INDEPENDENT TRUTH.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1260, 23 April 1896, Page 39

INDEPENDENT TRUTH.

A SPLENDID VINDICATION OR THE SEDDON MINISTRY. Hydne.y Bulletin, April 11th. If the Seddon Government gets another three years’ lease of office as Ihe result of the 181)0 elections, it will he about the most remarkable—-if not the most remarkable — Ministry which ever existed in Australasia. It has already lasted through two Parliaments, and has had nearly six continuous years of power, and its majority remains practically unimpaired. It was created in 181)0, when John llallanco was still alive, and Richard of Kumara was his first lieutenant, and it started with a large majority. It went to tho country in 181)8, and came bade, contiary to all precedent, with a still larger majority. The ordinary course of things is that a Government begins with a large following, which steadily diminishes through its three years of ollice until tho next general election, when it is decisively rejected. Then tho other party conics in with a big majority, which fades away in a like manner till another election comes along and it is also cast out, and the previous men come back to go through tho same process all over again. Under the party system the people and tho Parliament can’t amend the Ministry’s Pills if they think them unsatisfactory, or undo any of its acts, or reject part of its policy and endorse tho remainder, or reject one member of tho Ministry and keep tho remainder ; all it can do is to accept all tho Ministry and all its policy, or else throw it out bodily and entrust the same irresponsible power to someone else. And, as hardly any Ministry is fit to ho trusted with such power, the country generally throws out every Ministry at the first opportunity, with the vague idea that the other lot can’t he worso than the present lot — quite regardless of the fact that tho other lot had previously been thrown out on exactly tho same grounds. There have been hardly more than three occasions in Australasian history when a Ministry, after serving tho full term of one Parliament, lias returned with a majority, and it is questionable if any Ministry ever came back a second time with such a majority as the Seddon Government gained in ’1)8. All through its career it has had to euc muter the bitter hostility of five-sixths of the city press and tho great majority of the pi ess of tho entire country. Il has declared war against abuses which no previous Ministry dared to attack, and has thereby incurred the bitter hatred of almost every “ vested interest” in the country. It lias taken risks which almost all the alleged financiers of Australasia declared to be ruinous, and lias come out right in almost every case. It has been a Labour and a semi-Social-istic Government, and has proved that a Labour Government can bo as peaceful and much more intelligent than the ordinaiy variety ; and it lias sent printers and boilermakers into the Upper House, where they have revealed much more capacity than the ordinary Rat Man nominee. It has been much more honest than the average. It hasn’t bought support with any lavish distribution of borrowed money the means by which Vogel and Gillies obtained _ their second terms of ollice. And, despite tho fact that it has most of the press, most of the capitalistic interest, tho whole grog influence, and the National Ass. to contend with, the present signs are that it will get another big majority and go on to complete nine consecutive years of ollice. If it does, it will show that the policy of trusting the people pays best in the long run.

Remarking on a recent visit paid to the South by the Hon W. Rolleston, the Otago Daily Times says that lie will not contest any goat at tho ensuing gonoral election.