The Evening Mail. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1877.

Oamaru Mail, Volume II, Issue 480, 12 November 1877, Page 2

The Evening Mail. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12, 1877.

The Mayor of Dunedin has called a public meeting to condemn the obstructiveness of late Ministers in Parliament, and in doing this Mr. Leary has acted wisely. The people, not only in Duneain, but everywhere throughout the colony, strongly disapprove of the conduct of the Opposition, and we suspect that the Dunedinites will only be too glad of an opportunity of giving unniistakeable evidence of their feeling in the matter. This meeting is not the outcome of what was once called provincialist sympathies, winch are now very properly buried in oblivion ; but the result of a universal feeling, which permeates every section of

every community in the colony, that the action of the Opposition will prove damaging to the best interests of the country. All°parJ#;.spirit has faded in tiie light of the outrageous conduct of late Ministers, and'ajj?are invited to enter their protest and niake common cause against those. who.'.would arrest'-our progress, damage;our credit, and disgrace us in the eyes of the world, in their attempt to regain that : which, they :should know is lost to then! for ev"er." ; These obstructionists niay attempt ; to throw.a-glamour over the eyes. ' of the House?ihd the people by protesting that they have" no personal ends to serve iu the course they are adopting, but : in doing"so they are only burlesquing truth as they did. the -performance "'-hi---- their onerous functions when in power. The imperdnence of Major Atkinson and Mr. M'Lean a*e-shocking-,-and it almost takes one's breath away to read of the sayings -and doings of these, two men. and otuers, who offend against all. rules, of Parliamentary etiquette continually and designedly misinterpret the recognised meaning of the word truthfulness while protesting that they are honorable men. They are not opposing on public grounds., and they are as fully aware..of that as are the people of the colony who see through their transparent designs. Sir George Grey is better entitled to the Premiership than Major Atkinson', for he Iras been placed iu tnat position by the majority of the House, and if the principle were once recognised that defeated and disappointed Premiers such as Major Atkinson, could worry the House ad libitum with votes of want, of confidence piled on one another in order at last to tire the patience of some fagged representatives, or to purchase the liberty of the unscrupulous by offers of bridges and roads not granted because they are really required, then we may bid good-bye to the benefits of representative Government. Sir George Grey has, to our mind, clearly demonstrated that a change of Government was necessary, not for the purpose of finding occupation for himself and a few " hangers on," but in order that the country might not drift into a state in which a national debt would accumulate such as would prove fatal to our present and future greatness. We have evidences of the .unselfishness of Sir George Grey in the past, and in commencing retrenchment by cutting down the salaries of Ministers he is only acting consistently with the policy he has always pursued—that of fostering the welfare of the people. He hopes that by curtailing the enormous unnecessary expenditure that was going on -when he took office to not only extricate the Colony out of its present difficult financial position, but to do it withI out arresting the progress of public : works, which would retard the growth of the Colony. Major Atkinson, by his behaviour, shows that he is impressed with an idea that if Sir George Grey is allowed time he will accomplish all he has promised, and more. The Vogel patchwork regime had lasted for eight years when the present Government acceded to power, and in studying the true position of the finances of the Colony Mr. L.vrnach, who is a shrewd man, will doubtless be able to lay bare man v an old secret. Tliis is what makes the ex-Premier wince ; and in order to foil the Colonial Treasurer Major Atkinson o!>j\c ed to the of an imprest Supply. He ask. d for and procured four within a few months (three for a quarter of a million each, and another for L 100..000 , and the money had all vanished. lint that makes no difference. What was " sauce for the goose was not sauce for the gander." The yraniing of L 250.000. the greater part of which he knew full well would be required to pay the overdue liabilities of his Government, might lose him his chance of regaining power. His excuse, however, was that his successors had not announced their policy, which he expected them to do almost immediately on taking office ; and he said that the House should not-vote supplies until they knew how it was going to be spent. When Major Atkinson assumed the reins of Government, he took upwards of a month to bring down his financial statement.. He accepted office on the Ist September, and did not produce his stateme it till the 9th of October. It is only reasonable to suppose that if Major Atkinson required that period to enable him to copy, the ideas of his predecessors —for his policy was all cut and dried for him—Mr. Larnach, upon whom devolves the unenviable task of dealing with the blunders of eight years, and of disentangling the knotted skein that has been left by the late Government, should have been allowed half that period without a murmur, more especially as, from what we know of Mr. Larnach, he is likely to bring down a statement that will be understandable | by the people, which will be a decided novelty in this Colony. As matters now stand, the House is turned topsy-turvy ; the present Government is dragging the business of the session through under terrible difficulties, for Major Atkinson is as rampant and obstructive as ever. As Major Atkinson and his party profess to have some doubts as to what is the feeling of the people on the political situation, and of what the verdict would be on their conduct, it would be desirable that the laudable example set by the Mayor of Dunedin should be followed by every community in the Colony. It matters not to us who is in power, so long as the Colony's affairs are properly administered, and this has not been done by the Atkinson Government. We should not allow to weigh in our minds the importunate painful- longin.'S of Major Atkinson to return to office. A consideration of the present position of the Colony will prove to everybody the necessity for protesting against the possession of any feeling, of sympathy for the dis-

