THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1884.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXI, Issue 7160, 28 October 1884, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1884.

Sir George Grey did good service to the House and the country yesterday in. formally calling attention, to the language employed by the Premier on Friday evening last. He did so with the double object in view : first of entering his protest against what his understanding of the Premier's words led him to regard as an interference with the freedom of debate in the House; and second, to give the Ministry an opportunity of making an explanation. The Ministry accordingly made a statement to the effect that they did not deem any explanation necessary. They did vouchsafe one all the same, however, but it was one which, while making the meanins; of the Premier's announcement more patent, had the effect of showing more clearly as well as more offensively that its purpose was to intimidate the House. The utterances of the Premier and of the Colonial Treasurer were, moreover, not consistent with each other. Mr. Stout spoke in such a way as to convey the impression that his statement was meant to refer to the action of the Legislative Council in rejecting or intending to emasculate the policy Bills of the Government. This, however, did not rebut the charge that it was intended to coerce the House of Representatives ; for, as was conclusively argued by several members, the threat of a dissolution could in no way affect the Upper House, and was calculated only to constrain the House of 'Representatives to aid the Ministry in their awowed intention to give practical effect to their policy

Bills even if rejected os mangled by the Legislative Council. Sir Julius "Vocjel on the other hand explained the statement of the Premier, which was in reality a minute of the Cabinet, to signify that if the -North Island members wish to secure the public works which Parliament had approved, they must consent, with or without -reason, to the Middle Island obtaining a quid pro quo. This, in other words, meant that, unless they supported the Government in their determination to carry into effect the District Railways Bill, specially intended to relieve the Agricultural Company in which Sir Julius himself is interested, as also the East and West Coast Railway Bill, the resolution to proceed with the North Island Trunk Railway would remain a dead letter. And the better to concuss them into this compact the threat of a dissolution was introduced to suggest to them that, if they did not yield, the work in which they were so greatly interested might be indefinitely postponed. In plain terms, the meaning of Sir Julius was, that the North would not get what it was entitled to, except on the condition that the South, in addition to the full share of public benefits it had already enjoyed, should obtain a further equivalent advantage. A more barefaced -and unprincipled device was never produced and defended by any Ministry. "We quite agree with Sir George Grey and other members in thinking the explanation of the statement more reprehensible than the statement itself. And yet the House accepted it ! What Sir George's meditations on the issue of yesterday's discussion may be we will not undertake to conjecture; but the next time he talks of slaves in New Zealand he will have no occasion to travel beyond the House of Representatives for his illustrations, while the sorrow which the thought of them awakens will doubtless be intensified by the recollection that the Ministry that now holds the House in thraldom he himself was mainly instrumental in placing in power.