The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1877.

Inangahua Times, Volume IV, Issue 70, 19 September 1877, Page 2

The Inangahua Times. PUBLISHED TRI-WEEKLY. WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 19, 1877.

Pahliamewb has now been io seesion close upon two months, and the labor of this period is represented by a few comparatively unimportant meaaures, the gfeat bulk of the time having been expended in party wrangiings and , political fishfagginp; generally. Charges "and counter charges have been hurled at Ministers with a freedom aud licence of speech, such as probably has never been heard of out of New Zealand — charges of such gravity that it ia hard i to believe they could ever have been conjured up— much less uttered in the House vyithout some semblance of foundation ; but up to the present time these charges, or the move serious of them have been received by Minis--ters as bo much water upon a duck's back.. Of the truth or falsity of the charges the people of the Colony, as a whole, can know nothing. All we have is on the one side, unminced accusation, and on the other equally unninced denial ; and there, it would seem, the Ministry is conteat to allow the matter to end, except indeed in tha instance of Mr Jones and the , Ocmcwa Mail. In the meantime the effect being produced upon the minds of the people, by these repeated charges, is by no means a belief in their utter groundlessness, People have been so accustomed to hear these charges ma^e, and made' with, such a degree of boldness and apparent fixedness, that they cannot be blamed for the- impression, fa^t settling into a conviction, that them is something es" sentially rotten " in the state of Denmark.'* It is true that ever since the return to. the House of Sir Geosghe Grey and Mr Rbes-, these imputations against the hones f y of Ministers have grown familiar, and it certainly appears against them that up- to. the present , time they have not succeeded in esta* i blishing their position nor gained fbofc hold in the direction they seek. On the other hand,, the conduct of the Miflisfry, in relation to these charges, has been hardly what could be expected. If the al'egatl ns which, Mr R.EEB notably, has laid against the Government are true, even in a degree, then little less than direct and imme- | diate impeachment would be adequate to the ease. Ou the contrary if they are false, as we do the justice of believing, then the sooner both Mr Rees and Sir George Gbey are- ex* pelled from the House the better for the credit of the Colony. The charges which have been brought are- of too serious a nature to be disposed of by mere warring of debate.or a bastinado of words. The time appears to hnve fully nrrived for treating them-, differently, and thus once aud for all, get at the real rights of the case. The refusal of the Government to the motion fora committee to investigate the nature of land transactions at Hawke's Bay — . whatever may lia^e been the real object of that refusal can. only- serve to awaken still further curiosity upon the subject, and leave it open to be accepted as adding a shade of color to i the suspicious cast. The prosecution of Mr. Jones, we are inclined to think, will lead to nothing satisfactory upon the main issue, but in the meantime the subject seems to have passed from the House, and the session will be got over leaving the charges just where they stand at present. So much has now been said to impugne the nature of those transactions that nothing less than a most searching investigation by a thoroughly impartial commission or committee can ever quiet the feeling awakened, and it is earnestly to be hoped that the present Session will not i be allowed to close without, such an investigation being made.