THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1887.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8056, 17 September 1887, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17, 1887.

To-day the nomination of members for the new Parliament will, with few if any exceptions be completed ; and, for the next ten days the political contest will be passing through its acute stage. The skirmishing has had an unusually prolonged period on this occasion, and the interest in the campaign has consequently flagged; but now that the critical time of action is felt to be near, public feeling will be roused up to a high pitch, and activity, commensurate with the importance of the issue, will be witnessed. The length of interval which has occurred between the dissolution of last Parliament and the issuing of the writs for the election of a new one in its place, was owing to a device of the Stout-Vogel Ministry, from which they hoped to reap some advantage over the Opposition. True, it was attributable ostensibly to the length of time requisite to enable the Commissioners to readjust the electorates according to the provisions of the Representation Act passed last session. The delay, however, in passing this

measure was arranged by the Ministry according to a carefully considered plan which was calculated to secure their continuance in office during next Parliament, or at all events, their retention of it, for as long a period as possible, undisturbed by the result of the general election.

Their real intention was to prevent the passing of a Representation Bill at all, and to have passed a short Act, continuing the old Representation Act in force, and have the new Parliament elected under its provisions. It was reckoned that their chances of having a majority of supporters returned at the, general election thus taken would be greatly increased, and that, in any case, their tenure of office would thus be extended. To this device more than to anything else was the nonpassing of the Representation Bill in 1886 to be attributed. During the recent session the same game was renewed ; for the Premier, instead of pushing the measure through in the beginning of the session, as he had promised to do, manoeuvred to push it back towards the close; and, had it not been for the determination of the Opposition, it would certainly have been burked a second time. The effect of this would have been an earlier dissolution of Parliament, and the election would have proceeded under the provisions of the old Representation Act. The fear, however, of the Opposition refusing supplies unless the Representation Bill were passed compelled the Ministry to yield; but the delaying of its passage to the last moment, and the time unavoidably consumed in readjusting the Parliamentary districts, yet secured for the Ministry the undisturbed enjoyment of their emoluments for at least five months longer. That was something for an impecunious Ministry to be thankful for ; and, no doubt, their hearts are now swelling with gratitude, while they are engaged prosecuting their respective elections by means of the salaries which, all unearned, they are meanwhile drawing from the State's impoverished treasury. There was, however, another object which the Stout-Vogel Ministry had in view in all the artful manoeuvring by which they brought it about that so long an interval should elapse between the dissolution of Parliament and the election of another in its stead. And that was that it might, as they thought, give them greater opportunities for I skilfully playing their cards. They ! knew that they were as unpopular with the country as they were with the House, and that, if an immediate appeal to the country had been arranged for, the result would have proved most disastrous for them. In a word, they calculated that a prolonged interval, during which the candidates would be addressing the constituencies, would exhaust public interest, and that this exhaustion would be followed by a reaction in their favour. They allow it to be regarded as an open secret that this was a part of their strategy. They have, however, found themselves greatly out in their reckoning. Certain of their blatant followers do, it is true, allege that the device has been attended with complete success; but the very extravagance of their asseverations betrays their consciousness of an exactly opposite result. In short, the cunning of the Stout-Vogel Cabinet has overreached itself. In laying their plans for securing a long interval to give them an opportunity of re-establishing themselves in popular favour they have overdone their business. They have prolonged the interval too much. They have allowed time for a second reaction to take place, and the second one is decidedly to their detriment. Less than a month ago the chances of the Ministry were undoubtedly better than they are to-day. The tide has again turned, and by the time the polling day arrives the cause of the Stout Vogel Ministry and their supporters will be found at its lowest ebb.

It is the perception of this approaching collapse that is now causing the Government leaders to make frantic efforts to spoil the chances o£ success for the most prominent Opposition members. Sir Robert Stout, for example, instead of employing his time in the service of the State, is misspending it, and also the money which he is receiving as salary, in going to Mount Ida to destroy if he can the prospects of Mr. Scobie Maclvenzie, and improve those of his opponent. Sir Julius Vogel, after doing what he could in Canterbury to defeat the candidature of Sir John Hall and the other Opposition candidates in that quarter, proceeds to Wellington to anniI hilate Mr. George Fisher. Mr. Ballance, ! assuming his own seat to be safe, has utterly lost sight of the duties pertaining to his dual office, in his consuming zeal to aid in securing the rejection of Mr. J3ryce and Major Atkinson. In fact, for the past four months the memi bers of the Ministry—these paragons | of honour and Liberalism—have been receiving out of the taxes of the people at the rate of about £5 per day for doing nothing else than promoting their own candidature and attempting to baffle that of their opponents. A pretty use that to make of the oppressed taxpayers' money. These unprincipled and frantic efforts are a sure sign, however, that the Ministry feel their case is getting desperate. They see that their chances of being permitted much longer to impose heavy taxes on a long-suffering people, for the purpose of wasting, in the manner they are now doing, the money thus extorted, is rapidly slipping away from them; and in the forlorn hope of improving that chance, they are now engaged in making their dying charge.