The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER, 1 1879.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1104, 1 November 1879, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail. WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE NEW ZEALAND AGRICULTURIST. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER, 1 1879.

At length the political puzzle has become adjusted after a fashion, That party in the State which we have consistently opposed and religiously distrusted is for the nonce triumphant-. It docs not surprise us ; perhaps, even, it is for the best that they should have further opportunities of filling up the measure of their iniquities, and when next they fall, they will fall "LikeLucifer,never to rise again." By what means have those men scrambled once more into position ar.d powoi*! How desperate have been the efforts put forth ! That arch-intriguer, the member for Eden, whom no constituency would elect, rejected and discarded by the people, is, nevertheless, in the most shameless manner, foisted upon the country, called to the Upper House, and entrusted with a pnrfolio. " We venture to say that no more hiijh-handed or despotic exercise of power wa3 ever perpetrated by a constitutional Government. We do not expect figs from thorns, and we are not in the least surprised that, in the final coup which transformed a minority into a majority the hardened and unscrupulous Attorney-General is at the bottom of it all. To this fertile genius is to be attributed the defection of the four Auckland members from the ranks of the Liberals. The tempter and the tempted share in common our acorn and contempt. It was a most disgraceful bargain; and has done more than anything which has yet occurred to shake our faith in the form of Government under wliich the perpetration of

such a base and truculent job is possible. | We were under the impression that bribery and corruption were indictable offences, and that no privileges of Parliament could be pleaded in extenuation. For smaller crimes statesmen during that period when our political institutions were beinsr moulded in the land from which we have sprung were sent to prison and the block Are we now left, absolutely -without remedy? Ha.ve tha people no power i no voice in such matters? Are they " dumb dogs that will"riot bark?"- Is there no punishment for such crimes ? Is all ihat we cherish as so many precious heirlooms, handed down to us by our forefathers, to be thus ruthlessly trampled under foot! - : 0 tempora I O mores.! ,F< ji'_ 1 what have v.e been contending during the last two years I What is the Liberalism of which we all -boast V-- Js.it a reality or a sham J Does anyone for an instant believo the. protestations of the men in power I We at least hay<; hesitation in saying that we do not. Tor the sake'of" the Colony we shall.rejoice if future legislation shall prove to us that we are mistaken. True Liberalism—what is it ? Has it no symbols by which we can distinguish the true from the false, the counierfeit from the genuine? Unquestionably it has, but on such foundations as the Hall Ministry have laid, is anyone so infatuated as to expect a superstructure of true Liberalism 1 Can you rear it upon such bribery and corruption as they have perpetrated ? What ! Liberal land legislation from such men, each steeped to the chin in the worst forms of monopoly and evasion ? Has the Colony forgotten the Piako Swamp, and Canterbury gridironing, numerous land monopolies, and other abominable jobs ? What we expect from these men is simply a repetition of such transactions. The earth hunger is not yet assuaged, and not till every acre of the public lands is grasped by such monopoly will such evils be stayed. Is it the readjustment of the incidence of taxation that is to be expected 1 We know how systematically they have plotted to defeat every measure of the late administration to shift any portion of the public burthens from the people. These must be the two cardinal points in any liberal programme, and it needs no spirjt of prophecy to foretell how such measures will be dealt with by the men in power. They may tickle the fancies of weak and unprincipled members and the people with such questions as triennial parliaments, the extension of the suffrage and the readjustment of electoral boundaries ; and while thus em ployed, their minions throughout the length and breadth of the Colony will be found feathering their own nests and despoiling the people. The prospect is unutterably gloomy. After what we have experienced, are there still lower depths. The people of this Colony are indeed a law-abiding, a patient, and forbearing people, or stern retribution in some form would ere this have overtaken the men who make such a plaything of legislation and prostitute their positions. The Liberal party, so called, is now a thing of shreds and tatters. The howl which went throughout the length and breadth of the land to sap the foundations of the Liberal party indicated a deeply laid plot. Those Liberals who imagined that Liberalism could in any potential form survive such scheming must now perceive how utterly mistaken they were. The party has fallen to pieces like a rope of sand. The enemies of just government are for a while triumphant. In vain they confront the process of disintegration. Meanwhile it will be alike their wisdom and ours to accept the inevitable and wait the development of events. The Liberal party is still a power in the land, broken, it is true, but nevertheless a power. We congratulate this district upon the courage and steadfastness of its members. They have stood manfully to their colors, and if for a brief season the principles they represent are suffering an eclipse, we trust they will not be dismayed. Truth must triumph. Corruption wins not more than honesty. The peoplo will re-assert themselves. Like the fabled Phcenix, true liberalism will arise from its ashes, purged, it is to be hoped, of the dross with which it was alloyed—for there has been dross—and the cause of the people as against injustice, monopoly, and wrong will eventually be triumphant, for is it not the cause of God ?