OUR LETTER HOME.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXI, Issue 7246, 21 May 1884, Page 1 (Supplement)

OUR LETTER HOME.

POLITICAL. The political situation has suddenly become full of surpassing interest. When the last outward mail left the Premier was getting ready for his. Southern trip, .and the Minister of Lands was announced -to speak at once. The latter got a reception which must have vexed him considerably, though he cannot be considered to have been astonished. Immediately after that vote of no confidence, the Premier , met a similar fate at the hands of a Dunedin audience. Two days later he was received with groans by a very large meeting in Christchurch, and had great . difficulty in getting a hearing. The meeting eventually heard him, and passed a vote of no confidence. Shortly afterwards Mr Montgomery, who, unlike the Premier, •came before a Christchurch audience with a political programme, received an expression of confidence. After him -came Sir George Grey, who had been watching the proceedings, of his opponents and friends, with his Southern ■campaign. Sir George, who spoke more wildly than ever, made a strong impression, with " the grasping of the unearned increment ” as the corner stone of his policy, upon the largest audience ever assembled in Christchurch. A vote of confidence in him as the leader of the Liberal Party was passed with triumph. The same pleasing experience followed his address at Dunedin and Invercargill. No sooner had the ■excitement somewhat subsided than Sir Julius Yogel’s reappearance in the political .field was made known. Mr Allan McDonald having resigned his seat for the East Coast (North Island), a number of -the constituents invited Sir Julius to .stand. Sir Julius agreed, and published a fascinating programme, about which men have begun to talk with animation. ■This is the time selected by Mr Wakefield, the lately elected representative of Selwyn, to address the Colony through his constituents, in a speech, putting himself forward virtually as the leader of an anti-Yogel party:—a party opposed to all further borrowing. The situation is mixed and strange. One thing is clear, viz., that all these men of different opinions will be likely to unite for a dissolution. They will probably agree, in -order that, having got rid of the Government, they may go to the country, each with his separate ideas. Mr Eolleston has received, for the first time during the sixteen years of his service ■of the Avon constituency, a motion of ■decided distrust. It is singular that, on the last two occasions on which he addressed the electors, he made poor speeches .-and received votes of confidence, while, on the last occasion, his speech (as a composition) was much superior, and the motion -carried was one of no-confidence. The singularity shows that the Avon constituency has come at last to entertain a profound distrust in its member, and the ministry to which he belongs. It is the .first great victory won by the Opposition •for quite a number of years. That Mr Eolleston will accept the verdict of his -constituents, and resign, is too much to expect. He evidently came prepared to lose the game on the platform but determined to get back to the Government side .-all the Conservative support .which, during -the past year or two, has been steadily -drawing away from it. The game is a strange one. .No one appeared sustain Mr Eolleston, no one made any .attempt to alter the course of the motion. "The member stood up like a man to take his punishment, and things took their •course. Since the meeting, however, the •friends of the Ministry are working hard in -private, landing the Papanni speech, -descanting on the many virtues, public and -private, of the member, for Avon, swearing hy all the gods that the speech has convinced the [most sceptical that Mr Eolleston is the right man for the Avon, and the .Ministry the right kind of Ministry for the •country. They talk, toe, a great deal about "the depths to which politics have sunk in "the present time. But there can be nothing lower, in a free country, than the style of political advocacy which shuns the light of publicity, and keeps its arguments as well . as its courage for boles and comers. Christchurch has given the Premier a ■ shaking. “This meeting has no confidence in bis Ministry." Only that and nothing more; to be followed in due time by the spectacle of the Ministerial Peris -cast out of Paradise to a tune with the doleful refrain “ Nevermore." Everybody ■ who went to the meeting came away full of admiration for the indomitable courage, the skill of fence, readiness of resource, the combination, in short, of fighting qualities, mental and physical, which the Premier displayed; and charmed with -4h« delightful straightforwardness of his answers to the enormous string of , questions put to him. But all this could not alter the verdict of the meeting. It is not only that the Premier’s speech was weak, as a speech in defence of his .Ministry, by reason of the irrelevance of one half and the inaccuracy of the other. ■ That combination was enough to wreck the . speech of itself. But on Saturday night it was not left to itself. There was the Premier’s known political character to help -it most powerfully. No one in New Zealand has more principle in words. There is not a more outspoken man in New Zealand, or one less , given to word finesse of Any kind. At the same time, in action the Premier has never shown a rag of principle. He never allows his place to depend on his principles. His principles maybe rejected, hut be does not care to be rejected with them. He has carried out the programme of his opponents, and he iis always searching for other people’s ideas. His/orfe is

