THE PREMIER AND HIS DETRACTORS.

Waikato Times, Volume XIII, Issue 1115, 16 August 1879, Page 2

THE PREMIER AND HIS DETRACTORS.

"Sir, — Your correspondents, "Waikato" and " Biack or Whife, not Grey," in the Waikato Times of this morning, seems to have been bitten by some political mad dog, so rabid are they in their utterances. " Waikato' s" remarks are a mere rechauffe from the speeches of Opposition members in the Assembly, during the late debate, and the refutation of his assertions, arguments I cannot call them, are already before the country. It seems to him a very shocking thing that Sir George Grey should stump the country — but why not"? Why not educate the people on political matters,, and what better way than by such eloquent and instructive lechiTes on political economy, such clear and incisive 'aying open the great abuses which threaten to destroy this young community, such heartstirring appeals to the people of New Zealand — to be true to themselves and to their posterity — as flow with convincing eloquence from tbe lips of New Zealand's greatest orator ? By all means let Sir George Grey "stump the country". Heaven has blessed him with a love for his fellow-men, and gifted him with great persuasive power to advance their welfare. To fail to use it, were to hide his talent in the ground. It is all very well to accuse Sir George Grey of abandoning the Representation Bill of 1878, in a pet, but " Waikato " iorgets that even though : by this action some 70,000 persons who ! may fairly claim a vote are actually disfranchised,' it would have been the abandonment of a principle to have accepted the amendment of the Legislative Council. Full Maori representation is a part of the political creed of the Grey Government, and in justice to the Maori, such representation was due, or how could | Ministers have looked with any hope of favorable result to negetiations such as those undertaken with Rewi. It is true, the Ministry failed to secure for the native, from Parliament, the representation proposed in the bill, but are we warranted in supposing that the fact that Sir George and Mr Sheehan fought hard for them weighed nothing with Rowi, and counts for nothing with the Kingites. | I, for one, am in a position to speak on the«e matters, and I say unhesitatingly, that the effort made by the Government to secure for the Maoris a fair representation in the Councils of the Colony, and the very sacrifice to which "Waikato" alludes entailed by dropping the measure, proving as it did the sincerity of the Government towards the natives, has done much to preserve friendly relations, and pave the way to future beneficial arrangements. As to the cry that Sir George Grey is merely " manipulating the poor man," for the purpose of securing political power, , I am quite prepared to hear that. Since politics have been a ■pursuit, when has the one party not j sought to misrepresent the motives of the other ? The friends of Sir George Grey can afford to let that pass for what it is worth. But, Sir, the fact that he is the, poor man's friend, the ohampion of the working classes, and a hearty hater of land sharks and monopoly in general is the real cause of the bitterness, which his political life evokes. If he puts class against class, as your other correspondent asserts he does so from the very necessity of the case, lest the one class, if not incited to resist the aggression of the other, will seon be in such enfeebled and politically enslaved condition as to be literally at its mercy. Things were fast coming to this when the Grey Ministry turned tbe Atkinson faction out of office, and the Premier's work will not be done, nor his mission finished, till he has rendered a return to such a condition of political social possibilities, a thing not to be dreaded. The laud for the people, and the people for -the land, and liberal laws to enable" tbem to maintaiu their rights, is the aim of the great Pro-consul, and who, with even our present franchise and Manhood Suffrage in the immediate future, shall gainsay him ?— -Yours, A Liberal, Alexandra, August 14th, 1579.