"PASSING EVENTS."

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4115, 17 May 1892, Page 2

"PASSING EVENTS."

(By oub Wellington Correspond DENT,) HIG ET ÜBIQUE. Wellington, Monday. As I stated in my let ter of a fortnight back tbe result of the Premier's meeting at Feilding, wbenhe received a vote of thanks and confidence, could not be relied upon as a truly representative expression of opinion. Strangely enough, within a brief furl , night that stntemi-nthas been verified. Mr Macartbur has spoken, and tbe verdiot given on a former occasion has ■ now been completely reversed in the most emphatiu manner, Theexulta- ! tion of the Government in their soi called triuniph has been short-lived f arid the verdict from Feilding, taken I with the blow delivered by the men i of Bruce, should do muoh to weaken that already tottering and gigantic , fraud—the Great Liberal Party. i As if to make their case worse, the I Government have now openly, re- , pudiated Sir George Grey, and thrown I down to him tbe gauntlet of defiaiice, which, one may be ;• sure, the i spirited old Knight of Kawau will i nof allow to he in the political lists ; for long. It looks very muoh like a i coalition between Sir George and , his followers and the Opposition, . Stranger things have happened ,in . politics before to-day. Al 1 any rate, if things progress as they : are doing at present, tho Government , will be under a pretty stiff cross-fire . of opposition during the Session. ! With the compact ranks of the i Opposition in frout, the skirmishing i lines of Sir George Grey and hit [ partizans in the centre, and sharpshooters all round suoh as Mr Fiat I and Mr George Fisher, the Ministerial benches will be in a very warm corner, i and it will need all the strength l ol i their numbers to prevent the position from being carried by aßsault, i One of the most important subjeotE , that will have to be debated nexl , Session is t|yt of the North Island [ Main Trunk Railway. To the resi. s dents of the Auokland, Taranaki, and i Wellington provinces the question o! , the routes has become a matter 01 j intense intorest. The Ministry art i now ominously silent: no expressior , ot opinion can be elioited fromthen: 1 one way or the other. Are they wait' , ing to see how the cat will jump ? Ii j it a question—as a leading Auckland i merchant lately said—of votes ? An] 3 how, no matter which way the] j, decide—for or against the' Centra j, Route-they are bound to lost 8 votes, Never was Government si g hairasßedwith doubts and difficulties 0 The killing part about tbis Centra „ Railway affair is that the Governmen e have lately Bent a number of unem if ployed up to Hunterville to work .01 j the line. Ministers do not mini g doing work at the Southern end s. q long as contracts are not advertised 3 for that would draw Auokland atten tion to what they were doing, am d the fat would be in the fire. Worl ■« is in hand ou the railway milei e beyond the proposed Makohim e Gorge viaduct, Ministers will no ,y let the latter contract, as, of course g it would have to be advertised for and thereby attraot attention a j Auckland. _ It is freely rumoured here that thi lt Premier will be included in the batol k Birthday honours this, month g generally doled out by Her Majest' to deserving colonists, How will M y Ballance reconcile it with his demo i 8 oratio principles to accept a title Perhaps, like hiß ally and politics n backbone-Sir Robert Stout—lie wil gulp down his democratic dislike t titular distinction and accept tlx glittering baublerof the Order of-th Knights of Saint Michael and Sain George. Sir Johnßall«nce,K.C.M.G, atter all—even to au advanced Radi oal-sounds sweeter to the ear thai plain John Ballance I We all havi our little weaknesses, and Radical™ 1 does not make us free from the de i, sire of a share in the pomps an< !, vanities of this wicked world. e K Supposing the K.O.M.G-ship to bi is au fait accompli, will Sir John retiri from tho leadership of the Grea e Liberal Faotion and seek the delightt e of the important position of Agent. General in the World's metropolis' 0 The Premier has a yearning for the t billet, ai.dMr Perceval will no doubi obligingly retire after having kept thi t place warm for his Chief? West' minster Chambers, Victoria-street 5 London, S.W., is not a bad retreai j from the "slings and arrows" of New r Zealand politics. 1 ■ i lam told that the Government are I not at all ready for the coming i Session, How can it be expected 1 when they are gadding about all . over the Colony on the" stump," * instead of attending to the country's business. Then also one Minister's i time so fully occupied with his journalistic duties, and another's with i running grain stores and freezing i works, that itis a matter of difficulty to get the Parliamentary programme prepared, A Cabinet meeting under the present regime iB a ma avis, H.M.S, Hinemoa has been dess patched to Sydney for His Excellency Lord Glasgow, Commander Fairchild. now swaggers about tho main deck in a gorgeous uniform,' the officers and sailors have been irreproachably got up in the most coirect navy rigs, and a small battery of artillery under Commander Fox has been shipped in order to fire a salute upon the Governor setting foot on board—which I shall be very much surprised if be does, Mr Buokley has assumed his most charming and persuasive air and taken his now top hat over to Sydney with him,- Count Grace (of the Holy Roman Empire) is also in %dney awaiting His Excellency's arl ival.and will form one of the reception committee of two. If Lord Glasgow is not paralysed with the splendour and dignity of his reception he must indeed be as Btolid aB the typical Dutchman, Dr Cahill, the popular Wellington medico, and a hamper of .game have also been despatched by the Hinemoa to minister to our new Governor's bodily comforts, Tbe Audit officer has reported adversely upon the new Pubi.io Trustees' system of accounting, tkrnj consequently war to the knife been The, Auditor and Controller general has accepted his Inspector's' condemnation of the system, and the Public Trustee on his part asserts that his method is perfectly secure, easily worked, and saves much-time-and 1 labour, Mr. Warburton is certainly in authority on departmental 1 iccounting, for during the many years lie controlled the finances of the Post ind Telegraph Departments everything worked like clockwork, no easy ■ ;ask when one considers the vast ' » V 1