words; his weakness is action. With such a history, the best speech in the world ■would never have staved oil the motion of no-confidence. The combination of both history and speech proved irresistible. At the beginning of his Southern tour Sir George, with ostentatious modesty, declared his unwillingness to take office. He could walk alone, however, he said. But

by degrees he has come out as, not only claiming to walk alone, but as leader of the Liberal party. This assumption ho has been encouraged to make by the numerous votes of confidence he has received in the main centres of population. His first motto was the motto of the head of the House of Eohan: "King I cannot; Prince I scorn; Rohan I am." Now it is Cfesar’s, " Aut Caesar, ant nullns.” What this means is evident to those who remarked the absence of Mr Montgomery’s name from Sir George Grey’s Christchurch speech. Throughout the whole of that tremendous oration, and that curious display of fencing with questions, Sir George, even when he was asked about Mr Montgomery, studiously refrained from pronouncing his name. It was very suggestive of something worse than lack of love between the Opposition leaders.

Sir Julius Vogel’s programme, as given by himself in his published address is as follows ;—The removal of the Property taxi the completion of unfinished railways, the improvement of the local Government system, the promotion of useful immigration, and the development of settlement. In that programme there is nothing that the most advanced Liberal may not subscribe to willingly. For our part we advocated the three million loan in 1882, expressly in order that the railways (trunk) might be finished, we have never ceased opposition to the Property tax, we are persistent advocates of decentralisation, we have always written in favour of immigration of the right kind, we have favoured unswervingly the development of settlement. What is new and strong about Sir Julius Vogel’s scheme is that he appeals to the advocates of all the railways North and South (the Auckland trunk, the West Coast, Nelson—Canterbury, the Otago Central), to all the opponents of the Property tax, and of direct taxation, to the favourers of decentralisation, and to the opponents of insular separation. • The bond that he offers them all is money—to he spent rapidly in large sums. The point of attack is well chosen. We shall see if the ancient Vogel prestige will be sufficient to make the attack successful.

