The Press. WEDNESDAY, JANUAEY 16,1878.

Press, Volume XXIX, Issue 3895, 16 January 1878, Page 2

The Press. WEDNESDAY, JANUAEY 16,1878.

Two of the Otago members have addressed their constituents —Mr. Reynolds at Port Chalmers and Mr. Murray (member for Brace) at Milton. Bnt the eloquent outpourings of Messrs Macandrew, Larnach and Stout are still denied us. Why these gentlemen remain so disappointingly silent we cannot tell It was understood that they went down to Dunedin to be glorified at a public banquet, at which they would fight their Parliamentary battles over again before a delighted audience, and perhaps thrill them with mysteriously whispered Lints of even mightier doings to be looked for next session. But as yet there is no sign of the expected feast. Possibly Messrs Macandrew and Liarnach are too trammelled by Ministerial considerations to feel free to speak in public. Possibly they are so engaged with incessant deputations as to have had literally no time for preparing their addresses —a difficulty, however, from which their gifted colleagne would doubtless be happy to relieve them by speaking for all three. Or, possibly, the delay may proceed from the other side. The gratitude of Otago for the past may be not unmixed with expectations of benefits to come, and it may be thought well to defer the banquet till the honoured guests have had the opportunity of showing, in their interviews with the deputations, how thoroughly entitled they are to public confidence. Whatever the cause, the intended demonstration has been postponed. Other members can meet their constituents and discourse at will; but the three champions of Dunedin remain persistently mnte. The public are deprived of the promised treat of being delighted with the sparkling declamation of Mr. Larnach, enthralled by the lofty-spirited eloquence of Mr. Macandrew, and charmed by the graceful simplicity which lends such an irresistible attraction to the oratory of Mr. Stont. Meanwhile we have to pat up with Mr. Reynolds and Mr. Murray. And

perhaps, after all, we have not lost much. The two Ministers could have told, us nothing more than has been heard from Sir G. Grey,, and there would have been little pleasure in listening to the tfiird repetition of a story which has been told twice already. Bui the other ■ two members contrive to display some sort of originality. If we derive no information from their speeches, at all eronts we get some amusement. "Mr.- Reynolds was particularly diverting from the egotism he exhibited. Carlyle somewhere describes a special kind of " not a " gay, tail-spreading , , peacock vanity," but a more fatal species, "the slow- " stalking, contentious, hissing -vanity of " the gander." With vanity of this kind Mr. Reynolds seems to be largely endowed. His speech is marked throughout by a clumsy airogance, a tone of stolid but pertinacious self-assertion, which, considering the actual position and qualifications of the speaker, are positively humourous. He evidently regards himself as a sort of Parliamentary Providence. The late session, in his estimation, was raledby him. He was the pivot on which every political movement turned. Parties rose and fell in obedience to his dictates; Ministers flourished or faded as the light of his countenance was afforded or witiheld. At first he supjwrted Major Atkinson. But the infatuated man did not know the value of good advice. He would not do as he was bid. Instead of meekly walking along the way pointed out to him, he chose a line of his own. He •' did not act upon my recommendation," says Mr. Reynolds;' and the. result was inevitable. Upon the'downTall of Major Atkinson, Mr. Reynolds set np Sir G. Grey. " I had the key of the position." he informs his hearers, " and I kept the " present Government in office." And so long as they are amenable to reason, Mr. Reynolds is content they should remain there. For himself, he meditates resigning his charge. He is not so young as hb was, and the labonr and responsibilities involved iv Ids position as supremenrbiter i of the fate of Ministries are beginning to tell upon him. He has sacrificed himself long enough on the altar of public duty, and it is now time to consult his private and personal convenience. Accordingly, when a satisfactory representative has been found for Port Chalmers—of course a competent successor to Mr. Reynolds will "be hard to find—he will quit the House of Representatives and retire into the comparative seclusion of the Legislative Council. He is conscious that he will be a great loss to the House. He describes, with the self-complacence of a man who receives tho tribute due to him, the despair of his friends at the prospect of his departure, and how they try to console themselves, by predictions, t^iat v he will soon weary of inaction—" that like an old " war horse,. accustomed to the battle- " field, I shall be sure to be there when " the trumpet sounds." And " possibly," adds Mr. Reynolds, " it may be so." For the present, however, he is resolved to retire. He concludes by comforting liis hearers with the assurance that he will not forget them. Even in the serene heights of the Legislative Council he promises— such is the condescension of the great— that he. will entertain a friendly recollection, of. his former constituents at Port Chalmers. Passing to the next speaker, we find nothing in his remarks to excite a laugh. We did not expect to. Wit, mirth and humour are the hist things we should look for in a speech by "Mr. Murray: -Stffi*%his particular address is not withont a certain qnaintness. The oddity of it lies in the difference the speaker contrives to reveal, to all appearance quite unconsciously, between the principles he professes and the' line of political action he follows in practice. He was introduced to the meeting as a " consistent supporter " of Sir G. Grey." His friend was right in so styling liim, as in the critical divisions of hist session he voted steadily with the present Government. He began by expressing his satisfaction at the ejection of the bite Ministry. Then he proceeded to give his opinions on the measures passed last year, and on the policy sketched out by his chief for the coming session. One would naturally expect to hear them described in terms of eulogy. To a consistent supporter, both the acts and tho principles of Ministers would appear in a rose-coloured light. He would see much to approve in the past, and much to which ho conld look hopefully forward in the future. But with Mr. Murray the case is just the opposite. Ho is the very embodiment of opposition. Nothing that Ministers have done or said finds favor with him. He denounces their doings and their proposals with a heartiness which would be intelligible in an avowed opponent, but which shows that, as a friend, Mr. Murray is one from whom they must pray to be delivered. " The present Go- " vernment," he declares —so at least he is reported in the Qtzgo Daily Times — " acted a thievish part in colonialising " the land fund," and "a prominent mem- " ber of it" —that is, Mr. Macandrew— •' acted in a treacherous manner." We presume it is by a misprint that Mr. Murray is made to refer to a method he proposed " by which 500 per cent, instead " of 20 per cent., would have been saved to " the counties." Mr. Murray probably said 50 per cent Proceeding to criticise the year's finance, he charges the Government with flagrant extravagance, It was obviously necessary, in order to equalise the revenue and expenditure, to economise the working expenses of the colony, and Mr. Larnach had ebown a deficiency in the revenue for this year of £711,000; "yet in the face of " this the Government placed £247,000 "on the supplement.-i ry ♦■stimafes." which supplementary votes, Mr. Murray continues, " at the end of the session " resulted in a disgraceful scramble." In effect, Mr. Murray imputes to the Government that, at a time when they wore hard pressed, and when the gaining of one or two votes made all the difference between the loss and retention of office, they deliberately scattered money broadcast with a view to purchasing support. They had established themselves in power by what he considers an act of robbery; they maintained themselves there by a profligate and corrupt expenditure. In short, there are only two measures of last session for which Mr. Murray hss a good word; j and, as it happens, neither of these was ! the work of the prew-nt Ministers. . They are, the Education Bill of Mr. Bowen's, and a bill for endowing pastoral associations, for which •* the credit was mostly due to '* Mr. Donald Reid/ , "With regard to next session, Mr. Murray attacks the Ministerial proposals all round. He is opposed, to universal suffrage, and is sorry to hear that anyone approves of it. He entirely disapproves of the policy of " bursting np the big- estates." He wishes for no change ; in tho constitution of th,e Upper House. He trusts that Sir G.

