THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1887.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8065, 28 September 1887, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1887.

The election contest, which has so long engaged public attention, being now over, people are naturally beginning to speculate on the probable effect of its outcome. With the evidence of their defeat so manifest, the course which, in ordinary circumstances, the Ministry would pursue seems, in the light ot precedent, obvious enough. Supposing the Premier had been returned, the Cabinet might have concluded to meet the House in the usual way, prepared to accept a trial of strength either on the appointment of a Speaker, or, failing this, on an amendment to the Address-in-Reply to the speech from the Throne If defeated on such a motion, as the result of the election just concluded makes it certain they would be, they would have no option but to resign, and allow His Excellency to take measures for obtaining other advisers. That is the course they would have taken if guided by the determination which has hitherto characterised their Administration —to cling to the smallest and last chanee of retaining office. Considering, however, the controlling influence which Sir Robert Stout was latterly asserting in his Cabinet, the likelihood is that, looking at the decisiveness of the reverse which on an appeal to the country has overtaken the Ministerial party, he would constrain his colleagues to agree to the course taken by the Atkinson Administration in 1884, under circumstances similar to those supposed. Having been then defeated, also on an appeal to the country, the Atkinson Ministry came to the conclusion that it was their duty to resign, not however before Parliament assembled, but immediately thereafter. Parliament was accordingly opened on Thursday, the 7th of August, by commission, a:ad the House was directed to proceed to the election of a Speaker, and on the day following Major Atkinson having announced that he had that morning placed the resignation of the Government in the hands of His Excellency the Governor, moved the adjournment of the House to the 14th. On re-assembling, the House was further adjourned to the 19th, and on that day Parliament was formally opened by His Excellency delivering the speech prepared by the first StoutVogel Ministry. On that day, too, Sir Julius Vogel, who had in the interval been entrusted with the formation of a new Government, expressed his complete approbation of the course adopted by Major Atkinson in abstaining from sending in the resignation of his Cabinet before members of Parliament had met at Wellington, on the ground that there are exceptional features in the nature of this colony that make it very difficult for anyone to form a new Administration unless there were a large number of members present in Wellington at the time. This, therefore, would in all probability have been the course pursued by the StoutVogel Administration on the present occasion, had the Premier been fortunate enough to be returned as a member of the new Parliament, It may fairly be presumed that the reason which induced Sir Julius Vogel to pronounce the line of action then adhered to by Major Atkinson a wise one would have been held as valid for determining the action to be now taken by the Cabinet of which he is a leading member. But the loss of his constituency on the part of the Premier, Sir Robert Stout, materially alters the situation. So far as we at present remember, there is no precedent to guide the Stout-Vogel Cabinet in the peculiar circumstances in which it has, by.the above event, been placed. Politically, the Cabinet is defunct ; and, while its members may continue to carry on the administrative functions of Government, until the result of the election has been officially communicated to the Governor, it is hardly to be expected that, in the circumstances, the Premier will be disposed to remain in Wellington, awaiting the assembling of Parliament. It is thus not at all likely that i the course taken by Major Atkinson's Government in 1884 will be literally observed at this time by the StoutVogei Ministry ; and the probabilities all point to their resolving upon an immediate resignation. Should such a decision be arrived at, on the meeting of the Cabinet, we may «oon expect to hear that Major Atkinson, on whose motion the Ministry were defeated prior to the appeal made to the country, has been seat for by His Excellency to form a new Government, and arrange for the assembling of the new Parliament. In that event it is not at all likely that Major Atkinson would do anything beyond what was strictly provisional until the members of the Opposition had mustered in considerable numbers at Wellington. Iff will naturally be his desire to take them all into his confidence as far as possible, with a view to the framing of a Cabinet on so broad a basis that it would be representative of all parts of the colony and entitled, by its composition and prospect of stability to the confidence of the House. In the task which , would thus be imposed on him the losses which his party has sustained in. the defeat of some of its prominent members, and especially of Me3s.vs. Bryce and Rolleston, though greatly to be deplored, might yet facilitate the work undertaken. Had both these members of his former Cabinet been re-elected as members of the House, it would have been difficult for him to ignore the claims to appointments which their undoubted abilities would present; and, in the event of their resuming their places in the new Administration, the cry of the '• Continuous Ministry" would have again been raised, to the serious prejudice of the Government. Their absence from the House, therefore, though thtfir\

experience and wise counsels will undoubtedly missed, may yet be attended with this advantage, that the way will be opened without any risk of friction or alienation to introduce new blood into the Cabinet; shid, if deemed advisable or expedient, to consider what new combinations may be called for with a view to the forming of a really strong and stable Government. Among the members returned by the several constituencies, there are some of unquestioned ability, experience, and standing ; and it ought to be a comparatively easy matter to select, from among these, men, whose presence in the Cabinet would serve both to save it from the reproach of exclusiveness, and also to give the assurance, both to the Parliament and the people, that the affairs of the country will be economically, as well as efficiently administered.