Mr Bryce has not yet spoken, but is just now before the public as much, if not more, than any other Minister. His libel action against Mr Eusden turns out to have been something better than a myth, for it has, by this time, put an end to the circulation of Mr Eusden’s book, pending the result of the trial. A trial, of course, is not over merely because it is begun. The great fact, however, and an unexpected fact, is that the action has been opened. In another way Mr Bryce is before the public as supposed to be engaged upon a Native Lands Bill for resuming the Government pre-emptive right, and thus destroying land sharking at a blow. It is characteristic of the Government, that this great reform is spoken of as dependent on the power of the Government, which is not to be exercised at the risk of Ministerial life. With regard to the Armed Constabulary, also, Mr Bryce is before the public much. The cost of the 500 men is supposed to be necessary to maintain order. Mr Conolly calls it a premium of insurance which the Colony ought to be glad to pay. We understand this better from Mr Conolly, because he does not say that there is no Native difficulty. But why not take a lesson from Parihaka ? The volunteers can be relied on for making a demonstration now and then, which ought to be just as effectual as permanent keeping up of constabulary. The camp life and the moving about froih place to place would give the volunteers more exercise, and do them more good, than many encampments. If we must spend money on defence, we might as well spend it on volunteers. Perhaps Mr Bryce will explain these things, and also tell us why he has treated Eopata with such base ingratitude. Of that, Mr Eolleston conveniently knew nothing at Papanui. The question of Tawhiao’s reception has been the subject of discussion between the Secretary of State and the Agent-General for New Zealand. The question is as to the status of “his Majesty/’ It is, of course, out of the question that he can be received as an independent sovereign, and as far as may be judged from the accounts of his European friends, he has no such idea in his head, as he does not claim any more status than what may belong to the leader (not unquestioned) of the Maori race under the Queen’s authority. Tawhiao goes to London, in fact, not to defy the Queen, but to appeal to the sovereign against the Colonial Parliament, which has never managed Maori matters with consistency or justice. His journey may be regarded as a protest against the original most unjustifiable action of Her Majesty’s Government in handing over the Native race to the tender mercies of the Pakeha Parliament, in which they were in no way represented. What he wants is, as far as we can see, a good word from the Sovereign, to which the local Legislature may pay some respect. But all this is quite outside of the question as to how he ought to be received. Tawhiao is the son of the great Waikato chief Te Whero Whero, who did as much to welcome our arrival, to set up our rule, and to defend it against his own countrymen as any of the great Maori noblemen of the olden time. Common gratitude ought to dictate the proper kind of reception to be accorded to Tawhiao. It is the return visit paid by the son to the visit paid to the father. The father received the visit of those who, as far as their status in his land was concerned, were weak and friendless. The visit of the son is to a country whero he is friendless and weak. Sir Dillon Bell knows the facts. He should point out that the reception of Tawhiao ought to be at least as good and as hospitable as the reception accorded by Tawhiao’s father to the representatives of our race in the bygone time of long ago.

THB LAND AND MONET MAEKBT. But few land sales have been made public during the past month. Several blocks from five to ten acres about three miles from town have been sold at per acre, some near Papanui side) at <£l3s.

Very few sales of town property have been heard of. Money rates are unchanged, 71 being the minimum for large sums, though for good securities half per cent less would probably be accepted. SHIPPING. Wheat has been delivered pretty steadily during the past four weeks, and as a result since last mail, ten wheat vessels (including the Tongariro) have cleared for Home ports. Shipments by these vessels comprised about 123,000 sacks wheat, besidqs sundry shipments of wool by the Wellington, Tongariro, Linlithgowshire, Brenhilda, and Stirlingshire. Of these wool shipments but one, that of the Tongariro, which comprised 1620 bales shipped at Lyttelton, was of any importance. There have been no arrivals of sailing vessels from the United Kingdom since last mail, but tbe steamer Tongarirb arrived at Lyttelton from London, vhi Suez and Port Chalmers, on April 27, and was despatched by her owners, for London, on May 3. She took a large number of passengers and a good cargo. The Shipping Compands chartered steamer British King arrived from London vid Wellington on Saturday, May 17; she, is the next steamer to be despatched for London, and is advertised to leave for that. port direct on Saturday next. May 23. This, it is said, will be her last voyage under the Shipping Company’s flag. The N.Z. Shipping Company’s own steamship Aorangi came to this port on May 19, from Port Chalmers and London. She is to leave Wellington for London (making a change from the ordinary departure of the Company’s steamers), and her date for leaving Lyttelton is set down for May 24 (Queen’s Birthday). This vessel will probably take a large number of passengers from Wellington and other parts of the Colony. Shaw, Savill, and Albion Company’s barque Bebington was 109 days out (May 20), and should arrive any moment. The Dragon is also nearly due, it being 80 days or so since sbe left London. Frozen meat shipments for the month from Lyttelton are 3063 carcases mutton by the Tongariro, and 7447 by the Wellington. The Invercargill will take about 7000 and the Aorangi about an equal number. These cargoes comprise all the meat that will be sent from this port during the current month. Of vessels now in harbour the Glenlora (full), Invercargill, and Closeburn are the next three to clear outwards. Since last mail a patent slip for vessels up to 450 tons register has been completed, and will, as it becomes known, be found of great service to the smaller vessels trading to Lyttelton.