THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 8888, 26 May 1892, Page 5

THE POLITICAL SITUATION.

[BY TELEGRAPH. OWN correspondent.] Wellington, Wednesday. It is considered that the Opposition have sustained a sore loss in the death or ab-

sence of some of its ablesb members. All the papers criticise the situation. The Times of this morning says of Sir John Hall:"Of course he seeks the balmy climate of the Islands in order to find rest and recovery. Whether Sir John will ever find the former may seriously be doubted, for he has an active mind which was disciplined into activity by a long series of years of indulgence in his leading passion, which is work. In is in fact due to the excesses Sir John has committed in this indulgence that he is unable to take a more active share in the business of the party which he virtually leads. But for that he would have been, not the dry-nurse but the head of the late Government. It is an open secret that ho is required now to be the real, not the virtual, head of the party which is dissatisfied with want of elasticity and readiness for which Mr. Holies ton's desperate earnestness fails to compensate." ' Turning to another phase of the political situation, the same paper declares " The hopes of the Opposition in a Grey-Rolles-ton intrigue have been long since dissipated, chiefly because they never had any foundation in fact. The party and their organs were led away by sorno expressions of Sir George Grey's, which, after all, a? he has himself pointed out, told nothing new to anybody. Everybody knows that last session he fought with all his might to remove the tax from all improvements. As he never concealed his opinions on that subject this sudden discovery by the Opposition is amusing. But in default of Sir George Grey the hard-pressed Opposition is going to use Genera/1 Booth to upset the Government. Nobody believes, however, that they care two straws whether anv Booth emigrants arrive in the country, and everybody is quite certain that for their attack on the Government in this matter they have not any jot of anything that can pass for a decent appearance. In noticing the diminished numbers of the Legislative Council the organ of the Government is outspoken upon the aspect which the question of strengthening it presents to the present members of the Cabinet. To the members mention- d in a recent message as likely to be absent during the session, the names of the Hon. Mr. \\ ilson anil the Hon. Mr. Peacock may be added. The list of vacancies created within the last few years presents a formidable array | of important names —to wit, Whitaker, Fitzherbert, Johnston, Robinson, Reeves, Williamson, Menzies, Lahmann, Peters, and several natives. The writer evidently speaks with the fullest authority. He says " needless to say the Council count upon being fully represented in Wellington. Its actual strength is always below its possible strength, and sometimes very far below it. Almost always some or other of its members are unfortunately on the sick list; others, very busy men, weighted with important private affairs, unless, therefore, some fresh blood is infused into the nominated branch of the Legislature, we may fairly expect to drift again this year into the old state of having an Upper Chamber, whose business is languidly transacted by some twenty to five anil-twenty gentlemen. Of these, all, except two or three, may safely be counted upon to offer a general opposition to the policy measures of the Government. Last year the Colonial Secretary was to count upon a faithful party of four. This winter may see this not extravagantly latge or tyrannically powerful phalanx reduced by absence and ill health to half its former dimentions. While perfectly willing to see the Legislative Council continue to live and do useful work. Liberals have a right to hold that the Council should cease to bo one-sided. It ought fairly to represent tho nation and all classes of the nation. While admitting that as a revising body it should bo largely leavened with the qualities of care and caution, wo may argue that these arc to be gained by providing that all councillors nominated shall possess prudence and a fair amount of experience of life and its affairs. That is the way to secure a sober-minded Council, not by stuffing it from timo to time with the determined partisans of the obstructive classes."