The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12.

Akaroa Mail and Banks Peninsula Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 129, 12 October 1877, Page 2

The Akaroa Mail. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12.

'The Ministry has fallen! " A straight "hit from the shoulder"—to use his own graphic expression—administered by Mr Larnach gave the coup de grace. On Monday evening Mr Larnach moved a vote of " no confidence ;" a short discussion of rather over two hours ensued, and then the House divided, there being ayes, 42 ; noes, 38. Of course the House immediately adiourned, and the following morning , ministers tendered their resignations to His Excellency, which were accepted, and Mr Larnnch was sent for. All this is .according to parliamentary practise, and in strict regard to the same, ministers will continue to hold office until their successors are appointed. Never has a Ministry fallen more ingloriously. The members of the Atkinson-cum Bowen administration, in retiring from office, scarcely carry with them the respect of those who supported them, certainly not of their opponents, nor of the country. From the time that Sir Julius Vogel left the Treasury Benches, it became evident that the master-mind, was absent, he had gone, and his mantle had not fallen on his successors, from the first to the last, their policy has been one of wretched expediency ; did a storm threaten to displace them, they bent before it, and when it had passed over, they were once more erect, deeply thankful that, they had been spared. With no fixed and definite policy of their own, they were ever ready to accept with deep thankfulness, the suggestions of others, nay, they did more, they begged that those suggestions might be furnished them. '■ Sufficient for the clay is the " evil thereof" was their motto, and if the evil day could be tided over, no mattor by what means, it was enough. The manlier in which they proposed to meet a deficiency in the revenue, by spoiling the Canterbury and Otago land funds, is an illustration of .their unscrupulousness in applying the tiding-over process. In one way they looked to the future, it was to them the source from which all their great deeds were to spring. " Next " year the Government will be prepared "with a comprehensive scheme on this " subject" was the ministerial subterfuge when pressed on any important matter, and it is a somewhat singular fact, that this was the burden of the wail which the throes of approaching dissolution extorted from the " weakest •' member" of the ministry, the Hou. G. M'Lean. They are now politically dead, in a few short days their funeral obsequies will be performed, and then— de mortuis nil nisi bonum. As to who the new Ministry will be, of course at (his early stage of affairs it is next to impossible to predicate. Mr Larnach has been sent for, and as is tne custom the House has adjourned in order to give time for the formation of a Ministry, but beyond this it is not safe to say anything. Kumour, it is true, has been rife as to the personel of several Ministerial combinations, but the air is sure to be thick with canards at such a time, so that very little dependence is to be placed in reports, derived, as is said, from most reliable authority. Whether ISir William Fitzherbert will consent once more to engage in active political life, and will lead an administration, of which Mr Larnach will be a member, whether Mr Larnach will succeed in forming another combination, or whether he will succeed in forming any at all, are problems which only time can solve. One matter, however, is deserving oi very serious reflection, considering the nicely balanced state of parties in the House, it becomes a question whether an appeal to the country is not desirable, in order that new blood may be introduced into the councils of the nation. In a little more than another year, Parliament will expire by effluxion of time, and, probably, to anticipate this event might prove of advantage, at the present crisis of public affairs. One cf the trump cards exhibited by the late Opposition, was a proposition which emanated from its loaders that, henceforth, the various UnderSecretaryships should be held as political portfolios, as is the case in lUngland. Some five or six vacancies would thus be held en permanence as a reward for Parliamentary services rendered. It is more than questionable whether the country is sufficiently advanced for the introduction of so important an innovation on the present state of things. We fancy not, and that the burden"'' of expenditure which would thus be added to the present Treasury charges, would be proportionately too great.