MR. J. B. WHYTE ON THE POLITICAL SITUATION. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT]

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1415, 28 July 1881, Page 3

MR. J. B. WHYTE ON THE POLITICAL SITU A TION. [BY ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH, OUR SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT]

a Vki.lingto> ) Tuesday. The following is Mr Whyle'.s ;iddiesi on the No-confidence motion delneied on Friday evening : — As I urn not in the habit of taking up the time of this House I venture to think that I will he allowed to make a few remarks upon the subject before us and also shortly to give my reasons for the vote which I intend to record upon this occasion. Before doing bo, however, I wich to refer to the sad confession which has just fallen fiom the lips of the member who has just sat down. (Mr Gisborne.) He says the present Government ever since they came into power, two years ago, has depended upon the Opposition for intellectual support and that in fact while the Government hns had the place they have had the power. The inference therefore is obvioun, t at what those who wish to oust the present Government want to obtain is place, not power. They have the power already, out they don't care twopence about that, what they want is place. It is baroly two years since I had the honor to bo ' elected to a seat in this House, yet during that time I have listened to no less than four no-confidence debates and I have done so in silence, but sir, although I have listened in silence and perhaps in insignificance, I h&ve endeavoured to learn what I could and to study the various accomplishments of members of this House. Amongst these I have noticed tha •wonderful facility which certain members possess for waltzing from one side of this House "to the other— from one party to the other. Jfow, sir, it appears to me that too much fuss is made about this kind of thing. And, I notice also that when such a thing happens, the party from which the hon member secedes calls them " rati," While the p^rty which they join calls them "patriots." Our

' -y-p — **' i'f\ V ' party gave four hon. members the latter title in 1879, and., very properly so too ; therefore, sir, when I see the hon. member for Clive, Vhd'fos hitherto supported the Government, rise in his place and make an excellent Speech, which is received with cheers and every symptom of approbation by the Opposition, ana when I see him surrounded by leading members of that party I, simply conclude that another "patriot" has afrseii. Also when I see , the hon. member for Waitemata who has Assisted to keep the Government in its place and make an excellent speech, winch is received with cheers and every symptom of approbation by the Opposition, and when I see him surrounded by leading members of that party I simply conclude that the lion, member for Waitemata has had another attack of patriotism. With him, however, it is becoming chronic, but 1 don't think lie ought to make so much fuss about it, as I think our side of the House has had its fair share of the benefits of that particular species of patriotism I am therefore surprised when I see the hon. the Premier lise as he did last night and complain of the conduct of the hon. member for Clive. Imagine the head of a Government which has taken the duty off moleskins complaining because breaches are already visible in the innks of hie snppcrter-. lam surprised at him. Now sir, as you are aware I have given a steady support to the present Government, but I have not done so because I thought this Ministry the very best conceivable Ministry, but simply because I thought it the best we could get. There is a Fiench saying to the effect that if you cannot get what you want, you must take what you can get ; that is of couisc the best you can get ; and when I think of the motives which prompted mo when I assisted to put the pre-ent Ministry into power, I conclude that they are veiy similar to those which actuated the hon. member for Clive, and those who have now thought proper to withdraw their suppoit from them Those motives were that we thought that tho colony had been living too fast ; that the body politic had got into an unhealthy condition, and it was therefore necessary to tall in the old family doctor who might perhaps be able to effect a cure. Well sir, this doctoi immediately set to work, and by applying certain remedies he has at length got tho patient (the colony) into a much healthier condition. Ho stopped our giog, docked our beer, limited our tobacco, put us upon plain diet, and compelled u<» to swallow home most abominable pills in the shape of taxation ; this process was of course extremely disagreeable ; in fuct this idea of the relations existing between the Government and the colony of doctor and patient so filled my mind in 18S0, that the veiy natnp of Oliver, reminded me of the a-veng-iug Roland and I am ashamed to confess that the namo of Dick reminded me of the time of a no more amiable character in history, than a certain King of England who is Miid to have smothered two children in tho tower. He is spoken of in history as Richard 111., but I have been informed and believe that he was familiarly known at the time by tho name of Dick. Woll sir, ho is said to have smothered two punccs in the tower, well I daicsay they deserved it, but if they did not, it is> possible that he acted fiom the purest of motives, and thought he was doing tho best thins for England. Well sir, I feaiod that perhaps history might take liberty with the name of thut kind-hearted old gentleman, and that he might be handed down to posterity as a soit of Richaid IV., who with other ruffians, who had mistaken ideas of taxation, assisted to smother those twin bi other«, capital and labor. In this lam now glad to think I was mistaken, and I regret that tho hon member for Clive and so many others should appaiently differ from me in that respect; they apparently thinkthattheideasoithe present Ministry on his subjf ct are not sound: the difference between us and those hon gentlemen, seems therefore to be that we are f<>iily satisfied with an old physician ;we wish to retain his services, and to pay him his fee, whereas the hon. member for Clive and those who vote with him wish to kieV him out of doors. Now tho hon member for Clive bays that the proposed measures of the Government are not satisfactoiy. Woll there I agree with him, and I legret to s.y that I have not known any meastnes or proposed measures that were entirely satisfactoiy, and if hp had consulted mo, perhaps I might have pointed out some defect iv those measures which he hnsat all events not mentioned, but when he proposes an amendment to that effect and prefaces thnt amendment by saying th.it, that amendment if carlied, mean" a dissolution, and in f?ct tells the Ministry that they would not be doing their duty to thecolony, weie they to repisrn without poing to tho countiy, then it is neocssa r y that we should look not only at the subject before the llqusp, but also at tho general effect of this motion, if cauied. Now sir, I do not now intend to go fully into the proposed measures relating to local finances because they have already been gone into, pretty fully by other members of this House, and will no doubt be gone into still more fully by others before tho end of tho debate. I will therefore, for the present, simply gay that having 1 consulted mauy of my constituents during the rocess, and discussed the measures proposed by the Government last session which wpre veiy similar. I think they will, with oeitain minor alterations and modifications, suit the district which I h ive tho honor to represent, but I wish to diaw the attention of this House, and more uspoeinlly the hon. members who r<n>io a ont the native race to one point in the Native Land Rating Act, which has I think, not been noticed. The hon member for Cheviot *nyH, and in his opinions is endor-ed by those four hon. members that this Tilting Act whenjapplied to lands of small value .'sny a few shillings an aero), means simply confiscation, because these rates (ic-umulating will soon amount to a jrreator sum than the value of the land. Now, I =ay it means nothing of the sort, because thf Government has no power of pale under these proposed acts as reurards mral native land, nor is interest charged, if such a thing did happen under the proposed scale as the amount of rates bpcoming greater than the selling valno of the land, then those lands would in effect become reserves for ever for the natives and their children after them in perpetuity, free of rent. The Government may ns stated by some hon. member be lodgers, but having no power of salp, what oan they do in this respect ; there* foie such result would be a very good thing indeed for the Maori people. Now sir, the House having been i nformed by the hon. member for Napier, Captain Russell, that tho hon. the Colonial Treasurer will ," snort deflanoe" shortly at all the world in defence of those measures generally, and Taranaki in particular, I need say no more about them at present, but go on to consider .the effect of the amendment, if carried. The proposer says that it must necessarily, be followed by an immediate dissolution, and, therefore by an election. This election would of course bei followed by another session, with another %wo hundfeq guineas as an honorarium. In this respeot a dissolution has some attractions to those hon. members who may be elected, and of course we all think we Bhall be reelected. It wouldbfi very pleasant, too doubt, to -have an extra two 'hundred guineas wherewith to pay our. election ex>, penses, and taxpayers would, no doubt,' > dance with delight at the idea, but still, I )

