SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1879.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1106, 26 July 1879, Page 2

SATURDAY, JULY 26, 1879.

The bell has not. yet rung down the curtain on the Grey Ministry, but. for all that, it would appear to be doomed, so far, at least, as it is at present constituted. On Tuesday, probably, the House will come to a division, and that tho Opposition will have a majority, though not a large one, seems to be admitted on nil sides. Tlie Middle Party which has sprung up, will not save the present Ministry, bat will endanger J its successor. It has been brought into, existence by the peculiar eir- ' f cumstances of the position, and will, j | we take it, be found to be the neucleus round which will rally a strong and determined party, bent on forming from either side of the House a Coalition Ministry which will command the confidence of a good working majority, without which the legislative business of the couutry j cannot be efficiently earned on. All this waste of time, and calling forth of personal bittterness, might have been saved, if Sir George Grey, as we ha> c pointed out, would haye resigned. It is he, and not the Ministry as a whole, who is. distasteful to the Assembly and the country, and the whole machinery of a parlimentavy ministerial struggle must forsooth be put m motion, to get rid of a single objectionable individual _ and it the present Ministry are beaten, it will hot be for want of having tried every possible means to save themselves. The last, and the most patent of these, was the public meeting for the establishment of a General Liberal Association, to afford Sir George Grey, Mr Bees, and Mr Moss on opportunity of taking a foremost part, and st the present juncture assuming, m the most pronounced manner, the role of advanced Liberalists. It is,, to onr mind, a matler of extremely bad taste, to say the least of it, that while the Assembly is sitting, a political demonstration of this kind should be held at i's very doors seeking, as it were, to coerce the free action of Parliament. The proceeding is most unconstitutional, but what shall be said of the action of a minister and members who take active part m the movement. Clearly enough it may be said that "Wellington is no place for the seat of government, where such practices can be adoj-ted, and that members of the assembly who take part m them deserve to answer for such conduct at the bar of the House. But if the tactics of some of the more violent and headstrong of the

party aro objoctionable, what shall be said of a portion at least of their policy. The Opposition has said, that they did not dissent so much from £he Ministerial programme, as that they found fault with their administration ; but it has been nob inaptly said by one Member of the Opposition, thai the Government have no claim to be judged by the Ministerial statement of their intentions, aa put forward m the Governor's speech, but by their past actions.. They aro not now making their debut. They have been two years before the country, and they must be judged, not by what tbey are going to do, but by what thoy have done. "' When the devil was sick, the devil a monk would be, but when the dovil got well, the devil a monk was he." There has been much talk of liberal ideas, but what of liberalism has, tliere been put m practice. There has been much oatcry against landsharks, and against preserving the land of the people for the people > but what has been done lowards facilitating the throwing open of the wasts lands to general settlement? In the Governor's speech there Was what appeared to. some a foreshadow, ing of a policy m respect to native lands purchase, which betokened a possible reform m the direction needed; but the Bill which the Ministry has. brought down to the House is simply a perpetuation of the wrongs and bluuders of the present Act. It seeks to virtually reestablish the Crown's right of preemption, that no person can deal directly with the natives for land. The Government that will persist, and should succeed m such a course as this, would be criminally responible for driving the Maoria into open rebellion. Such a measure would be as unacceptable to the one race as to the other. For the one, it would be a stumbling block to progress, and weaken the power of the Oolony to bear its burden of taxation, for the other it means simply confiscation.