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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9095, 2 July 1888, Page 4

OtJE Parliamentary correspondent gives some further interesting particulars respecting the untoward ■; event of Friday night, when the Government suffered an emphatic "defeat on the proposal of the Premier that the House should go into committee on the Estimates. There is apparently no disposition, to follow the matter up. The Government were defeated because certain of their supporters were out of humour with the Premier for the manner in which he replied to the representations of the Retrenchment Committee. They have no wish to oust Sir Harry Atkinson. No party in the House has indeed any such desire. He is going as far in the way of Protection as any considerable body of members can require, while as regards retrenchment, he has* gone as far-as he has been driven, and no Premier can be expected to go any further. ' By.-andrby he will go the length of largely curtailing the expenditure on education, but lie has not yet felt the pinch on that point. The" adverse division is spoken of as "a- gentle slap in the face," but it is a good deal-more than that. It is an intimation to the Premier that he has not retrenched sufficiently in the public expenditure. The Premier holds a very strong 'position. A change of government would mean such a serious embarrassment and cost to the country that very few members would wish to see it. Besides, Sir H. Atkinson would claim a dissolution, and that would involve a large reduction of members. But the Premier ought not to presume on this, and adopt too masterful a tone in the House. He knows quite well that by his ta) iff he has given offence to men who hav.;- supported him for many years, while his new followers have only adopted him tet'-rorarily. That is a dangerous position for any politician to place himself in. He will be kept in office only so long as he is a political necessity, and when the present s-sssion is through, and a new House ? -ssembles, he will find how much can • e remembered against him.