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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7003, 28 April 1884, Page 5

The Premier, on Saturday night, exposed himself in the very stronghold of his enemies, and on the whole came off as well as could be expected. A vote of no confidence was, as a matter of course, carried by a large majority. We are of. opinion, however, that the Premier has loßt nothing' for himself personally, or for the Ministry, by his appearances in Dunedin and Chris tchurch.' It is made

clear by Saturday's meeting that the strong" feeling in Canterbury against the" Government is owing mainly to the raising of the rates .for the carriage of grain on the railways, and thai being so, the rest' of the colony will be apt to review the resolution. arrived at. • A public meeting may. hoot and howl, and carry a strongly -condemnatory vote, but as a political speaker addresses a much larger audience than those persons before him, so the audience themselves are under, review by, the general public. The people of Canterbury are now looking back with longing to the days when they had an enormoas annual income from the land fund, and cannot forgive" its absorption by the General Government. They are now at the forefront of the .Opposition ; but of all communities they are least likely to carry the rest of the colony, with them. A singular feature of the meeting is, that it closed with cheers, for Mr. Wakefield and Sir George Grey., These two gentlemen have' been in constant opposition to each other, and ' are likely to remain so, so that the oheers,' issuing from the same throats, show a confused and contradictory state of mind on the part of the cheerers. Sir George Grey was Premier of the Ministry which took away the land fund, and cheers for him mean an approval of democratic views which are not likely to find favour in Canterbury generally. If the Christchurch meeting really meant business, and to have the present Ministry ousted, they should have cheered for the leader of the Opposition, Mr. Montgomery ; but although that gentleman is a Canterbury man, and has fulminated fiercely against the Ministry on the very subject on which the meeting were most earnest and angry, they seem to have forgotten all about him, and not in the least to have regarded him as their champion.