THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1872.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 189, 11 October 1872, Page 4

THE Mount Ida Chronicle FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11, 1872.

I The Colony of New Zealand is at the | present moment in the throes of a most

important crisis, the issue of which not even the. most able and astute politicians can by any possibility, with any degree of certainty, foresee or foretell. The latest telegraphic news .from Wellingtori informs us that, - after the defeat ot the Stafford Ministry on the want of confidence motion tabled by Mr. Vogel, the Ministry resigned office. There is no further certain news, either as to what has since transpired or what is yet likely to transpire. There are, however, two probabilities in the case : the first, that the Governor has .refused the request of Mr. Stafford for a dissolution ; the secoud, that as a matter ot course Mr. now rules in - his stead as Premier of New Zealand. What duration, uuder the present evenly balanced state of parties in the House, an administration under his auspices is likely to have it is, as we have already said, impossible to predict. It is however, that with such narrow majorities as have within the last few weeks turned two Ministries out of office, no Government can have the power satisfactorily of carrying on the business of the country —be the policy that of a Vogel or a Stafford. To our mind, it seems si.-mewhpt inexplicable that Mr. Stafford s ould not have calculated his strength better than he did before he tabled his motion which resulted in the retirement of the Kox-Vogel party from the helm of Government and his own accession to office. - Much lias, been said of Mr. Stafford's patriotism, hjs attachment to the land of hia adoption, and the large stake and interest; which he possesses in the country. It is, therefore, the more remarkable that he should have thus precipitated the Colony into the difficulty with which she will, for some time to come, have to battle. . Better, far better, would it have been., for himself, and far more advantageous to the Colony, had he •alculated his means before throwing down the-gage of battle to the late Administration. Had he, if victorious, been prepared to act in concert with' Mr. Vogel, and form a strong coalition Ministry, .pruning off the weak and young f branches of both parties, and retaining only those that were known to be both able and healthy, a Ministry might have been formed which would, have been sufficiently strong to carry .on the business of the country in a. firm and satisfactory manner. At such an arrangement we cannot but think Mr. Vogel alluded when, in his speech which turned the late Government out of office, he said, " That he should very " much regret if the result of the pre- " sent vote were to deprive the country " of the services of Mr. Stafford.'* Surely there was a holding out of the olive branch here, and an offer of peace and political friendship which it would have been well had Mr. Stafford been able to have swallowed his pride and accepted. It is true that the late division list shows a gain of votes to Mr. Vogel's party of three, in the person of Mr. J. Shephard of Nelson, Mr. Creighton of Aukland, and Mr. Wi Parata, member for the Maori Western Division. It is not impossible that many other secessions from the ranks of the late Premier may speedily follow, as it cannot be doubted that many voted with the Stafford Ministry on the occasion of the. last division for the sake of consistency, though thoroughly and utterly disjusted alike at the programme of the late Premier and the Financial Statement of the late Treasurer. ••

A state of affairs such as the present cannot fail to be detrimental, if not fatal, to tb.e best interests of the Colony. The whole machinery of Government is out of joint, if not at a standstill; and we cannot but think that this unfortunate crisis has been brought about by the pride, the ambition, and obstinacy of Mr. Stafford. As we said in our last issue, there should be no difficulty in the two antagonistic statesmen sinking their personal differences and dislikes, aiid uniting their admitted talents and ability for the public weal. Should such a coalition fail to be effected, and Mr. Yogel be again defeated by a bare majority, we cannot but think that the dissolution which / his Excellency is reported to have refused to Mr. Stafford, will be unhesitatingly, and very properly, conceded to Mr. VogeJ.. j^r.

Pox was the real bete noir of the Vogal Government, and as he has announced his intention to retire from Ministerial life, it is more than possible that a considerable addition to the ranks of Mr. Voxel's party may reasonably be anticipated, and a dissolution rendered unnecessary. We have no doubt that his Excellency, in refusing to grant Mr. Stafford's request for a dissolution, had in view the idea of the possibility of a coalition Ministry being formed which would possess the confidence alike of the House and the country — 4 * a consummation most devoutly to be " wished." It is more than probable that before we go to press other telegrams as to the progress of affairs may reach us from Wellington. In this expectation we reserve any further remarks for another article.

