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Hawke's Bay Herald, Volume 13, Issue 1073, 10 August 1869, Page 2

The speech of the Defence Minister on the question of Imperial troops, and of sending home commissioners, is given elsewhere. The report, however, as extracted from the Independent, is, we understand, very incorrect, and we shall take an early opportunity of reprinting the speech as it appears in Hansard.

The debate, as our readers- will learn from our telegraphic intelligence, closed on Friday with a division, in which the Government had a majority of four. Mr. Stafford's organ in Napier makes light of this majority, forgetting that the late ministry stuck like limpets to office, although only saved from an adverse vote by the casting voice of the Speaker.

A majority of four is surely better than such a position as that. But in truth the late division really was, as a correspondent styles it, the last trick of the opposition, and a much larger majority may be looked for in future divisions.

We cannot help thinking that the new ministry have shewn themselves unwearied in their efforts to provide for the safety of the country in the only possible way, . if bankruptcy on the one hand or additional taxation on the other, is to be avoided ; and those efforts will, we are sure, be acknowledged by the settlers of the Northern Island.