An outbreak of smallpox in Launceston, Tasmania, occurring in a small town of a notably salubrious island at the cool season of the year, is likely to be stamped out without much difficulty, though of course it renders necessary precautionary arrangements in the ports of the other colonies to which the epidemic might be carried. In Melbourne, as lying right opposite that northern Tasmanian outlet, with which across Bass's Strait they have regular intercourse several times a week, they are specially on the alert, and with reason, because three or four years back in Melbourne and Sydney, large and populous cities, the epedimic once introduced hung about for many months before it could be got rid of. It is superfluous to say that we are far more liable than even a few years ago to visitations of the kind fetched from abroad. The marvellous increase of shipping, the new enlargement of trade and communication with all parts of the world, has mixed with the good this much of evil that disease is sometimes smuggled over the ocean from quarters the most remote. For instance, the last visitation of cholera, which, for some years now in the Mediterranean countries, seems to regularly appear and reappear every summer aud autumn, was first brought to Toulon directly from Tonquin, in a troop ship. On its former invasions of Europe, the pestilence always stalked overland, making its slow advance with havoo, like the irruption of Attila and his Huns. But if the maritime progress of the day enables plague, as well as better things, to cross the world at a bound,, on the other hand the progress of hygienic knowledge, according as its practical improvements are carried out, has drawn the teeth of the destroyer. How much has been effected by even a moderate amount of sanatory improvement is illustrated in the eeaports of the Turkish empire. Naturally salubrious, we know that those coasts were healthful in antique times. But under gross misgovernment, towns degenerate as well as the fairest countries, and for centuries down to two or three generations back, the ports of Smyrna, Scanderoon, Alexandria, tfcc, were the permanent abode and headquarters of what was dreaded in Europe as the Levantine plague. Those towns are not yet everything which would make the fastidious choose them for prolonged residence ; but, nevertheless, they are a contrast to what they used to be, for the grosser causes of mischief being dealt with, they have ceased to be hotbeds of disease. Telegrams tell us that the cholera has just reappeared this year in the city of Naples, and some other towns of Southern Italy, which have not sufficiently profited by the severe warning they recently received to set themselves in good sanatory order; and there is reason to suspect that the epidemic will continue to recur every now and again at the hot season, until certain seaports of Italy and Spain have thoroughly reformed their internal condition. Pestiferous waters are a prime source of contagion, and the swamps of the Hoogly, below Calcutta,are credited with having been the birthplace of cholera. The position of New Orleans, a great city, at the outlet and overflow of the Mississippi, has always rendered it one of the worst sites of yellow fever; and Baron Hubner, the Austrian traveller, has advised that the Suez Oanal ought to be looked to to prevent it becoming a great sewer as well as canal. It was well said of parks that they are the lungs of a city ; and a city of any extent would soon cease to be habitable without them. The fact is universally recognised nowadays, and the discovery is only a recovery. Ancient records tell us how Babylon, the mighty, included great parks within its walls. Towns grow rapidly now-a-days; it is the era of big cities. The nev.-er Australian ones have made a noble provision of public pleasure grounds for their future. Mr. Sala was struck with admiration of the ring of parks that lie between the town of Adelaide and its suburbs. The health of Melbourne, with its already great population, could not possibly have been maintained if it were not for the wide expanse of its public pleasure grounds. They bring the country into town, with fresh air for the pent-up citizen and opportunities for physical recreation and scenic enjoyment—a refuge for nature amid the wilderness of houses; a green retreat for the soul of man weary of the bustle of the streets. In Auckland we must take good care of what remains to us in this way, for our city is stretching out fast. Some time ago the municipal authorities ran up a wooden building in the Domain, which was startlingly reported to be nisant for a smallpox hospital, there being then a scare about the epidemic. Of course such an edifice would in a double sense be out of place there, and we cannot suppose that it was really intended for that object. Since then we see that the structure has been sold to the Hospital and Charitable Aid Board, which body, however, if we are to judge by the tone of its deliberations at a late meeting, would seem less disposed to remove the building than to leave it where it is and employ it as if they had purchased the site as well as the building. If this should be so, the City Council will be looked to as trustees of the Domain, to see that there be no such encroachment on the public pleasure ground, and that the structure shall be removed in accordance with the plan regarding the Domain! which they issued not long since. The little Albert Park is already an honour to Auckland, and in laying out the Domain the civic authorities will have a grand opportunity for the exercise of ptiblic spirit and aesthetic taste.

On both the European and Asiatic con. tinents the signs of restlessness and of probable disturbance are again attracting attention. The shooting case on the Franco- German frontier is causing considerable excitement, and the French Press, as might be expected, is indulging in somewhat strong denunciations. It i s not at all probable that the circumstance will have any material effect on the relationa between the two countries, but the fact that public feeling gets so readily irritated over what appears to have been a mistake springing out of extreme official zeal, is significant of a predu. position to rush into a serious national quarrel. The Porte, too, seems uneasy over the situation in Bulgaria ; and, in its usual blundering fashion] suggests the appointment of an Inter! national Commission to superintend the election of the new Sobranj<j and the fresh choice of a Prince from among certain royal families approved by tha Powers. As, however, this implies that the election by the previous Sobrauja of Prince Ferdinand was illegal, the pro , posal carries on the face of it a, concession to Russia. This, it is evident, -would not be acceptable to the Bulgarian people; ' and it. is, therefore, not surprising to tind' that M. Stambouloff, the head of the recently-formed Ministry, has declared againist the proposal. Poor Turkey has a hard time of it, in trying to conciliate Russia, in her attempts to obtain control over title Balkan region, and to prevent the Bulgarians, in their determination to work out their autonomy, from assuming an attitude which would incur the overt hostility of the Czar. The Pretender to the Afghan throne, Ayoob Khan, evidently intends not to sleep upon his I supposed rights, and is said to have I appealed to the Emir of Bukhara to aid him in making an attack upon Cabal. This request, if acceded to, would facilitate the designs of Russia upon Afghanistan, and by necessitating the interference of the British authorities would bring on a conflict between Russia and Britain such as the agents of the former Power seem desirous ot provoking. In view of such contingencies it is gratifying to learn that the .Nizam of Hyderabad, far from sympathising with the invitation addressed to the ludian Princes to look to Russia for deliverance from the British yoke, has expressed his willingness to place both his purse aud his sword at Britain's service, and his conviction that Indian and British interests demand united action in resisting Russia's aggressive proceedings.