Since* our leader was in type, a telegram which will be found elsewhere will sliou that we were not altogether wrong when we predicted that his Excellency would refill to grant a dissolution. to Mr. Stafford. That the application was made seems certain, and the alleged refusal of the Governor is attributed to his Excellency doubting, in the event of a dissolution, whether the House would vote the supplies necessary to carry on the business of the country. It is evi lent, from the memorandum of the Governor reported in our telegram, that his Excellency attributed the present unfortunate position of parties in the House to private and personal feelings rather than public opinion or political principles, seeing that there had been no expression of public opinion as to the relative merits or demerits of the two antagonistic Cabinets. His Excellency is further reported to have expressed an opinion that there was nothing to show that a new, Miuistry would not be formed out of the present House which would command the confidence of the House and country at large. Should he, rowever, be assured that, in tlie event of a dissolution being granted, the necessary supplies would be voted, he would not be unwilling to . reconsider the matter. Upon Mr!' Stafford urging the Governor to give a promise of a dissolution if supplies were voted, his Excellency decliued so to do.' Upon this the Stafford Ministry resigned, expressing, in the words of the telegram, " their dissent from the Governors " views." The announcement of the resignation of Ministers was made in both Houses —in the Upper House by Mr. Sewell, in the Lower House by Mr. Stafford, who, upon being pressed upon the subject by Mr. Fox, declined to say whether he had or had not advised the Governor to send for anybody to form a new Government. Thus matters stood yesterday.

There can be no doubt that Mr. Yogel has, ere this, been sent, for, and that he is at the present moment Premier of New Zealand. His Excellency's memo., it will be observed, is spoken of as a most able one, and we doubt not that- should ail efforts at forming a coalition Ministry fail, it will be found that a reconst ucted "Vogel Cabinet would command the confidence of the House and country. His Excellency deserves credit for the high and firm stand which he has taken in this matter, aud it is to be hoped that the views expressed by him upon the subject of tne present state of parties will turn out to have been well founded. The whole country —Goldfields in particular—were thoroughly disappointed.-and disgusted with the .Stafford Ministry's programme. The notification of the intention to discontinue. subsidies to Koad Boards, which had worked so well—the omission of all mention of Water Supply and other works on Goldfields, took everybody by surprise, and caused a very natural and general alarm —the policy being so entirely subversive of that of the Ministry which had preceded them. A strange and anomalous feature in Mr. Stafford's notion of Immigration is that while he is willing to expend hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money in bringing additional population into the country, he does not seem in any way disposed to make provision to retain the population we already possess. We wonder that it jiever struck Mr. Stafford that unless some works, admittedly of a reproduc-

tive character, are constructed on the Goldfields. a large amount of the mining population will undoubtedly leave for more attractive countries ; and it is not to be doubted that many of the to be imported immigrants will, unless inducement be offered them to remain in the country, follow in their wake That the policy of the Fox-Vogel Government, with all their dilly-dally and shilly-shally,recognised the importance of the mining interest, and were pre-

pared co foster and develope it, there can be no doubt, and it is much to be hoped that, upon their return to power, the works previously sanctioned by them in reference to this district will be procee 'ed with energetically and at once. Mr. Stafford's idea of Immigration —namely, to bring at a large expense

additional population into the country while, by his inattention to existing interests, he is denuding it of its present population—reminds us of a man pouring a valuable and expensive liquid into a vessel which is not watertight. So fast as the fluid is poured in, so fast will it run out, till, in the end, we find the fluid exhausted, and the vessel no nearer being filled than at first. So with Mr. Stafford's scheme of Immigration: he may bring in immigrants, but unless the country be made attractive, they will go out of it as quickly as they are brought in. For our part, we say develope and foster the interests we have, and make the country attractive to those already inhabiting it. The fact of the present population being happy and contented will do more to bring additions to our shores than will a dozen Agent-Gene-rals, Agents, Deputy-Agents, and a large host of paid and, for the most

part, useless hangers-on of the Government.

We understand that shearing will commence on Mr. Shennan's station, Puketoi, on the 18th November, being the first station to commence operations on this part of , the district. . The third Spring Meeting, under the auspices of the Mount Ida Jockey Club, is appointed to take place on the racecourse on Thursday, the 17th instant. This meeting is essentially one, for local competition, and should the weather remain as at present, a large attendance and a good day's sport may be fairly calculated upon. Notice is given elsewhere that, on the 17th instant, on the occasion of the Mount Ida Jockey Club's Spring Meeting, the local banks will close at 11.30 a.m.