appointed politicians who now fret and fume over their loss of power. Only ; another year's tenure of office, and their j policy would have been,;|>£rfectsd.. We can understand that oil-'certain occasions an ousted Government must feel somewjiat like a man who^,*lias -been discovered ting; -in the^^he^ : *3fv , a just >as he-?is a|itmt to sjandle up\ the£ bright coins andjfiiretire 'to : live,ptß; hej thinks, a fife of ffifes .on 0e acquu7ed^:'y^owJ^tter. ; :.;ihtfs ; disappoint^ has .'sacrificed all to'""a'ttain lii's object ■ has even bartered his liberty. .Another few moments and his scheme would have been complete, and no.nne knowing of-Bis~--crimerhß'-wonldgo"f6ftli" to the world enjoying all the privileges of J an honest man.' Misdeeds have a knack of oozing out jnst at a time unfortunate for the, .perpetrators, and although we should be very sorry to say that there is any analogy between the late Government and the burglar, yet it must be acknowledged that Governments have been discovered at queer pranks when too late to rectify their errors of omission and commission. We desire not to be misunderstood ; .not for the world would we have it thought that we world charge the late Government with dishonest practices. But we breathed freely when we knew that they were out of power, and would view it as calamitous were they, or any of their belongings, to get back to office. It behoves the people to show their disapproval of the action of the Opposition, and to encourage and strengthen the hands of -Sir George Grey. This cannot be better accomplished than by holding public meetings, as we have previously recommended.

We inadvertently stated" in Saturday's issue that the annual meeting of the N.O. Benevolent Society would take place this evening. It will not be held until next Monday, the 19th inst. The total amount collected in and around Oamaru on account of the Indian Famine Itelief Fund has now reached LG32. Mails for Australia per Albion will close to-morrow morning at 6 o'clock. The gymnasium in connection with the Athletic Club will be open to members on Tuesday next, the 13 th November. At the usual drill last week of the unarmed division of the Grammar Seh< ol boys there were 81 present, and a great improvement was noticed in the movements, the boys working well, and evidently vieing with one another. Last evening Mr. Jeffreys preached in the Volunteer Hall to a very attentive audience of over 150 persons. The attendance at these meetings appears to be on the increase. We believe that the Volunteers fired about 7000 rounds at the sham fij,lit at Hampden, over 2000 being fired by thj boys, who used muzzle-loaders. His Wor-hio the Mayor will open the Bv/a-.ir to be held for the benefit of the Weshyai Parsonage Fund, on Thursday next, at twelve o'cl.-ck. It will last for three days, and conclude on Saturday. It is notiHed to those who have sub-seriptiou-iist-s on hand on account of the Inili n Famine Fund that the ad-j.'nin-el meeting for the receipt of the same will take place co-m>rr.>w, at 3 p.m., at the oflioe of Mr. C. G. Mo .re. W'e. have hee/i favoured with a C'py of the Temperance Gazette, a oubliea:inn tint hails tioiii Tiniiiru. Iti-i a good-look ng periodical, and being in addition well wr.lten, is no doubt destined to la -g-ly circulate throughout th : Colony a-nongst the class whose interests it a pears to faithfully represent. The Secretary of the N. 0. A. and P. As-ociation requests in another clunui that ;-,1l int -nding exhibitors at the forthcoming Show will it.-ill at his office to receive their cards of entries and numbered tickets corresponding to the numbers in the catalogue forthwith. A miscel'aneoun! entertainment will be given under the auspices of the Lodge Star of Hope, No. 22, 1.0. G.T., on Wednesday evening, the 14th instant. The proceeds are hi be devoted to the assistance of a member who has been seriously indisposed for a P'-riod of three months. The society has already done its duty in the matter, and now calls upon the public to lend a helping hand in ago d cause. Apart from the object we understand that the programme will be a good one. Mrs. Kinnear is to be one of the performers, and Mr. Solomon will preside at the piano. ' We hope that there will be a hearty response to the laudable endeavours of the Lodge to as ist an unfortunate member.