The Representation Bill.

Evening Post, Volume XXXIII, Issue 109, 10 May 1887, Page 2

The Representation Bill.

♦ OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. (Napier Telegraph.) Yesterday, in a fit, ho throw up the Representation Bill, and plaintively suggested a. conference as to what the Houso did want. Was ever a more pitiable exhibition of dragging in the dirt one of the things most highly esteemed by all lovers of onr froo anil independent constitution ? In previous sessions we have been treatod to Government by cauous, Government by Opposition, the Ministry doing what they were told, being kept in their seats by thoso who had declared that they wonld keep their policy out. "What exhibitions of democracy'! weakness as exemplified by ite choson loader in this colony, and its greatest preaching and lecturing apostle Booth of the lino ! What a spectacle of contradiction our Premior affords! Bnt it hag its serious aspect. This colony is at present iv such a state that it can ill, ufford to trifle with doubtful fads and fancies at a time TVhcn it requires the strong hand and tho'unolonded intellect to -gnido it safoly through the shoals and diSicultießinberetrtto the depression through which it is passing. Fanoy legislation may be all very well tor engaging tlio colony's attention when trade is flourishing, tho revenue increasing, and prosperity general ; but at a time when onr finances exhibit a deficiency, our credit abroad but little better than that of Egypt and Russia, and whilo trade is stagnating, Bnroly it is no time for rash experiments or Utopian legislation or displays of nique and petulance. Sir Robert hoe been tried tad found wanting, he has hod his opportunities and nogleoted them— few men oven had sdoh ft chance after yenrs of political training as Was accorded to him at a bound— and yet our state is worse than when ho assumed offioe. (Napier News.) Whatovor may be thought of the House, it can scarcely be allowed that Ministers aro entitled to congratulation upon tho spectacle they have presented to tho country. Tho Representation Bill is unquestionably held to bo the one great moasuro of this session. . . . When an important public moasuro of this nature is at length brought down in a Borious* spirit, the people have a right to expect to find Ministers unanimous npon all its leading features, and thoroughly determined to hate it poised into law as nearly as possible iat*ct, . What is the fact. Upon tho question of the number of members of f uturo Parliaments— which certainly ought to bo regarded as a crucial one— tnreo Ministers are found in one division lobby and two in anothor. ... A govornment split in two 1 , may account very dearly for a Parliament divided into half a dozon, and a buspioion may net improperly arise that tho moral weakness of tbo Govornmont is vory largely responsible for the disorganisation presented in the House. The Stout- Vogol Ministry unquestionably hare rendered groat services to the country — services which should not be forgotten — but tho period of their usefulness is past if they aro unable to hold thomselveß better together, (Wairarapa, Star.) A good deal of odium is being thrown at the Government in connection with tho struggle that has taken plaoo over the Bill ; but it is impossible for any dispassionate onlooker to come to »ny other conclusion, that if thoro is insincerity anywhore it is on thopart of the members who, relying on their strength, have boon endeavonring to kill the Bill by torturing it out of shape in Committee/ Our impression is that if no Representation Bill is passed this sossion it will be simply due to the pigheadodness of tho country members who have eet their backs up against the Ministerial proposals and absolutely refused to aocspt any reasonable compromise.