Grey'e Bill for manhood suffrage will not be carried. There is scarcely anything, in fact, in the past actions or future intentions of the Government which Mrr Murray does not unreservedly condemn. He denounces their conduct and is utterly opposed to their principles. He represents ~them" as robbers, traitors, squanderers of public money, and. mischievous politicians, And yet in spite of. all, he presents himself, or at least allows himself to be presented, to his constituents, as " a consistent supporter" of Sir George Grey. We are not surprised that the meeting failed to understand Mr. Murray. They considered him very far too, as .they called it, lukewarm. Much discontent was expressed, even" going the length of a resolution of want of confidence; whereupon Mr. Murray threatened to transfer his services to some other constituency. What the result of the misunderstanding may be we need not stop to enqnire. It j is of no possible concern to anyone but j themselves whether Mr. Murray repre- I sents the Bruce or another district. The noticeable point is the feeling that undoubtedly prevails in the south in favour of the existing Government. Mr. Reynolds owed the unanimous vote of approval he received at Port Chalmers partly, we daresay, to the force of old associations, bnt also to the fact that, though for a time he went over to the hated " Centralists," he has at length come back again to the right side. As for the BVace electors, they make no secret of their intentions. No representative will suit them who is not ready, in tho words of ono elector, " to give the present " Government his support through thick " and thin." And why ? Because it is "the best Government the colony has " seen for years." By the best Government, is meant the Government which will do most for Otago. That evorything in that way may bo expected from the present Ministry they are well assured. The presence of Mr. Macandrew in the Cabinet, with Mr. Larnach to back him, is a guarantee that the interests of Otago will be zealously attended to. A Dunedin paper the other day, recounting the many claims of the Government to public esteem, summed them all up in one emphatic sentence, to the effect that it was a Government which could be depended on to do its best for the colony, not forgetting to keep tho plnms for Otago. Exactly so. And what more could anyone want? What else signifies when Ministers are sound on this point ? Their admistration- may be bad, their expenditure reckless, their policy unprincipled and fraught with disaster to the country. But all such considerations go for nothing. So long as they "keep the plums for " Otago" they are the Government Otago wishes to have; and they may rest perfectly sure that, while they act upon this maxim, the majority of Otago members will support them through thick and thin,