The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1882.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 4, Issue 1180, 16 September 1882, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1882.

EATING THE LEEK. The Christchurch Press has in a recent issue a graphic article on the triumph of the Ministry over the Op. position in the session which has now closed, "For three months (writes our contemporary) the Opposition would not allow Ministers .to make any progress. They were not (quite strong enough to turn them out of office j hut they were strong enough to prevont thopp from passing their measures, or imaking anything but the Sorriest figure before the country, They were strong enough to humiliate, though not to'defeat them. They were strong enough to keep them on the rack from day to day, and from week 'to week, and' from: month to month, they were strong enough to go a long way towards destroying their political repuiatio.n and setting the feeling of •the people them ; and they usSd.their power without the slightest tiercy." Major Atkinson before the session closed was able to turn their own weapons against themselves". After three and a half months members of the Opposition became homesick. They wanted to draw their honorariums and return to their wives and families. Then Major Atkinson's opportunity arrived. He produced his leek—a long string of Government measures—and informed the obstructives that thev must swallow it before they could be sent back to their unfortunate constituencies. How the Opposition eat the leek, how they bolted it as fast as it could be taken in, is a matter of iistory. They passed with avidity every measure the Ministers put before them, and they wound up bv voting an increase to Ministerial salaries. "The Opposition (adds our contemporary) had taunted the Ministry with their inability to carry their Bills. They had menaced them with every sort of limitation and curtailment of their. powers, Yet the Ministry carried all their Bills in a flush of victory, and forced the Opposition to see them carry every single vote that they required. To crown all, they notified their intention of resuming the full amount of their salary, and challenged anyone to question their right to do so. Not a tongue dared wag; and thus the ' Fabian policy ' of the Opposition terminated in the most overwhelming triumph that any Ministry ever achieved.