The Bruce Herald. " Nemo me impune Lacesset." TOKOMAIRIRO, NOVEMBER 2, 1877.

Bruce Herald, Volume X, Issue 954, 2 November 1877, Page 5

The Bruce Herald. " Nemo me impune Lacesset." TOKOMAIRIRO, NOVEMBER 2, 1877.

The debate on the want of confidence motion has done what few debates do; it has aroused the strongest interest throughout New Zealand in the politics of the Colony. In the main, there is one point nrged against Sir Geokge Grex; in details, a flood of light is let in on how we are governed. For the Government, member after member, with a view of affrighting centralistic constituencies at the not unlikely general elections, has conjured up phantoms of Separation, with Sir Geokge Grey as the author of all the would-be-averted trouble. Mr Murray, in his appalling prolixity, occasionally, by chance, [says something to the purpose, and he struck what the Irishman would call a "bright " when he said that the tion of such misgovernment as Major Atkinson's was would bring Separation most quickly. The cry of Separation, though it has been persistently maintained, will not put public opinion on the wrong track ; all constitutional questions, no matter how great their importance, will for the present have to give place to the endeavour to place disordered finances on the basis approaching nearest to satisfaction. Mr Shhimski summed up the ex-Ministerial policy pointedly and with brevity when he described it as " Give us a loan, and let us alone;" Mr Larnach still more- briefly described it as pawn broking. The financial question has at last been fairly raised, and no false issue can now be placed before the country to divert atteation from the real point.- We say the country because we believe any amount of debating will not have the effect of altering a single one of the votes of the dubious crew which now has the balance of power in its hands. The debate elicited many details which cannot but cause a feeling of uneasiness. In fact, we will go so far as to say that if the present uncertainty regarding the exact financial condition of the country cannot be set speedily at rest, the only thing which* will give confidence to the foreign creaitori will be the sending of a commission of enquiry to report on New Zealand finances. It will take a good deal to rehabilitate the character of the Colony which has been jbo damaged by the "cooking" devices of the Atkinson Ministry, and great difficulties will have to be surmounted before the British capitalists can be approached for a loan of five millions on satisfactory terms. Separation, like Abolition, is dead and gone; Sir George has accepted the inevitable. The attempt to weaken him has utterly failed in the eyes of. the country, and though his time of office may be short-lived, yet already he has accomplished great good. O ver what has been well called " the indecent haste" of Major Atjcijsson to get back to office the public mind has been set thinking, and surmises innumerable have been made of the why and wherefore of the unseemly hurry, N. o one can entertain the -, slightest doubt that there is a dread of revelations of some feiad bsing made which will debar some members from being for a long time, if ever again, members pf a Ministry. The extraordinary statement of Mr Ijarnach would appear to furnish a clue to the ex-ministerial desire to again obtain possession of the Government benches, and it may fairly be (eoneluded that a great deal is still behind. Nothing a#ecting the honesty of late Ministers may be inferred, bufc {here evidently is a great deal the making public of which is dreaded. For one thing we have al|*ady the opinion ofa man who has devoted all

his life to matters financial, and who would not likely sacrafice for political purposes hie reputation for business ability. It is that the preseut indebtedness of the Colony would aniouot to £24,200,000 if all were funded, and that to meet all liabilities a loan of five millions would be required. The amount can be fought over by experts, but, so far, the public have gained an advantage in haying New Zealand finances presented to them from a new point of view. After what has been made public, we can only pause and ask, What next ? We expect more. It was well observed while the Jones privilege case was the topic of the day that the charges made by the tiniest evening twiukler in New Zealand were as nothing compared with what had been said of members o^ the Ministry by members of the House. Exministers, with an air of injured innocence, asked to have accusations made specific, and some members of the House endeavoured to oblige them. Without saying anything of the recriminations which led to the celebrated speech of Mr Ormxhsd, we. have in the present no-confidence debate at least two points of a specific description calling for answer. Mr Ballatsce, a gentleman : who is not usually inclined to speak . rashly, has stated thatMr Whittakku has taken advantage of being in office to obtain 18,000 acres (the pick of a block of 200,000 acres) , at 5s an acre, and which land was well worth £1 Mr Whittakkr has made a reply, but on the face of the tolerably full telegrams of the debate, the matter is one requiring further enquiry. Then De Laxjioub has made a charge against Mr George M'Lean, in regard to obtaining commission while a Minister, on the advances which he negotiated in Sydney. No answer has been made to ib. Mr Djb Lautottr ia a rather warm partisan, and we would not attach the same importance to an accusation made by him as to one made by Mr Ballance. But the statement was made by a member of the House during a no-confidence debate, and should not be allowed to pass unnoticed. As to the truth or falsity of these charges we cannot speak, but it is only right to keep before the public that they have been made, and tbajt so far, only one of them has been attempted to be answered. MeA. J. Burns, who has, in an attack of political aberration, given his support, to a Ministry which has done nothing for Otago except to retard it, and which, it can now be ! plainly seen, has inflicted great injury upon the Colony generally, has received a sharplyworded reminder from his constituents that he is straying from the right path. Deserting the party with whom he was elected to act, and withholding his support from the present administrators, are the offences laid to Mr Bttbn's charge, and they cannot be regarded lightly. On making enquiry concerning the petition, we were glad to find that it had subscribed to it the signatures of constituents of his who in past years had taken an active part in forcing Abolition. These look now on the Abolition question as dead, they lcok upon the Separation question with from twenty to twenty-four millions of debt upon the Colony, as dead. But they look upon honour as a living thing, even in politics, and consider it also desirable for the public good that Sir George's Ministry should have a fair trial* and, if proved worthy, a sufficient innings. In reply to a question in the House, some, days ago, Sir George Grey 6tated that the Government would give earnest consideration, during the recess, to the question of demilitarising the police. It is to be hoped that he, or whoever is in power, will give the matter the fullest attention, and remedy as soon as possible this reminder of Mr Bowen's bungling administration of the Police Department. The preposterous idea of making the police resemble, as much as possible, a military body could only have emanated from such an antiquated and impracticable planner as MrBowEN. The old traditionary fetters which in every country ia the world are being gradually broken away from the police, and which have everywhere so hampered their efficiency, have been forged afresh in this Colony by Mr Bowekt. Instead of making the police ape as closely as possible the standing army of a European country, the tendency, it is obvious, should be to devise a system best fitted to the genius of the'police force in a country where law and order are respected. People would naturally expect a system which would make the policeman as much as possible a member of the community in which he resides, which would bring to the force men of intelligence who would command public support and respect. But a system has been ingeniously devised which deprives good men of promotion, and deters men pf intelligence and respectability from joining the force, Here in this Colony, when the police have extraordinary duties to perform, may always rely upon the assistance of the community, and yet we find a system formed^ on the assumption that all the country is in a state of rebellion. Men who have made ppHpe ijufjes the study of their lives are put aside to make way fbrmillr' tary incompetents, whose little influence secures them appointments from a toadying Civil Service, and a Government which worships such broken down relics of useless respectability which, consigned to the Colony, iiatur.aHy grayjfate to Wellington. Our wish jg that ; Sir George C£be¥ may remain in power ; till next session, if is. were only for the sake of making enquiry io^p jthe Armed Constabulary Department,