The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1877.

Manawatu Times, Volume II, Issue 101, 6 October 1877, Page 2

The Manawatu Times. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 6, 1877.

The Ministry have been put upon their trial on the question of the publication of the " Waka Maori" newspaper. This question is not one of much importance to the country. Whether the Ministry did or did not spend £400 of the public money m the publication of a forbidden newspaper, of whether they are or are not responsible for the libel written m that paper, are questions that it is perfectly right to enquire into, but to the general public the offence is not so objectionable as the offenders. Three months of vacillation and timidity have proved that the present Government are not the Government that the peculiar circumstances of this country require. During the inter Session period the constituencies were all expectant. There is always something mysterious, imposing, and hope-inspiring m a Cabinet" policy before it is expressed. The circumstances of this country during the recess were of a character so exceptional as to cause more than usual solicitude to be felt as ta the policy the Government would adopt. So much depended on what would be done and Tiow it would be done; so much was required m the way of amending, and so much m the way of original legislation. The moderate abilities that the Cabinet Ministers possess were enhanced m public estimation by sheer magnitude of the concerns with which they would have to deal. People "expected that a becoming vigour would be dis^ played m manipulating the Government machinery— -that the Cabinet would be sufficiently thorough to ref orm .--;as ' : well y as to construct. Someone had been treating this colony ag the. school-boy treats the snow-ball when he rolls it over and over to make it grow big. Sir Julius *had been jDushing New Zealand on after this fashion, so as to make it grow from- a colony into a nation. But the process; was too rapid ; the ball had grown, but not firmly '■':, it

required consolidating, and the work of consolidating was not the least important qi what the present Government were expected to do. The Acts of previous sessions required careful amending. The Land, Labour, and Immigration questions formed a three-cornered problem that required solution m comprehensive enactments. But what have the Ministry done? Nothing that indicates their possession of an administrative ability above the merest mediocrity. They have proved to be the veriest political tinkers. Destitute of any fixed principle, they have blundered on through the Session making mistakes, taking lessons from instead of dictating to the House. One important measure has been turned back upon their hands because it is just the antithesis of what is required. Another, the Education Bill, owes its chief merit to the thatching and patching it has received m committee. Then, a great deal of the Session has heen wasted by discussions as to whether certain members of the Government have or have not clean hands. If these members have avoided evil and corruption, they have not avoided the appearance of it ; nor have they, as yet, made a manly vindication of their character. However baseless the charges made against the Government may be, that body is still chargeable with having brought their high office into contempt by the way m which they have dealt with those charges. But while the country is discontentedly watching the discreditable squabbles that are occupying the time of the House and wishing for a change of Ministry, it may be askedr— Why does not the change take place ? The House is fully alive to the incapacity of the Ministry, and yet that Ministry retain their position. There are more things under the heavens than are dreamt of m the philosophy of straightforward men. The Opposition themselves are divided, and neither party is willing that the Ministry should go out lest the opposite party should go m. Intrigue seems at present to have taken the place of principle. That Opposition which condemned the Government for their Native Land Act because it favored the speculator and did not conduce to an industrial settlement upon the soil, themselves strongly opposed a measure that the country has been crying out for during the last 12 months — a measure that will enable the Government to improve marketable Crown Lands by roads before putting them into the market. Between the incapacity of the. Government on the one hand and the factiousness of the Opposition on the other, we fear the country will come far short of what it requires m the way of wise legislation. While the present members of the House, as a body, hold their sea-ts, an expensive duplex system of local rule and an overgrown Civil Service will continue to corrode the revenue, while the Land Question will remain m an unsettled state. A little more tinkering and the Session will close. We do not expect much from any further measures the Government may bring forward, and the country generally have ceased to loot with any confidence upon the present Parliament. A general election is an expensive remedy- for an incompetent House, yet many: of the constituencies would, we believe, at this time be glad of the chance to infuse fresh blood into the Assembly, They well know that if an appeal to the country would not result m a better constituted House, it could not by any chance result m a worse.