SIR R. STOUT'S VIEWS IN 1877 AND 1887.

Waikato Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 2341, 12 July 1887, Page 2

SIR R. STOUT'S VIEWS IN 1877 AND 1887.

Ix 1577 the gentleman who is now Premier of the colony spoke thus “The best tost of what a man's opiuious are, are his votes and his actions/’ This is indeed an excellent test. How far it is applicable to Sir Robert Stout the people will presently decide. Then he went on to show what the action of a defeated Ministry should be. “ If we "o through any of their financial proposals we shall see that there never has been a backbone in them ; they have been shifty in the highest degree ; they have never been the same for one month/’ Of course, this was said of the Atkinson Ministry by their very virtuous opponent. But is it not true, word by word, of the Stout-Vogel Ministry ? Surely Sir Robert was vaticinating his own present position and that of his colleagues. He went on to say : “ They talk about a policy; so long as they had a following in this House, they did not care about principle at all.” And still the resemblance to current events is remarkably and truthfully portrayed. “ They ought to have come down with well-considered proposals to this House, and to have said to this House : ‘ There are our proposals. We will go out of office if our financial proposals arc not accepted.” And so tlicv should have done ; so also the StontVogel Ministry ought to have. Cut, as Portia declares, “ It is a good divine that follows his own instructions." -Sir Robert can more easily teach twenty what were good to he done than be one of the twenty to follow his own teaching. "I hey sav,” continued Sir Robert, “that the policy of the Government is an open question. That is miserable Parliamentary government !" How true all this is we know, and we deplore the fact that Sir Robert Stout's Ministry have so emphatically pointed the moral of these observations, made

ten }ears ago ji, his phn-e in parliament. hi erywor f applies to himself anil those wun whom he is acting, and none more than he and t.'o-y hive exhibited a spectacle ‘‘miserable Parliainentry beifrieiKiit, displeasing to ail men. it i« pitiful to .ye popular idols stained by the rccurienc r - on themselves and mud thrown by tin m on others; but it is w. If that the people should understand toe diff-rence b-.-tween the heroes of and |ss7. JJy the standard he himseif set up Sir Kobcrt Stout must be judged, Dunedin Star.