OCCASION AI, NOTES,

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 3068, 15 March 1892, Page 3

OCCASION AI, NOTES,

Sm George Grey, in opining the rooms of the Auckland " Liberal " Association —that important institution for the opinion of whose members Mr Bnllanee has sia-h a high regard-made use of n very striking nnd powerful argument in favour of the Governorship of New Zealand being made an elective position. He stated that " in New Zealand, under our present system there might he fifty Lincoln* who were to end their days as gumdiggers! The doors of all occupations, professions and positions should be thrown open to all of them, nnd he at least would die fighting for it." Sir George intended the last nine words to enthuse his audience—you can't give him many wrinkles on the art of working on the feelings of a crowd who come to listen and not to think—and they had their due effect, for we read thtre was "loud and continued cheering" thereat. The argument that under our present system these "fifty Lincolns" might ecd their days as gumdiggere is certainly a clincher, and it invests the question with new interest. The agitation for an elective Governor—slight as it may be — has hitherto been regarded as but a crafty endeavour to foist a Republican form of government upon us and an insidious attempt to undermine the very foundations of the British throne. "The doors of all positions should be thrown open to all of them" (the gumdiggers) ; then why stop at the comparatively insignificant position of a colonial Governorship ? Let them get right up to the top of the tree, and let them also be made Kings of Great Britain and Ireland and Emperors of India. I have no doubt they would fill the latter position quite as fitly as they would that of Governor of New Zealand, and with quite as much humility. These " fifty Lincolns " are not versatile men evidently ; they are fitted for only two positions in life — that of Governor or that of a gum-digger. They must either wield the sceptre, or be content with a gum-spear! For no intermediate position have they, presumably, any aptitude. It is this fact that gives such great weight to this new argument of Sir George's in favour of elective Governors. It is touching to think of these "fifty Lincolns" away in the dismal swampa of " the despised North," dwelling in White Tents instead of White Houses, and in ploce of living in gubei'natorial style and splendour in the Empire City.awampingtheLegialati ve Council whenever requested to do so by the Ministry in power—as an elected Governor would be very apt to do—they are devoting their executive and administrative talents to fossicking and spearing for gum I When we realise that the " fifty Lincolns " only require as an incentive to awaken these dormant talents the knowledge that the position of Governor is an elective one, our sympathetic and benevolent feelings are (or should be) awakened, and our opposition to elective Governors is almost disarmed. Our hearts are touched with sorrow and compassion (as Sir George intended they should be when he painted this picture of the fifty despairing, dying gumdiggers), and the big round tears course one another down our cheeks (or should do), as we think that, "under our present system," these men may go down to the darkness and silence of the tomb without having had an opportunity of filling one of the only two positions on earth for which they are fitted. But there are fifty Lincoloic gumdiggers, and the Constitution provides for only one Governor. Here is an apparently insurmountable difficulty: we can only use one Governor at a time, and before they could all have had a turn at the Governorship I am afraid some of them would have "ended their days as gumdiggers." We must remember, however, that we have the one-man-one-vote principle in force in this colony, and when to this has been added the further blessing of an elective Governor, there would be nothing to prevent our having fifty Governors, or anything else in the way of wild-cat legislation with which we may not yet be blessed. Heading Sir George Grey'a address carefully, however, one is led to the opinion that it is not altogether in the interests of the gumdicjgers that he pleads; he speaks one word for the gamdiggers and two for Sir George Grey. He mentioned the fact that Lord Onslow did not complete his term of office, and that Earl Glasgow had been appointed to the position for a full term of six years, and said that therefore no change could now be made until that term has expired. Sir George evidently thinks we are quite prepared to become Republicans at once —or sooner ! He is apparently under the impression that had Lord Onslow completed his full term our next Governor would have been an elective one. Well, then, if such an undesirable thing had happened, who would have been the most likely candidate to have been put forward by the Ministry—if only with the object of ridding themselves of his disturbing presence in the House ? Why, Sir George Grey, of course. And had he got in!—what bliss! With the Ballance Ministry in power, and Sir George Grey as Governor, what more could New Zealanders crave for ? Nothing better than that the predicted submersion of New Zealand fifty feet below the sea should take place at once ! The polemical discussion carried on in the columns of The Waikato Times for the last two or three months has not been the most profitable kind of literature one could desire, nor is it a disputation that will result in any good. Bad feeling and bitterness have characterised the letters on both sides—the religious chain pions have applied such choice terms a; •' maggots " and " monkeys " to theii opponents, and the champions of infidelitj have responded with "abusive bigot,' "driveller," and "fraud." And aftei all this, where are we ? Just as we wen before the war. No concessious hav< been made by either party, and were thi controversy continued from now til Doomsday, neither side could advanci any proof or data that would convinci thbir opponents. It is entirely a case o: Reason on the Agnostics' side as opposec to Faith and Reison on the side of th< Christians. The faith of the Christian: in the omnipotence of their God satisfie: their reason ; but the Agnostics, doubt ing or denying the existence of a Creator are confined entirely to reason, whicl Miss Havergal describes as " the ey which sees but that on which its glanc is cast," and the range of its vision i very limited. It is somewhat amusing to a disin terested onlooker to see the lofty groun the opponents of Christianity take—hoi from the stupendously high pedestal c their own intellects they look down upo the followers of the Nazarene—" th bat-like beings who still love to dwell i the ghostty tenements of their fathers, as " Gleaner " describes them. The earn writer says that they (referring to th Agnostics) are the tnie'successors of ih early Christians, "above whom they ar raised by centuries of progress." If thei were truth in this contention, Christiac of these latter days would, I thinl congratulate themselves upon the fac that they were not " early Christians. Although the Agnostics deride th Christians' faith in their God and di scribe it as a superstition, they then ilves possess a faith, beautiful tin childlike in its simplicity : it is a fait in their own omniscience, and in tl: all-embraciug scope of their own intell

gcnce. It is through their belief in their great intellectuality and the infallibity of their reasoning powers, that they regard with such lofty contempt that which they are pleased to call the " credulity " of "the bat-like beings" previously referred to. It seems strange that all the evidence which lays around them is not sufficient to convince them of the existence of a Supreme Being, and yet with how little evidence they are satisfied in their faith in their own intelligence and the profundity of their own knowledge. Fusek.