TOPICS OF THE DAY.

Press, Volume XLVII, Issue 7518, 7 April 1890, Page 4

TOPICS OF THE DAY.

In referring to the service of the late Lord Normanby as Governor of this colony, we mentioned bis conflicts on constitutional questions with Sir George Grey. As a matter of faot, the two never got on well together, and anybody who enjoys a " memorandumniad" will find some rather spicy reading of the kind in the Parliamentary papers of 1877-8, wherein the paper conflicts of the peer and the knight are duly set oat Almost immediately after Sir George Grey took office as Premier the Government advised the Governor to call Mr J. N. Wilson to the Upper House on the ground that there was only one lawyer in that august Assembly, and they thought there ought to be another one. Lord Normanby took a less gloomy view than the Ministry of the ravages likely to be committed by the legal gentleman in question unless he were held in cheek by another member of the profession, and as Sir George Grey would not say tbat it was intended to include Mr Wilson in the Government declined to

appoint that gentleman, pendongthTS George Greywas forio-ae at thi. £* and next advised the Governor to SS matter before Parliament. and the House voted that it was a b«£s of privilege. The Governor next the Government a 8 his advisers IS reply he should send to the address of Z House of Kepresentatives. They wanS him to say that the refusal was his fl sonal aot, and not that of his ad-fbjT* but the Governor oa MM tftutfo2 grounds declined to do this. He hM mated.that if the Ministry did ootap D ra his action they could resigu . b u J JJJ kir George Grey, perhaps needless to S did not consider at ail necessary or d«! sirable. Vue Governor appealed to f£ Home Government as to whether he Z! right, and received their approval ol whs! he had done. m

This was the beginning of the tro&bfr between Lord Normanby and hislZ advisers, and relations afterwards U came much more strained, Perasm the most extraordinary episo<ie * curred at the end of the *. 88ioa Z 1877. Sir George Grey, when sendiaj, up the Bills for tae Governor 1 * asW kept back the Land Bill, which hem 2, rently did not approve. The GovZ» instead of mechanically ai gamg th§ placed before him, noticed the onus*. and asked where the Land Bill was. S George Grey assured his ExoeUeaoy thi it waa an oversigut, aud said that » h would sign the Bilk placed before hZ the Land BUI should be seat up i a Z, course. Lord Normanby, however, Urn something of Sir George Grey, wtf.w tuuately did not fad iuco the trap. B&1 he signed tho Appropriation BUI jju George Grey, armed with full suppik. could have net the Governor at deSLT He, therefore, politely declined to ths Appropriation Aot uutil ho had fat sd his signature to the Land Bid. Sir Q& T «. Grey stul kept the measure btw^'£f eventually gave way to strong premit from his colleagues, and sent up the mi which, by the way, had been voted fob, one of Sir G. Grey's colleague-*, jfj Larnaoh, although the Premier as having been paaaed "to tho'»& and humiliation of the Government* ft is the first time, we believe, that an*'Pm, mier baa been found ont in a that which Sir G. Grey tried to pty Lord Normanby. Coming from-is «> Governor the whole affair Incomprehensible, and shows to "''*fck\ depths politics will sometimea c&oso & ran to sink.

P-bbhaps the moat important question oa which Sir George Grey as Premier aad LordNormanby as Governor hslldifferfnt opinions waa whether the latter should grant a dissolution aa advised hy ths former. Lord Normanby gave sis reasons for hia refusal, the most important being that there were as great measures or principles uadfa discussion in the House, and tbat m supplies had been granted by ths ktter. Lord Normanby went so far as to say thai if Sir George Grey could show him *saal even three months* supplies had begs granted, he would be ready to reooostcUr the question. The House by this tea, however, had had enough of Sir Qms Grey, and would not have granted Ma three days'* supplies for the purposes da dissolution. Sir George expended mm of foolscap in trying to shako hd Normanby's decision. The Goren»» confined himself to lines when 3k G. Grey took pages, but , tlu-croghc-ai was dignified, firm, and deoidsd The Colonial Secretary, Sir M. B/Hickic Beach, on the correspondence beiag forwarded to him, again backed up hs& Normanby. The responsibility of deoidisg whether a dissolution should be gmbk he said must rest with the Governor. 01 course he would pay the greatest attentioa to any representations that might be mads to him by those who at the tints ware hit constitutional advisers, bat if he ahoaJd feel himself bound to take the resposssbility of not following his Minuter!' advice "I apprehend," said Sir MiohaeJ Hioka-Beaoh, "both law and pnwß« empower him to do so."

Sobkr-shnded people who read ia o$ ''Mailßudget'*' that a warm.idiscawioa was being earned on in the oa tis question whether ladies should not dist&ti the side-as ddle may well be excused &? throwing up their hands iv horror 8P asking " What next, indeed ?" It W®® however, from an inspsctioa cf '■&*&' respondenoe, that the advocate rf & 1 cJbange, to do them justice, base ments on something more than a BJ&*** of whatever is otrfr'f and coate* 1 *?/&<***" blished notions. Tho discnafea owing to |a fatal accident to ftkdj' * the hunting field. The sugg<sßo»J*f the side position should be exehang® m , theoroes one has been madebfita^®' 1 sprang from the notion that to *»« oa a man's saddle would be safer fes * woman. Of eonrse, it would *j «W reviving the usage of antiquity. «*" were in use oartaialy in the third mbW» were known ia England in abonfc lAj*» hht, adding to tho veherabk pj* it waa' not till the year ISBB ttat ** saddles for ladies were iafcrodecs* *■*■* brought in by Anne, queen of Bichard v. The Field, which strongly opposes change, shows, we think, quite that even on the question of ssi«4f •*f "f from appearance innovators have failed to wake e«J»«« case. The objections to the » tlw hunting-field, it toys, may *wT reduced to two—the chance, it <f*» JJ the habit to catch in the saddld a » event of the rider being risk of the cratches •taJUctiiiglßj'W** JJ rider's body when both horse and njgrf on the ground. Tbe ladies using the cross-saddle, far stronger. For one thing,■*"? feet in the stirrups instead risk of draggingby Again, our contemporary P""*" is no artificial support on a »**VT B , like that afforded by the ««*££ sidesaddle, and, consequently,• ■» d the former is less secure, a this, it says, is seen in the "voluntaries" are mwm 4iM fad males in the bunting .»"» are seldom cut by ladies-xa » seldom that our contog rf * called oa to exphun, for to*a#*. latter, what a "voluntary *£ $g* ing of the rider just or reasonable cause. w It remarks, are not confined males, and it xnstances ih George Fordham was °fTf ®f>& the back of a mare **•««£.£■* before the Oaks, "°*i*«|. »* f being lets powerful it improbable that «**^ e ° be exceedingly common igj fl* who adopted the ™* ■*%" &&#* would therefore flod » B rf **- even though the J*« A3 ging by the habit were a*"» a

in London is already *&&*£?? that it has designed a costume «** e * I %L of lad ies wbo < sontem P late ** ** mens saddles. There may be a foe tue3e costumes—for the & d %e cannot believe that English tire** jjjgly to adopt them to any **"?» the hunting field^