THE GOVERNMENT AND THE OPPOSITION.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume XXVIII, Issue 38, 12 May 1869, Page 7

THE GOVERNMENT AND THE OPPOSITION.

[From the Nelson Examiner, April IV.] • It is of course not impossible that the Assembly may endorse the policy of Dr. Featherston and the Wellington Provincial Council. In that case Mr. Stafford must either resign or appeal to the country. It would however bo a pity if honourable members did not well consider the consequences before they enlist in a crusade against Mr. Stafford and his Ministry, and calculate what the country is likely to gain or lose by the proceeding. The colony will, indeed, if the operation is successful, have the satisfaction of being governed in accordance with the dictatesof t he farsighted statesmanship of Mr. Fox, and the mild wisdom of Mr. Vogel ; but it is not immediately apparent whether this advantage will 'compensate for the serious derangement of the public machiuery which must accompan y any change, especially one which entrusts the main parts to politicians of so decidedly sensational a character as that of the presentaspirants to political power. We say nothing of the ability of Mr. Stafford and his colleagues ; but which of the antecedents of the gentlemen named leads us to suppose either of them superior or even equal to the present tenants of Government Buildings ? Of Mr. Fox, as War Minister, and of his precipitate adoption of the policy which he and his friends now repudiate, we have already had experience. He has been tried, and found conspicuously wanting. Of Mr. Vogel we know little more than that he is a most acute and ingenious critic of other men's words and acts, and probably readier than any other debater in the House to seize an opening. But it is one thing to sit by and criticize the gait of men staggering under a heavy burden, another to bear that burden. " Suave mart magno turoantibus cequora ventis E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem." It is another and a very different thing to command the ship. To sit and criticize the struggling navigators from the shore is interesting and exciting, but it hardly affords irrefragable evidence that the critic is so profoundly skilled in seamanship, endowed with so cool a head, so daring aud yet so cautious, that we should care to see him at the helm. Ux post facto wisdom is cheap, but resembles most cheap things. It is true that Mr. Vogel has had the advantage of sitting at the feet of Mr. Macandrew for some years while conducting the provincial business of Otago, but his Government cannot be said to have afforded unmixed satisfaction to the people of that province, the noble resources of which make it so hard to make mis-government acutely felt. If Mr. Vogel has created dissatisfaction in that Southern Goshen, what would he do in the Northern deserb ? Without, however, accepting the more serious but as yet unproven charges of his provincial assailants, we may assert that that portion of the local politics of Otago which has attracted attention outside the limits of the province has displayed somewhat of a " sensational " and startling character, calculated to remind one rather of the spasmodic efforts of an enterprising disciple of Mr. Barnum than of the policy of men in a responsible position gravely feeling their high responsibility ? If the colony were assured that it possessed in Mr. Fox and Mr. Vogel, we will not say " heaven-born statesmen," but men whose proved capacity was superior to that of Mr. Stafford and his colleagues, it might be worth while to accept the grave inconveniences of a change of Ministry. But there is not the slightest ground for such an assurance beyond the repeated assertions of these gentlemen, and the unquestionable proof which they have given of their powers of fault-finding and of obstructing the business of the couutry as long as it may be conducted by their political opponents. We have not yet forgotten that night, through which the " great constitutional party " under these gentlemen's leadership chattered against time till long after sunrise. It is a night much to be remembered. The news coming simultaneously with that of Tito Kowaru's first cannibal bauquet made it hard to decide whether the colony were more unfortunate in having that savage within its borders, or these statesmen within its Senate. That which makes good government so difficult in New Zealand is the imperfect cohesion of its parts. It is the bundle of Bticks unbound. Either island, each province, each township, every community, thinks only of itself— thinks its crotchets paramount — thinks itself cruelly aggrieved if its local interests are not made the first objects of any Government, Provincial or General, with which it comes into contact. North Island against Middle Island, Westport against Nelson, Timaru and Westland against Christchurch, Oamaru against Otago — each particular province, and all provinces against the General Government — it is but the same tale repeated. We have all to learn the simple lesson that " the whole is greater than its parts." The General Government is bound to look to the welfare of this ill-cemented whole ; and consequently, whether the question pertain to peace or war, popular indignation and editorial eloquence are roused to the fiercest acrimony when a General Government, with not unlimited resources at its disposal, is forced to postpone the security of Napier or Taranaki to the issue of a campaign, or the material interests of Otago to the existence of the settlers of the North Island. Of discontent thus easily generated it is very easy for Mr. Fox, or Mr. Vogel, or Mr. M'Lean, or Dr. Featherston to take advantage. But we give these gentlemen credit for so much honesty of purpose and regard for the general interests of the country that we do not hesitate to prophesy that, if they do get in, they will speedily find that it is just as easy for Mr. Stafford and his friends to repeat their operation, if they are so minded, as it was for them to initiate it. The question resolves itself in fact into one purely personal. Mr. Fox, at best, can do no more than Mr. Stafford is now doing with very fair average success. For let no one suppose that an Euglish Ministry in which Bir. Bright has a place will consent further \ to tax Euglish labour, aud so to augment Eng-

lish pauperism, in behalf of persons the mass of whom, rightly or wrongly, English public opinion supposes to be better off than the mass of those whose aid is invoked, and for whose interests it is the first duty of an English Ministry to provide. But any change, except for good and ascertained cause, is to be deprecated. Mr. Fox and his would-be colleagues Avill, if they succeed, require months to learn " the run of the ropes." It is hardly to be expected that Tito Kowaru and Te Kooti will stand still while this interesting study is in process. We never undertook to defend all the acts of Mr. Stafford's Ministry, but we must be more convinced than we are of the capacity of these would-be Jacobs before we advocate the dangerous manoeuvre of changing front ia the face of an active and wary enemy.