immber of monetary transactions th&t annually pass through the books of this great branch of the Publia Ser« 1,1 vice. The Auditor and Controller" , General intends to appeal to Parlia« ment in order to receivo a deoision ruling upon the subjoot, Mr Duthie, M.H.R,, has delivered himself of a good solid unadorned 8 statement of affaire,and received, with 0 but a few dissentients, ut hearty vote d of thanks and confidence! The meeti . '• ing was not largely attended, but '• the house was comfortably full. The j other on the night in I- question (Wednesday), consisting of 6 the Tiig-of»War contest, over which 8 everyone has gone frantic,' and Mr 8 Walter Bentley's recital, no doubt . '■ kept many away, But the! fact of >• there not being large attendance d may be taken as a'oompliment rather 11 than otherwise. 'Mr Duthie's supH porters felt that his position was so. II seoureasnot to require their attend--10 ance, and the other side no doubt hare now becomt alive to the fact also that Mr Duthie's position is unassail* 10 able. The fact thatayotaofoonfi. ! " dencecould have bcon carried so easily ' n shows that a revulsion of popular ; i feeling is slowly but steadily setting 8 in, ' i 3 Mr George Beetham, a Mastertom, is now on a visit to Cdllingwoud, but returns to town next '■ week. It is not at all unlikely that you may hear of him again • in con« nection, with the Maaterton seat,' y The report that Mr Hogg, M.H.R., will be a candidate for one of the :e Wellington seats is, I believe, totally. • '■ without foundation. He would 16 not stand the faintest chance [8 in Wellington. The Government 18 have far better men than Mr Hogg >" on hand to contest a seat'for'them hin the city if necessary, Mr 0. A. *1 Pownall, of your town, it is stated, in r > the event of his not standing for 3 Masterton, is to be put up against n Mr W. 0. Buohanan for South Wairarapa, ,Dr Newman, in his speech at " Petone last week, made a "palpable ' t " hit" whan lie spoke of the necessity l * for providing a uniform sot of Bobool . books for the whole Colony. In New ™ Zealand, where the working man so 5 frequently changes his place of resice dence in the pursuit of work, it is a ® deoided hardship that with neariy jj>. every move new sohool books Uamo t- be provided for the children, owing 'jj to the fact that every Education 'd Board sees fit to exeroise its own >y sweet fancies in this matter of books, 3 y For instance, a man living at Masa' terton removes to Woodville in search 30 of work: if his children go to school 30 there, an entirely new set of books is required, as those used by the Wei-, lington Board are quite different, a ' The _ same thing happens if after nt a time his labour takes him to Palmerston, and so on. As Dr. "J Newman says, this question is a real 1( * grievance, and our muoh vaunted so system of free eduoation is not com* pleto while such a praotioo prevails ai D " allowing, each Education Board to "J chose its own set of books. It is a c vgrthmhuk« wonder that action in this direotion 68 has not been taken by some of the 10 so called "working men's candidates" °t who might with advantage have °i moved in the matter to the exclusion *i of many of the subjects that oooupy a ' their attention less profitably, The lesson of the Bye-elections is 30 not _ difficult to learn, Since kat session four bye-elections have taflta "i place, two in the towns and twoin 'y the country, Both the town seats went to the Government, that of Chriatohurch being a walk over, The 1 < Wellington seat was, however, only secured by the same party by an 111 extremely narrow majority and that to after the Government had done their utmost for their candidate. TheWai« bo kato and Bruce seats have been nt easily secured by the Opposition In the case of the Bruce eleotion the Government threw the whole weight "i of their influenoe into the contest, w specially bringing up those m sioned orators, Messrs Pinkerton and e " Earnshaw, to sway by their eloquence "d the votes of the electors. It is plain, then, for these bye-eleotions may be taken as a pretty acourate gauge of J0 publio opinion, that the strength of re the Government lies in tho towns, at while the Opposition are especially ts strong in the country, This being '* the case, at the next General Election i ? twelve certain town votes Hoiise of seventy-four may be relied to upon for the Government, while of ie the remaining sixty-two votes, by far the' larger proportion are eountry representatives, and should therefor# it furnish a fair working majority to v the Opposition. This is the lesson of the_ bye-elections which none see plainer than the Government them■e selves, g • —. J Some of the younger members of jj the. Opposition are dissatisfied with " the "do nothing" polioy of their 8 party, and, without Withdrawing in 's any way their allegiance from their s leaders, intend in future to actively l> carry on wjiat may be termed "The I Progressionist Crusade." The proy gressionist party will consist of Dr e Newman, Mr Scobie Mackenzie, Mr r T. Mackenzie, Mr A. Buckland, Mr A,E.G. Bhodes, and possibly tho newly elected member for Bruce, s Mr James Allen, The tactics of this y undoubtedly 'able cokrie will be 6 watohed with much interest, . ? ____K°smomk :