MR VINCENT PYKE.

Cromwell Argus, Volume XVII, Issue 844, 16 June 1885, Page 3

MR VINCENT PYKE.

Politician, litterateur, journalist, something of a statesman, and no rn-jau poet, Mr Vincent Pykc is a New Zealand institution. Iu versatility he has, perhaps, no compeer among our public men, and he posseses the rare and valuable quality of a rich fund of natural humor. We do not know whether he is to be considered unfortunate in not having attained in this Colony what is not infrequently the " bad eminence of Ministerial office, but it docs seem in part unintelligible why he should have been passed over in the formation of successive Governments, considering that portfolios have been given to at least a dozen honorable gentlemen not qualified, allegorically speaking, to clean his boots. Possibly, the explanation may be that he is too much of a scientific politician to be thorough with either of the parties who have been by turns dominant during the last few years, and are at present both placed in a considerable dilemma by a coalition Ministry, which embodies in its marvellous entity principles most opposite aud doctrines contradictory. Mr Pyke has never been radical enough for the " Liberal party," and has failed, as he says, to " bring about some cohesion of the indefinite particles " of their creed. On the other hand, he has been restless and dissatisfied with the comparatively conservative policy of the constitutional Administrations known as the Continuous Ministry, and has desired and urged reforms for which, in their opinion, the times were not ripe. He tells us himself that " lie would never be a good party man. Loyalty to principles was the maxim he had always kept before him ; and he could not go out of his way to vote for a wrong thing just because it was proposed by men of whom he approved." We have no right to doubt that the springs of his action have been what he declares. The result: is manifest enough ; he has been a sort of " no man's child," and, with all his abilities, has been left in the ranks, while assured mediocrites, and even notorious incompetents, have been preferred to office—being staunch party men, not likely to excite envy by any display of talent in high places. Mr Pyke, in common with all public men, has his enemies, and by them it is asserted that he is shifty, untrustworthy, and specially unlucky in forecasting the political horoscope. "Jealousy and all uncharitableness " suggests such an assumption, which probably amuses rather than irritates the genial member for Dunstan.— Evening Star.