The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1891.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XII, Issue 3834, 17 June 1891, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 17, 1891.

The recent political changes which have been so disastrous to New I Zealand have brought about one distinct advantage, if they have tended to make John Bryce " leader of the Opposition" m esse, and Premier in posse. It is well known that the leadeisbip of the party has before now j been offered to him and refused* and | if on the present occasion he accepts a position which he has previously j rejected, it goes without saying that he is constrained by a sense of public duty. We have never bad any personal intercourse with John Bryce, indeed, we Bhould not know him if he passed us in the street, but his public reputation has been familiar touß for the last five and twenty years, and judging him by it alone we have been wont to place him a head and shoulders above any other New Zealand statesman. He_was once called in scorn "honest John Bryce" by a horde of political schemers who gbot up m the Vogelian era, and who certainty were innocent of the fault which they condemned iu the man they nicknamed. Bis honesty is unquestioned, and it is a satisfaction to know that at last one honest man in the community occupies a position of power and trust, from which vantage-ground he can watch the machinations of certain sorry politicians who- m BQW mak V D , g ? ve / y decent man in the Colony blush for very shame. We apeak of the new. leader of the opposition as John Bryce because as yet a title which he fairly won has not been accorded to him. Some day when he becomes Sir John srycfl V& "Jiall- be able to speak with a little more reaneptofthe Knightly throng than we have been accustomed to do. We have had one hero in New Zealand and the Home Government weie pot intelligent enough to discover the fact 1 Besides honesty the new leader of the opposition possesses in 8B unusual degree the quality of courage, and in this respect the Premier will be at a great disadvantage with bun. He haß also carefully studied political questions, thought out his own conclusions, and the man who seeks to move him from tbesi will haye V a hard row to boe.' He far, too, a practical farmer, pftt one of the Ballance type, mo .peoples, imaginary villages with vanishing villagers, but oue who knows what a piece of land will do, and what a man can do with it. The purity of life, and the high pewiopaj character and conduct of John Brype are unquestioned, and when he becomes Premier every honest man, whether high or

low, rich or poor, may trust him to do what is right, and to eay what is light, and every rogue or idle loafer will know better than to look to him for either preferment or employment.' There is one drawback to our forer caste of John Bryce's future political career, and that is a doubt as to whether his health will stand the. strain of his new responsibilities. Should it, however, hold good, we have a glimpse of-a..blue sky in the political horizon of New Zealand. .