understood, though why, again, we know not, that the Legislative Council can do nothing to affect the position of the Ministry; and that idea may in some measure account for the absence of party feeling in the heavenly minds of Our Lords, If an irrecoucileable difference on ail important point arises between the Government and the Legislative Council, it is either boiled down in the caldron of a conference, or it forms a good theme for assailing the constitution of the Council, and for threatening it with summary swamping or with organic reform,' We have heard from successive Premiers

" This terrible curse, But viiat gives rise To no little surprise, Nobody seems one penny the worse!" We 'are, however, forgetting Colonel Whitmore. As a staff officer in tho Imperial service he achieved considerable reputation. He was Military Secretary for some time in this Colony under General Cameron, and afterwards becamo a settler . in the Province of Hawkes' Bay. He was ' called to the Legislative Council in 18G3, and in 1868 the Stafford' Government ap- •/ pointed him to the command of the local forces during the Native war. In that capacity ho rendered distinguished service, for which he never received'adequate recognition. Unfortunately, he was a politician as Well as a soldier, and in the conflict of parties his military achievements were ignored. He was a prominent member of the War party which had for its object the general subjugation of the Natives by force of arms, iind in 18,69 Parliament prepared the policy of peace. Colonel Whitmore retired from his : military command, and naturally became' a strong political opponent of the Fbi Government, He was not, however, factious in bis opposition. He severely criticised the Public Works policy of Sir Julius Vogel, and the, Native policy of Sir Donald • M'Lean; and he was a formidable antagonist in the Council to the continuous Ministry till its fall m W. He accepted with reluctance his present seat in the Grey . Ministry, with whose views he d$ np'^

altogether agrco; but he was anxious that its policy should have a fair trial, and hoped to bo able to act as a Conservative check on its possible undue tendency to what he regarded as Radicalism. Next session will probably shew the result. Colonel Whitmore has considerable ability; ho lias quick apprehension and great power of work. Ho is, however, in the Council, too talkative and too irritable. His tongue runs away with him, and when he is angry ho is injudicious and offensive, Every allowance must, however, be made for a man who lias, almost single-handed —for his colleague, Mr Wilson, is neccssjujDy without experience—to conduct ' business during the session through There is for him no intermission ut rest, and lie must be continuously crammed <m every possible subject in the fact! of able and censorious criticism. Colonel Whitmore is small in frame and not robust in constitution, but ho is full of pluck and aggressiveness; and he has a remarkable faculty for understanding, or seeming to understand subjects on which he speaks, and, in case of emergency, of speaking on subjects which he Woes not understand. Hois versatile and voluble but his versatility and his volubility are both effective for defensive ■and offensive purposes. He is the gadfly of debate. His pertinacity is provoking and his sting is troublesome. Official experience and ministerial responsibility are doing much to improve Colonel "Whitmore, and to manifest his undoubted political capacity. As Sydney Smith said of Macaulay, he would be all the better for a few flashes of judicious silence.