The report which has been for some time past current, that an unconditional pardon had been granted to John Ewing, appears to have been erroneous, as will be seen by the following telegram, which we received on Saturday afternoon last:—" E wing's sentence has been commuted to four months' imprisonment, which will expire on the 9fch of November pros. Mr. Macandrew lias just received notice to that effect from the Governor's private Secretary, in reply to a deputation of .the Otngo membeis." The expectation expressed in our last issue that the price of water was about to be lowered by the Companies has been only partially realised —t-h? reduetiou only ss. instead of, as we anticipated, 10s. per head per week. The thin edge of the wedge has, however, been introduced, and we trust before long to see another and a further reduction. ! The annual meeting of the Lake District Jockey Club is advertised to take place on Thursday and Fridny, the 16th and 17th January, 1873.' The district of Waikari has again returned Mr. Henry Driver as its representative in the Provincial Council. We regret to announce the sudden death, on Sunday morning last, of Mrs. M'Rae, wife of Mr. Ronald M'Jtiae, an old and respected res dent and miner in 'this place. The deceased had been for seme time in a bad state of health —disease of the heart being the malady u::der which she suffered. The funeral took place on Monday, when the body was followed to the grave by a large number of miners and residents of the town.

13 iOTK and O'Buien's Royal Dramatic Troupe have lately given three entertainments in the Masonic llall here. On the first night the attendance was anything but what it should have been, considering t.li 3 excellence of the programme and the ability with which it was carried out. This was, we think, attributable to the very .mediocte troupes (to spy tlxe least of them) which, have from time to time visited this place and imposed upon the good nature and good temper of the good folks of Nasehy. The first night, however, established the Booth-O'Brien Troupe in the favor of the public, and on the second night the attendance was :<■ very fair one. On the third and last night, however, the rumor had gone abroad that we had among us a company well worth st-eing. and at an early hour the hall was filled to repletion—being crowded in every possible corner. A number of Irish and oth?r comedies were performed with great success, to the infinite amusement and merriment of tlxe audience, who for hour after hour were" kept in a state of laughter such as we

hare seldom witnessed. The favorable opinion which we expressed in our last issue of. the impersonation of Irish character by Mr. O'Brien was fully confirmed on each successive occasion, and we feel sure we shall offend none of the troupe when we assert that that gentleman was alike the favorite of the audience and the star of the company. When speaking of Mr. O'Brien we must not omit to mention that he was ably supported by the other members of the company., all of whom, whether ladies or gentlemen, performed their parts well and artistically. The songs and dances by Miss Jessie .Raymond and Miss Fairleigh were well selected and well executed, while the' local songs of Mr. Booth elicited bursts of boisterous inirth from a thoroughly dehgh:ed audience. Some of these songs were, in our opinion, rather too personal, and would have been better omitted, having reference to private and not to public matters. We hear, and we hear with pleasure, that the troupe will revisit Nase'oy during the next week, when we feel justified in promising them a hearty reception.

A deputation" appointed at a public meeting at Oamaru, including the Mayor, had an interview with his Honor the Deputy-Super-intendent with reference to the alleged purchase by Mr. Robert Campbell of 10,000 acres of land in the Maerewhenua district—a large portion of it being in the very centre of the G-oldfield. A petition was read, setting forth the facts of the case, and pointing out the injury and injustice which would be done to a large and important interest by the sale of this land to Mr. Campbell.- The DeputySuperintendent said that the matter should be brought under the notice of the Executive without delay. If the facts were as represented, the completion of the sale would be prejudicial to the public interest, and he had no doubt that steps would betaken to prevent the, completion of the sale. With reference

to this matter we have been informed that instructions have been received by the Warden to the effect that he shall deal with , applications for mining privileges within the area, applied for by Mr. Campbell as though ho such person existed.

Wis d: aw attention to the sale, by Messrs. Tnder and G-eorge, to-morrow evening, at the Victoria Hall; of a valuable consignment of pictures; also household furniture, &c., &e. Jfor further particulars see advertisement. Ax auction sale, by Messrs. Inder and G-eorge, of the shop and tools, the property of Messrs. Byrne and Keith, will take place on ihe premises, Leven-street, on the 2nd Nov. Also a house containing three rooms. The properties are freehold. See advertisement..

The good folk of Naseby were not a little scared on Wednesday night last, about halfpastinine o'clock, by the sound of the fire bell. Where, where is the fire ? was the exclamation'ot' the people as they rushed out of every ho lse. No fire was, however, to be seen, and

it appeared that the whole affair was a simple experiment to ascertain how soon the Fire Brigade could be at their post in the hour of real dauger. The experiment (albeit, to our mind, a somewhat hazardous one) was very successful, the Brigade turning out and arriving at their,.post with praiseworthy alacrity.