The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 13, 1891.

Evening Star, Issue 8566, 13 July 1891, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, JULY 13, 1891.

Is Sir George Grey aspiring to the Premiership in a Socialistic Radical ** Grey's 8 * Cabinet, or does he look forward little Game, to constitutional changes in the immediate future which will place the position of elective Governor—may J be of President of an Australasian Common- ' wealth at his disposal ? We are not of opinion that, with his intslligence and experience in affairs, he indulges in any such Utopian dreams. The course he is adopting must rather be attributed to that desire to make political mis-, chief which has been his characteristic for some years; indeed, ever since be quarrelled helplessly with the Colonial Office, and was fain to renounce for ever the high place which he bad won. Is it credible otherwise that a man of bis capacity, skilled in the science of politics, could promulgate such doctrines as ho did on Thursday evening iu the House, and support them by such arguments? Must not the “old men eHqireut 1 have beau

laughing in hta sleeve when his revolutionary sentiments and Communistic theories were cheered to the echo by the Ministerial party, who appear to have taken him seriously at hie word, not detecting the vein of irony which ran through his oratory. We believe that Ministers thcftselVea do under* stand something of the true 'state of thb case; but Just now they mfist needs dissemble, and affect—as Mr SWiDON did—extreme delight at having so powerful a force on their side. Sir Geohoe has “ gone one higher ” on every point of their policy, and ho has demonstratively exposed the shallowness of their pretences and the miserable equivocations of their policy, His proposals are consistent with the extreme Radical school to which they profess to belong, and he has virtually applied the rtductio ad ahsurdum to the principles they avow. A graduated land tax, with a maximum under twopence in the £, ho stigmatises practically as utterly absurd. This, he would nay, is a very small step towards the resumption of the " unearned increment ” —the heritage oi the people. He would not absolutely confiscate, but he would (ax the landowner out of the property ha has acquired honestly under the Sanction o! the law, and the improvements he has effected with his own money. Ho distinctly advocates repudiation by the State of bargains completed yenre ago—in accordance, by the way, with laws of his own initiation. "To say that, "by doing so, they must not involve the " present landholders in ruin was to raise a “point which Parliament bad nothing to "do with. Was the whole population of "the Colony to be kept for perhaps half a "century in difficulty and distress "la order to protect men who held "such large tracts of country?” Then, again, he affects to spurn the chickenhe&ttedness of the Government in not drawing the holders of New Zealand bonds who are non-resident in the Colony within the net of the proposed income tax. The sacrednesa of contract is nothing in bis view, and he disclaims even to consider the effect op4ublio iß .^-g- t£ ;--|^ e vision which ho portrays of the "children’s children ” of the present colonists living on the fat of the land (other people’s land), and paying no taxes to speak of—tho public debt, we may presume, having been extinguished by the sequestration of all landed estates and realised property. Sir George again overtrumps tho Cabinet in declaring the necessity of reforming the Legislative Council by the very effective process of terminating its existence, The childish nonsense which he talked on this snbjeot was altogether unworthy of him, and we give him credit for knowing a great deal better. We have always advocated that the constitution of the Council should be elective, its powers " based upon the people’s will”; but the unicameral system is, for manifold and manifest reasons, objectionable. Johk Stuart Mill, who was Radical enough, we should think, even for Sir George in his present mood, condemned it utterly as being dangerous to good government, and likely to induce to despotism. He instances the " qvil effect produced on " the mind of any holder of powers, whether "an individual or an assembly, by tho con"sciousnoss of having only themselves to " consult. ... A majority in a single "assembly, when it has assumed a " permanent character when composed "of tho same persons, habitually acting " together and always assured of victory in “their own House—easily becomes despotic “and overweening if released from tho “ necessity of considering whether its acts "will bo concurred In by another const!- “ tuted authority.” It is hardly, however, worth while to take what Sir George advanced on this and other constitutional questions seriously—his object, in our view, having been so patent. Wo shall bo much mistaken if he docs not give Ministers an ugly throw before long.