The Waikato Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1877.

Waikato Times, Volume X, Issue 828, 6 October 1877, Page 2

The Waikato Times.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1877.

fcjquuland exact justice to all men, Or whatever state or persuasion, religious o political # tt * * #

Here shall the Presi the People's riglit maintain, Una we i bv inlluence and uabribed by j;a

There can be little doubt, we'think, of the fate of the Ministry.- It was not so much the narrowness of the majority by which the ..last no confidence vote was staved off, as the utter impossibility apparent that it could ever carry out a will of its <jwri,;if- left to Btiuggle on, that betokened the coming end of the present administration. Even now the detection of five of the supporters ot the Government, which would give/to the .Opposition-- an actual m.ijority, will be less the cause than the result ot that end. The Ministry will have died out rather than have been put Jwrs de combat in open fight. And truly, if the Governs niont is we, ? k to stand up agaiiist ;the ■ Opposition, what 'little of str'engf.h the "latter has will be expended in giving it the coup de grace. The. one has as little vitality as the other. The Assembly, as at present constituted, is moribund, aud to allow the Opposition to assume the reins of office would simply be to perpetuate the present unsatisfactory state of affairs. i hat it has been alrea iy too far prolonged is felt very generally by men of all shades of opinion, arid the recourse to a dissolution is looked forward to as the only remedy, as much we believe within the House as outside it. Not many months since it was re. ported that Mr ctout was about to move a resolution affirming the desirability.of a dissolution, that the country might have an opportunity oi expressing itself on two very important questions—both of which weio altogether 'merged in the sole hustings - cry'.of abolition at the last general election—namely, the distribution of the Land Fund and the desirability of imposing a property tax. To have passed such a resolution would have been a most unusual course for Parliament to have taken. It woulJ, in fact, have been neither more nor less than a vote of want of confidence motion, and might, as such, have been opposed by tho Ministry independently altogether of the actual merits of the questions involved, but it shows that the Opposition itself felt its own weakness, and that iu a dissolution all hope of the future. The feeling, we notice, is gaining ground with the Press both of this and the Middle Island.

The Government is virtually in a minority of the House by the withirawal of Messrs Ballance, Curtis, Sharp, Baigent, and Bryce, from their party. Either side is now as evenly balanced as it can be, and wo should not be surprised if the result of a division next week, on one side or the other, were the traditional majority of one. Were it at the beginning of the session j if members had been elected upon the questions which pre-eminently (lemaud consideration, there might, even with such a division as is probable, be some show of reason in allowing the Opposition to make an attempt at carrying on the Government. But too much of the time of the Hou. fc e has been already wasted to permit of so crude an experiment being tried. Tho Assembly has shown by its action that it represents the Colony on but one question, that for which it was elected, the confirmation of the abolition of the provinces, a single

step beyond which—the amendment of the Counties Act—it has shown itself by its. inaction utterly .unable to go. .Under these circamstahces the duty of thie Ministry, if defeated,will clearly be to- ask for. a dissolurequeaj.wJueh the Governor would be* likely to gratify, less in their individual' interests than in those of the Colony. Ministers',! bouse/ will.have i to go beforeiihe and incut I the anxiety, the worry, and the j expense of a contest, and iu more ' than'one case; probably, with an uusa'isfictory result, there is however, consistent with the welfare oi. the public business, no other courst before > them, and ; they, in demanding a dissolution, will atieasi have earned the' gratitude of the colonists for having brought to a close a Parliament which, after two sessions of.tedious debate, will no> have y. left/ a"- single ruonuinenta Statute to mark,its usef-tineas. ! —', ..m'