The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1889. The Unwritten Law.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3249, 6 July 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily SATURDAY, JULY 6, 1889. The Unwritten Law.

The Fisher-Atkinson correspondence has been published in full by the Wellington journal which is supposed to be in the confidence of the Premier, We do not suppose that any other newspaper in the Colony will print it in its voluminous entirety, as the cost ol producing it would bo out of all proportion to the public interest it would excito. The Government organ has, no doubt, to strain a point occasionally to meet the wishes of its patrons, and wo may assume that Sir Harry Atkinson approves of publicity being given to tho documents, being of the opinion that he has the better side of the case. Mr Fisher, like Humply Dumpty, had a great fall, and when ho found ho could not got up again, it would have been wiser on his part to have refrained from worrying the public with his grievance. He writes a dozen columns of explanation and recrimination very cleverly, hut his. ability in enlarging upon the circumstances connected with, his misfortunes is unlikely to benefit himspjf pr servo any useful public service. The Premier, who has the I last word in the correspondence, finishes up as follows ; "I deeply regret to havo to write thus of one once trusted with perfect confidence, and deemed worthy of it, but your grave disloyalty to your colleagues, to the high trust' reposed jn you as a Minister of the Crown, aud to that unv'rjtten law without which Parliamentary Government jwmjd be impossible, has left mo no alternative.

It is satisfactory to find that a standard of ethics alluded to as" the unwritten Jaw" is rogognised in the conduct .of Parliamentary Government, hut the impression conveyed by some.of the official documents just published, would almost suggest tliat Cabinet Ministers are all sixes anil sevens, and that in the Ministry,

as recently comltituted, there were Fishites and anl\-Fishites, warring agftiiißt each other and trying to upset one another out of the Minis, teriul boat, fn the English Cabinet it is a tradition that there are no scones, and but littlo argument. The utmost decorum is supposed- to pervade its meetings, and if any Minister finds himself at variance on any important question with the Premier he voluntarily resigns his seat. Apparently, Colonial Cabinets are a little more .cantankerous. Mr 6. Fisher claims that he was expelled from office because ho differed with tlio Proinior on certain leading questions, but if this were the case, ho certainly ought, according to the unwritten law, to have anticipated his dismissal by a timely resignation. The old rulo that "when two quarrel both are to blame," would seem to have held good in the present case, That Mr Fisher compromised himsoll is tolerably evident, but Sir Harry Atkinson was responsible ■ for Mr Fisher being a member of his Cabinet, and must take some share of the blame. Ho knew exactly what Mr Fisher was when he engaged him as a colleague, viz., a clever debater, who had made his own way up in the world, but who wa9 hardly likely to have very much deference for what Sir Harry Atkinson terms " the unwritten law." At the time when the present Ministry came irito power the Premier wanted the Colony to take sundry nasty doses of retrenchment physic, and ho thought that a mancf the people liko Fisher would help to persuade the public to accept the nauseous draught more pleasantly. Now that the physic has been swallowed, the assistance of Mr Fisher as a colleague is less mcessary to the Premier, and he suddenly became sensitive to certain faults in bis organisation which certainly existed long before 1 the political partnership was arranged. The blame which attaches to Sir Harry Atkinson is more in engaging the services of Mr Fisher as a Minister than in dispensing with them. There was no necessity for him to go outside his own party to obtain a suitable colleague. It is true that Sir Harry Atkinson declares that he formerly deemed Mr G. Fisher worthy of perfect confidence, but at the time thoy came together it was foreseen that the alliance was injudicious and that the issue of it was unlikely to be attended with public advantage, Of course there is nothing to prevent the humblest man in the community from becoming a Cabinet Minister, and in the history of that great country, the United States, the proudest names on record include those of men who began their careers in log cabins. It is all to the credit of Mr G. Fisher that lie is a self made man, who graduated from type setting to reporting and from report- , ing to a scat in the House of ; .Representatives. The allegation [ brought against him by the Premier does not question his ability or industry, but his moral principles. The possession of the latter must go with the former to make a realty great man, We will venture to hope : that the Premier has in his wrath ; done Mr Fisher some injustice on 1 this score, and that the late Minister , for Education is not quite so black as he is painted. Whatever ho may i be, he is the political protege of 1 of the Premier, and Sir Harry, if he ■ found his pupil not quite up to the the ethical standard of his cabinet, ought to have endeavored to educate him up to it.and so have saved lis from the scandal with which we I are now deluged.