New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1879.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5554, 16 January 1879, Page 2

New Zealand Times. (PUBLISHED DAILY.) THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 1879.

It is a generally received opinion throughout the country that Sir Geoege Gbey greatly injured the position of his Ministry by the reckless manner in which he distributed promises during his now historical stumping tour. We confess to a difficulty in understanding why he adopted such an obviously dangerous method of amusing his audiences. Ho must have known that under no conceivable circumstances could the whole, or even any largo portion, of his windy pledgees be redeemed, and it must have been equally apparent that when failure overtook him the reaction from confidence to suspicion, from unthinking applause to terribly earnest disapproval, would be rapid and complete. Partly, no doubt, the Premier was in hopes that his extravagant harangues could so work .on the minds of the more ; excitable of his hearers as to prqvo of use, to his party in any elections which .might take place before the meeting of’Parliament. , In this he was not altogether mistaken. We admit with regret that the efforts of Sir George on the stump did, in one or two instances, good .service to his partisans when they s’ubse*

quently made their appearance on the hustings, and caused the- ballot-box to show a result differing widely from what might reasonably have been expected had the groat man remained quietly in Wellington, or betaken himself to the solitudes of Kawau. It is well known now that that small measure of success was far too dearly purchased, and that a very much less ambitious extra parliamentary programme would have been more judicious. When the time came for drawing a comparison between the promises and their so-called fulfilment it was evident that the people at large, and the Grey party in particular, had been very completely “ humbugged,” and the immediate consequence was a sudden revulsion of feeling throughout the country, and what may be almost called a break up of the Ministerial following in the House. It was convenient just at the time to allow Sir George Grey and his colleagues to remain in office, and accordingly they were not turned out. We challenge contradiction when we say that the Bills introduced by the Government were miserable and sickly shadows in comparison with what might have reasonably been expected from the Premier’s promises, and we again challange contradiction when we affirm that the vast discrepancy was no sooner made known than the strength of his party both in and out of the House was lessened in a very extraordinary degree. Some members there were who, though thoroughly disgusted with the conduct of their leaders, thought that a further trial should be allowed them ; and, hoping against hope, these faithful few continued to support the occupants of the Treasury benches. “Next :“ session,” they said, “We may see the “ Ministry better prepared to face the “ House. They may then disclose such “ a policy as will of necessity give satisfac- “ tion to a substantial majority both in “ and out of Parliament.” The Ministry were permitted to live, but to live, as it were, with a halter about their necks ; and they were delighted with the chance of escape thus accorded them. They would, in truth, have joyfully descended to much lower depths of degradation in order to escape the extreme penalty of the law. The cry was only for life —the life of office. With all this horrible history of the past fresh in their memories, and the knowledge that in the course of a few months they must again meet Parliament, it might reasonably have been expected that the Ministry would walk with circumspect footsteps during the recess, and would anxiously prepare for the further trial awaiting them in the future. Their actual conduct has been very different. With a blind folly, which, we verily believe, has never had a counterpart in the Australasian Colonies, they have gone on sinning with a perfectly unabashed front, and seemingly in entire forgetfulness of the fact that, metaphorically speaking, each man of them has about his throat that which we mentioned a few sentences back. If they made a bad use of last recess they have contrived to make an infinitely worse use of the present one as far as it has gone. Public attention was mainly attracted on the former occasion to the “promising” speeches of the Premier. His partners in the firm did comparatively little towards piling up the agony in that direction. They spoke, it is true, hut without the confidence which experience would seem to have imparted to their later utterances. They played in the band, but none attempted to handle the first fiddle. All that has been changed, and instead of one man trotting about the country, and at every halting place holding out to the people the expectation of a million good things awaiting them in the future, we have now about half a dozen earnestly engaged in the same respectable occupation. The Ministry are repeating on a large scale the blunder of last recess—they are bidding recklessly for the popular vote, and the fate which will overtake them will be richly merited. We observe that at the Ohinemuri settlements the Native Minister has been trying his hand at this method of enlisting popular sympathy. In one short telegram which we we received on Thursday night, mention is made of a multitude of promises given by Mr. Sheehan. It does not appear that the amount of expenditure to which he has definitely pledged the Government is very large. The principal items are £2OOO for a bridge over the Ohinemuri River, and £250 for pulling snags out of the Waiou ; but the whole time of the interview between Mr. Sheehan and the inhabitants of that interesting locality appears to have been taken up by the preferring of requests on the part of the people, and the making of promises by the Minister. Then we have Mr. Stout a few days since promising the Tapanui people a branch.line of railway into the township. We are not aware that in any of these cases Ministers were in a position legally to make good their words, 'that, however, is under present circumstances a very small matter. The Premier, although he has not 'as yet made so many speeches.as he did during last recess, has by no means been idle. He has at the Thames gone beyond the “promising” stage to which he had hitherto generally been content to confine himself, and has boldly launched out into illegal performance. Those immediately interested in the construction of the Thames and Waikato railway will, we suppose, see in his action nothing but what is deserving of a high meed of praise ; but whilst to these people performance is bettor than a bare promise, Parliament will, as a matter of course, be anxious to be put in possession of the facts which seemed sufficient in the eyes of the Premier to warrant him ih disregarding the plain provisions of the Railways Construction Act, 1878. We have in former articles pointed out that, although this railway was duly authorised by the Legislature, and a sum of £30,000 voted as an instalment to go towards the construction, it was provided, amongst other things, that the survey should be first completed, that the-Engineer-in-Chief should certify that the best line had been chosen, that there should be proper plans and estimates, and that the Governor’s assent to Such plans and estimates should be obtained. As none of these things has as yet been done, it is clear that the railway should not have been commenced ; but Sir Ge6rge Grey was bidding for popular applause, and the pleasant faces which ; beamed upon hint as he upset the first barrowload of earth made him for the time oblivious of the future reckoning.

We cannot stay to comment on the political promises which the Ministry have already made during the present recess. If we are to believe all they have told us great changes in the interests of the human race may be looked for when Parliament meets. We believe all these promises should be regarded as so many bids for the popular vote; that some excuse will be forthcoming for another miserable Ministerial programme; and that, in case of a dissolution, the public will be referred back to the piomises, and asked to look forward to performance, if they return a House largely composed of advanced radicals—or perhaps, judging by some recent sentences in our morning contemporary, we should say Communists.