THE SEDDON GOVERNMENT.

Clutha Leader, Volume XXIV, Issue 1223, 10 December 1897, Page 3

THE SEDDON GOVERNMENT.

(Ueview of Beviews.) In New Zealand the Seddon Government sits in office a shade less securely than of old. Ministers have adroitly weathered hitherto the storms raised over the J. G. Ward financing, the bank revelations, and the indiscreet — to use no harsher term — connection between individual Ministers and companies, move or tass expectant of State favors. During the budget debate tho waves of discontent ran higher, and tho Government craft labored ominously. Mr Ro!lestrn\s amendment, condemning the practice of Ministers holding positions upon such syndicatesor companies was plainly levelled at the Premier and Mr John M'Kenzie, Minister of Lands. Mr Seddon is ( adviser ' to the AngloContinental Mining Syndicate ; °his colleague is on the advisory board of the Colonial Consignment and Distributing Company. Mr Rolleston, though not official leader of the Opposition, is an old ex Ministei, and carries great weight Members rallied to his "side, and the defection of four quasi sup porters of the Government left tho Seddon Ministry with a majority dwindled to a bare half dozen.' An impulse of virtuous indignation inclines Messrs S ddon and M'Kcnzie to solemnly cast out the four seceders from the Government fold, but this can hardly mend matters, for the Ministerial Party is seamed and fissured in other directions. The solidarity, of tho past six or seven years has gone, and very probably Mr Seddon himself discerns the writing on the wall.