The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VII, Issue 2050, 24 July 1885, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. FRIDAY, JULY 24, 1885.

The position of the two Wellington members of the Ministry, Messrs Ballance and Buckley, is not an enviable one. They cannot but feel forced to admit to themselves that the East and West Coast (Middle Island) Railway is not a line on which the colony should spend a single penny, and that the present proposal of the Colonial Treasurer is nothing more nor less than a most barefaced attempt to buy Canterbury and West Coast support; indeed, being parlies to the plot they are as deep in the mire as he is. On the other hand, they cannot be blind to the fact that the colony has two direct lines of steamers to England, which have proved themselves able to deliver mails in very satisfactory time. Yet they are prepared to support the proposal to renew the contract for the San Francisco service because Sir Juiius Vogel wishes to play off Auckland against Canterbury, in order to get the support of both. If these two gentlemen had a soul that was capable of anything

above officii, they would put their fgot down ntiddeclared that they would not be. parties to the squandering of such large sums of money; and if the Premier and the Treasurer still persisted, they could have tetired from the Ministry with credit to themselves. They have missed the opportunity, for the whole Ministry will, ere long, be compelled to retire with not a vestige of good reputation left them, while, had they not been blind, they could at any rate have saved themselves from further opprobrium.