The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo. WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1884.

Auckland Star, Volume XXVI, Issue 4416, 9 July 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News, and Echo.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 9, 1884.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrong tfltrt needs resistance, For.the future In-the distance. And the good that we can do.

The declaration of Mr Wakefield before a meeting of the Selwyn elec. tors in favour of a Ministry tinder Sir Julius Vogel, excluding _both Sir George Grey and Major Atkinson, proves how insincere were his profes-. sions of loyalty to the Opposition party of last session. So far as he is true to ; any set of principles, Mr Wakefield is one of the few New Zealand Tories. He openly denounces the new theories of land reform, the proposal to tax. the "unearned increment," and all other interferences with proprietary^ rights in the soil, as unqualified robbery. He is the squatters' friend and champion • but most of all he is the chosen advocate of Mr. E, Wakefield. He gravitates to Sir Julius Vogel as naturally as the loadstone to a magnet, not only because their sympathies are akin, but because Mr Wakefield, having broken away froni all the old recognised leaders of the House, sees better chances for himself in a new party. If anything were wanting to prove the heterogeneous nature of the elements that combined to oust the Government, it has been supplied by ths course since pursued by the chief actors in the drama. Mr Wakefield, one of the principal wire-pullers, Mr Levestam, the seconder of the ivant-of-confidence motion, and Mr O'Callaghan, whe was selected by the Opposition to move the motion against dissolution,- have all declared in favour of the leadership of Sir Julius Vogel. This was surely not the question on'which they appealed to the country, and their conduct is embarrassing to those who have acted with them. Even the "Lyttelton Tines," although largely responsible for the general bowing down before the image of the new political deity, has now taken alarm at the fervour of some of the pledges, and remarks in its latest issue that it may be well to proceed more cautiously. Sir Julius Vogel is at present lying quietly by in Wellington watching the game, and our Canterbury contemporary thinks the people ought to have a fuller exposition of his views and intentions towards the districts which are pledging themselves to support him. There is a healthier tone about this caution, and let us hope that it is the first sign of an abatement in the extraordinary Vogel fever that appears to have seized upon the leaders of public opinion in Canterbury, 'inhere is still time for the disease to run its course to convalescence before the electors finally hand themselves and the country over to the tender mercies of the great financial juggler.