suppose, it is necessary to have some policy to go tothe country upon.' jjl^ia^e, therefore/ looked' anxiously for some indication of a rival policy. The lion, member for Clive has given us none. As tiie Premier says, he knows beite'r. Jfie never does. He was not born yesterday. His policy, if he has any, seems to be 'to " score a point for Reader' Wood:" The lion, member for Cheviot has given us a short sketch of a policy. In that respect he is better .than the others, ,but still I don't think very highly, of that' policy. In addition to this, however,, he, has brought up a most substantial grievance. He says that in the palmy diiys of Provincialism, when he was Superintendent of Nelson, the ' Government always asked his advice and invariably acted upon it, and the country was safe. Well, this is undoubtedly ,a substantial grievance, but I don't care to go to the country upon' that. I dare say the hon. member for Olive, being also ah exSupenutendent, has a similar grievance, and perhaps the Native Minister, who is another, has one too concealed about his person, but as he does not prodtice it we cannot discuss that now. Therefore, the question simply is : can we pick' a better Ministry from the ranks of the Opposition, strengthened asi they now are by a few patriots of the newest pattern, than we have at present? I think not. We must have an .election first. Well, sir, I suppose a considerable number of us will be re-elected — all on our side of the House of coursd ought'to be re-elected ; but still, sdeh is the ignorance of the average British elector, some of us may not. Perhaps we may count upon ( three-fourths of our side beihg re-elected ;< then, such is the ignorance of the average British elector, some of the Opposition may be re-elected too, perhaps half of them. Now we will also suppose that all the new members support the Opposition, then the new House would have to choose a Ministry fiom the half of the piesent Opposition, it not being usual to give newly-elected members portfolios. Therefore, the (juestion narrows itself to this : is it possible to choose a bettei Ministry from that lemnant than the one we have ? I think we cannot choose a better, nor as good. Therefore, I must vote against the amendment.