THE PARKES-DIBBs COALITION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 9830, 27 May 1895, Page 4

THE PARKES-DIBBs COALITION.

♦ The defeat of the Parkes-Dibbs coalition by a large majority in the Parliament of New South Wales marks the close of one of the most ludicrous yet pitiful episodes in the history of the colonies. The humorous side of the incident will be more patent to the people of that colony who are familiar with the bitterness of the personal as well as the political feud that had long existed between those two leaders. But the humiliation of political life shown in the readiness to sacrifice principles, and to make a political plaything of the great cause of federation in the game of party strife is a feature that will come home to all the colonies. Both these statesmen belong to the class familiarly known as those who call a spade a spade. More particularly in the case of Sir Henry Parkes the indulgence of invective of a personal kind in relation to his opponents, and the free use of epithets derogatory at once to personal appearance and to intellectual character as well as political views had latterly taken the place of argument on all occasions of his appearance in public. in that forcible it peculiar method of argumentation, no politician had (come in for a more liberal allowance of obloquy than the political leader in whom, on the eve of a Parliamentary struggle raised by himself, he suddenly discovered the highest qualities of statesmanship as well as of personal amiability. And the appearance of the two doughty champions of freetrade and protection, metaphorically speaking, falling on each other's neck, and weeping the tears of reconciliation, while leading a united assault on place and power, the objective point of the aspirations of each, presented a spectacle far from edifying in public life Had success attended the attempt, probably the public mind would have overlooked and ultimately forgotten the antecedent proceedings. As it is, a humiliating defeat gives piquancy to the incident, and a long time will probably elapse before these two leaders will have overcome thtt effects of the abortive attempt The primary object of the united attack was to prevent the Reid Government from restoring the policy of freetrade to the colony. The imposition of a strong protective tariff by the Dibbs Government had been carried through without any determination of the country in favour of a fiscal change, and the first opportunity afforded by a general election enabled the country to pronounce for a reversal of that policy by returning an overwhelming majority of freetrade members. No one had shown moie earnestness than Sir Henry Parkes in eliciting that mandate from the country, and no one claimed a more personal interest in the result of the election. The accession, however, of Mr. Reid, as elected leader of the party, to the Premiership, seems to have wholly altered his sympathies, and the insidious efforts of the former champion of freetrade to trip up the freetrade Government has formed one of the most noticeable features in the political life of the colony. The inevitable result of the late defeat will be to secure the abolition of the heavily protective tariff of New South Wales, and to restore to that colony the prospect of commercial pre-eminence as the principal entrepot of trade for the Australian colonies. That the defeat will have any effect in either retarding or promoting the cause of Australian federation is not apparent. Interest in that question was made the ostensible object in the effort to bring about a political crisis, but the i insincerity of the pretence appears to ■ have operated as the principal in- . fluence in the defeat A desire for federation is now generally entertained by all parties; but disinclination to ' the confederation of the colonies has > heretofore been principally shown among the Protectionist party, which , would practically have won a victory had the recent resolution of want of 1 confidence been carried. The recent I attempt of Sir Henry Parkes to > ally with the Protectionists in order to II sink the fiscal question, and confirm the

policy of protection at -yosent «gg I the will probably have dealt & U^*J|i t statesman's influence from w!&-> ||i wa , not readily recover: but the opiusL • ' somewhat generally eatertainedj& 1 * the cause of federation would beg* rtu , moled rather than retarded, if it JI yk no longer associated with bis efTorra make use of it for party and persag! ends. The future of this quese i«* appears to have passed from his ban |fre and at least it cannot be said to ha Mo been unfavourably affected by tf|s [ defeat of a resolution put forward lh , ostentatiously in its name. '. - art