UNKNOWN

Ashburton Guardian, Volume I, Issue 34, 13 December 1879, Page 4

UNKNOWN

ji ns.'l a 1 -u si, 5 r .•-.: •~0 ' .effete, out it seems impolitic to teach j him that his sun is set, and so, groping in Ui3 dark • ess of desperation, lie fires his bolts wildly and aimlessly in the hope some lucky one, shot at a venture, will tell upon his otherwise unassailable opponents. Until the Hall Government show t hemselves less capable than the failures they 3 '.ie planted their seats in office are secure , and this the wily knight knows full well But he loses no opportunity to make litth- irritating attacks, and nasty carping speeches, resonant as usual with the bombast of which he is a recognised master.

The Li 1 ■•■•)■■ l party left an inheritance of financial o'o..•plications to be righted by their sue e..;; m- complications which, unmffified, • sure to place the colony in bad odor with the public creditor—and when the Hall Government took office, they at once set themselves the duty of squaring accounts. Theirs was no pleasant task. The exchequer had run very low, and the expenditure had overlapped considerably the public income. To bring the latter abreast of the former and to do that meant the exercise of much tact and not a little courage—was the work that lay before them. But no one can road the financial proposals of the Colonial Treasurer and say that he has shown himself destitute either of courage or of tact. To unravel the tangled skeins left by their predecessors, and to take up the heavy balance of promises of Liberal legislation the Grey Government had made, were the undertakings essayed by the Hon. J. Hall and his party. With every promise of successfullyrestoringthe colony’s finance to a m ore stable foundation, and th us saving her oredit, imperilled by. the pseudo-Liberals ; and with the House’s hands still full of Liberal measures, in fulfilment of the promises made to the country by Government when they went to the constituencies on Sir George’s appeal; the country has every reason to bo satisfied with Government’s doings, and to entertain brighter hopes of the future. Sir George and his followers know this, for they see it before their eyes. But the} 7 don’t like it ;• and like wayward children they throw the most frivolous obstacles in the way of progress. While Government struggling with the difficult question of finance—and the last Government, after their gross failure ought to know how difficult that question is—the great pro-consul, with his head full of human race, &c., chimeras, must needs in trod ice a Redistribution of Sea ts Bill. It was ho matter to him that Government stood pledged to that question as well as to a dozen others ; it was no matter to him whether the financial fabric of the colony stood or fell; no matter if the colony went bankrupt, and her ruin were accomplished to- m< arrow— that Bill must be passed, and if itbe notpassedand everthingelselaid aside that it be undertaken, why, then, all men not in opposition are men in whom the truth is not, and who love not the country they are bound to serve. Sir Gcr-ge will “ sit till Christmas to pass this measure ” Enthusiastic Sir George ! Patriotic Sir George ! But does it not strike the old but still gushing patriotic that there are more pressing measures demanding his attention and that of the House Rian this Bill of his. Of course it does. :>ut then to aid these measures would 0e iii aid the Government in power and his mission is to obstruct them—to turn them out of office if he can, failing that, t > annoy by paltry tactics—not to help in Liberal legislation. His sole aim seems cu be to annoy his unassailable opponents with trifles ; to kill valuable time, and hinder business ; and his conduct in Opposition, ever since he tendered his ungracious resignation, has been snob as would characterise a man who being disappointed in his desire for the reins of the country feels that for him the country may ‘‘ go hang. ” Fortunately for New Zealand in her time of trial Sir George’s wings are clipped.