MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

Marlborough Express, Volume IV, Issue 168, 3 April 1869, Page 4

MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.

The Wanganui Times says, how is it that the Press of the Colony, with a few very rare exceptions, take no notice of Mr. Stafford’s tactics ? On the 26th ultimo, we said :—“ Should the incoming English mail confirm the intelligence of the Duke of Edinburgh’s expected arrival in this colony, in March next, we shall not be at all surprised to find that Mr. Stafford will have the Parliament further prorogued, and that the next session will not meet until the end of May, or early in June next,” Now that the mail has arrived, the Government organ is authorised to say There is no probability of the General Assembly being called together until after the departure of the Duke of Edinburgh. His Royal Highness will most probably arrive early Vin April, and purposes remaining two moiins in the Colony.” Thus Mr. Stafford’s ambition to be Premier of New Zealand on tSj? arrival of the Duke of Edinburgh, prorogues Parliament, prolonges the wretched war in which himself and Colonel Haultain"' have embroiled us, and heaps an enormous amount of debt upon the Colony. Meantime, upon what funds is Mr. Stafford drawing to meet the heavy unauthorised military expenditure of the past four months to come 1 Is the ambition of one man to override all constitutional forms of government to the utter ruin of the Colony? Should public affairs continue to be conducted as they now are, for another six months, the Colony will be bankrupt, and the people in these districts hopelessly ruined. Every town in the Colony should immediately petition the Governor for a dissolution of Parliament.

The Auckland Herald says :—What public ground can Mr. Stafford possibly advance in justification of the course he is pursuing. The East Coast campaign was abandoned in the moment of victory—when Te Kooti and the TJriweras should have been followed up until they were literally cut to pieces—in order that the siege of Wanganui might have been raised. Taranaki settlers are again driven in before the tomahawk, and the Minister of Defence is forced publicly to admit that the Colonial Government has no available force to save that Province from being again overrun by the rebels. Waikato is in danger, and the Resident Minister in Auckland is left powerless to take those precautionary measures which his judgment and his inclination would prompt him to do, because he knows that the Government cannot meet the expenditure they would occasion. All this is very terrible to contemplate, but it is due entirely to the obstinacy with which the Ministry refuses to meet the Parliament. Do Mr. Stafford and his colleagues cleai’ly compi'ehend the fulness of the responsibility which they are thus taking upon themselves ?