The Post on Grey.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 55, 18 October 1887, Page 3

The Post on Grey.

r i was certainly a brilliant: stroke of genius to suggert that Sir George Grey should be invited to become the “ figurehead ” of an Atkinson Minis-, try. How the ancient statesman must have chuckled m hb heakl the suggestion and noted Mr Atkinson's eagerness to accept it. 9he triumph of the moment must have repaid him for much of an unpleasant character i which he has suffered in the past at | Major Atkinson's hands, He would i recall the fierce invective, the not over delicate ridicule,’ Which used to be rained upon him when he was in office; the' bitterness with’ which he was assailed till driven from power, and the persistency with which he was held up in thb House, session after session, as a terrible ogre, who would inevitably devour the country if the members were so naughty as to turn the Continuous . Ministry off the benches. Major Atkinson, indeed, seems as much addicted as the most ignorant nursemaid.to usingtheterrifying threat of a bogy. He maintained his seat on thb'l rtasury benches for many a long day by using Sir George Grey in that capacity, and convincing the House that Sir George Grey's return to power was the sole alternative to his retaining it. Now that Sir George Grey’s name is no longer one to conjure with, when the Legislative youngsters are so familiar with him as to be no longer frightened, Major Atkinson is quite willling to take the ex-bogy into the bosom of the family, and even to accept him as a bed-fellow in the Cabinet nursery. But although Sir George Grey is no longer capable of being used as a means of inspiring awe and terror, the Major still has his bogy. Sir Julius Vogel has been promoted to the position, vice Sir George Grey, who has ceased to operate effectually. The children of the present Parliamentary generation are to be threatened with the name of Sir Julius Vogel, even as those of a former one were with the name«pf Sir George Gray, and Major Atkinson dreams of another lease of power, not because he i« trusted or believed in, but as affording the only means of keeping Sir Julius Vogel out. We

fancy the new generation will prove wiser than the old one, and less easily alarmed. Sir George Grey himself must enjoy most keenly the spectacle of Major Atkinson offering to accept bis leadership. Still more must he enjoy the exquisite joke of the Major's pretending to believe that his leadership, if accepted, would only be nominal. Sir George Grey is not the man to make a dummy figure-head of. There is no man in New Zealand who better loves power, or is more autocratic in the exercise of such as he may possess. He will have no divided authority.