The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1879.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 2, Issue 270, 2 October 1879, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 2, 1879.

Mr John Hall is described by the Lyttelton Times as a public man of whom the colony, and especially Canterbury which owns him, has a right to be proud. Nature, writes our contemporary, has not endowed him with excess in some parts and deficiency in others, but she has made him good all round. The lantern in the lighthouse of his mind is not of the flashing order, and it does not revolve. Momentary brightness does not suddenly burst forth and as suddenly disappear, but the light shed is lixed, permanent, and equable. Mr Hall is one of those men who are born to public lite. In the nursery we can imagine that he preferred statistics to sugar plums, and playing at Ministers to playing at marbles, As a school boy lie never could have been so happy as with a Hansard, and his holidays must have been passed in moving for and preparing imaginary returns. He grew up a cuinblete Jue Book in breeches. But Mr Hall is far more than a mere political encyclopaedia, He is a man (it for any public business, and he delights in work. He will sit on any number of local boards, and only succumbs to the physical impossibility of sitting in two places at once. He is ever re uly in his place, in Parliament, and is as much at home in the clerical alteration of a clause in a Municipal Bill as in the midst of a Ministerial crisis. Whatever may be the subject, and however long the sitting, Mr Hall is never at a loss, and is seldom to be caught tripping. He is not an orator, and is not given to declaration ; but lie is a good debater, and what he says is not easily answered. He does not dasli into a subject and then dash out again—with great gallantry and greater indiscretion, gaining nothing and losing much. He knows when and where to attack, and how to retreat, His industry is unwearied, and his energy indomitable, In 1868, when Parliament was in session, Mr Hall, who was then in the Stafford Ministry, and was then in the House of Representatives, undertook, in addition to his own proper share of the work, the duty of the Colonial Treasurer, who was th uin England. Fart of that duty was to bring in the Budget, in the face of a strong and violent Opposition led by Sir W. (then Mr) Fox and Sir (then Mr) Julius Vogel. Mr Hall was over-worked, and suffering from severe illness. He rose from a sick bed, and ably performed a task which would have taxed the powers of leading statesmen in good health, It was a remarkable instance of mental resolution compensating for bodily weakness.. Had it not been for iil health and for his subsequent retirement from the House of Representatives, Mr Hall would long enough a<*o have been Premier. Although he would not probably have had the grasp of mind and the boldness to create and launch the Public Works Policy of 1870, he was in many respects better qualified than Sir Julius Vogel to direct and administer it when launched.

On Tuesday night the "No Confidence" battle commenced in the House of Representatives. The Hon John Hall, in moving his resolution made the following definite charges against the administra' tion Extravagant expenditure; bungling in Native Matters; Financial muddles ; tampering with the Public Press; unfair treatment of the Civil Service; scandalous neglect in providing for the lunatics of the Colony; and, using Government influence and departments to bias tile Lite election. These charges were made in clear, concise and specific terms, but Sir George Grey, who rose to reply, beyond a general contradiction, did not I apparently consider it worth his while to disprove them. He soaredaloft in liis usual style, about the young nation robbed of its rights, kept down.by a landed aristocracy. Mr Saunders, who followed, happily characterised the Hon. John Hall's speech as a terrestial one, and the Premier's as a celestial oration. The same gentleman quoted Napoleon's remark that young soldiers were " food for cannon," and applied it to Sir George Grey's recruits, who. he contended, " were food for gammon." There is a time and place fur all things. When detailed and serious charges | were made against the administration of

Sir George Grey, it was ihe Premier's duty to answer these chargos, and to keep for another occasion his flights of fancy and his flow of soul' The only conclusion •liat could be drawn from such a reply by an impartial spectator would be that the charges were unanswerable].