The Evening Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and Echo. MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1888.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 149, 25 June 1888, Page 4

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

MONDAY, JUNE 25, 1888.

Tor the causs that lacks assistance, For the wrong that needs resistance, Por the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The telegrams of our Parliamentary reporter have made repeated allusions during the past few days to rumours of an intended re-construction of the Cabinet by the displacement of Messrs Fisher and Fergus. It is difficult to say whether this intrigue emanates from, the Opposition or is prompted by a section of the Cabinet, which has not apparently been a. very happy family ; but there is no difficulty in foreseeing that if the intrigue should prove successful it will end disastrously to the Ministry. The Cabinet is not endowed with any surplus ability either as a machine for conducting the business of Parliament or for administering the affairs of the country, and Mr Fisher has proved himself unmistakably in both capacities one of the most able, if not the ablest, member of the Ministerial team. His addresses on finance and education stamp him as a man who is destined to make his mark in New .Zealand public life, and although his strong character and thoroughness sometimes create political enemies where a weaker \ mau might perhaps make friends, they are qualities which a Ministry not conspicuous for backbone and strong personality stand specially in need of. The Hon. Mr Fergus is not so well known in the North, but members of the House regard him as a man of great practical ability and good speaking powers. Mr Fisher's appointment was a source of disappointment to certain Wellington members who considered that they had claims to the position, and no doubt a " set " has been made against him, but we can hardly suppose that the Premier is so weak and blind as to give heed to the counsels of the enemy and sacrifice his ablest lieutenant.

There is another matter connected with these rumours of re-construction that must not be lost sight of. The colony has only just got rid of that abomination! known as "The Continuous Ministry," with which Sir H. A. Atkinson's name was associated in one office or another for so many years, until the country insisted upon his own retirement from the Executive. We hope he will not begin the old pranks, and attempt to prolong the Ministerial existence by the contemptible expedient of sacrificing one colleague after another as a political Jonah, in order to secure his own safety. Let the Ministry stand together and fall together like men, unless any one of them, from political principles, finds it necessary to retire of his own accord. We want no more " Continuous Ministries " in this country, no more secret shufflings of the cards at the instigation of private wire-pullers. The present Cabinet is not a very powerful one, and probably it will be short-lived, but the work required of it by the country is not work demanding any particular brilliancy. What we stand in need of is simply honest, economical administration, and that, under the direction of the House, the Cabinet seem well enough constituted to give us. When the time comes to infuse new blood into the Administration, Parliament will displace the Avhole of the Executive, and put other men at the head of affairs. But we warn the Premier that he will commit a grievous error if he supposes that by ministering to the unholy lust for office cherished by a considerable number of members of the House, he can re-enact the history of "The Continuous Ministry," and prolong his own enjoyment of the emoluments of office. Political dodges of this sort have done more than anything else to create a feeling of widespread distrust throughout the country in the Premier himself. We have hitherto believed that the cry raised a few years ago for his own ostracism from office was a lesson that would not be lost, but would produce a permanently good effect; but'if these rumours of a meditated re-shuffling of the cards for the purpose of giving us another Atkinson regime prove to be well-founded, then we do not hesitate to say that any attempt to give them tangible effect will demolish the last shreds of Sir H. A. Atkinson's reputation.as apolitical leader whose loyalty to the men who are associated with him can be trusted.