The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 1883.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1322, 24 September 1883, Page 2

The Oamaru Mail MONDAY, SEPT. 24, 1883.

The Premier has resigned. The man who has seriously influenced the politics of New Zealand during the past 10 years or so, has abandoned a tangible position that he may unseen pull the wires from behind the scenes. It matters little to the' colony whether Mr Whitaker is Premier or not. As a leading lawyer, and agent for Mr Thomas Russell, in the province of Auckland, he exercises a powerful political influence. That influence is not contingent upon his occupation of a Ministerial office. There was never any greater necessity for Mr Whitaker's acceptance of a portfolio than that of obliging his friend Mr Hall,, who had merited such consideration, or of making a show of solicitude for the colony's welfare, This being the cause, it is no means wonderful that Mr Whitaker, whose patriotism is of that kind which begins at home, should take the first opportunity of relieving himself of a position the duties of which are calculated to interfere with his private business. Not that Mr Whitaker ever permitted the Premiership to trouble him. He rather troubled the Premiership, for everything connected with the office he made subservient to his private affairs. Mr Whitaker's retirement is no retirement at all. It is merely a withdrawal under a shelter from which he will carry on 'His operations as vigorously as ever. We may, therefore, look for no political change as the result of Mr Whitaker's retirement. Major Atkinson has been Premier during the Whitaker administration, to all intents and purposes, and he will still fill that position. There will, of course, be a fresh shuffling of Ministerial portfolios; but that will mean nothing but the exercise of the usual political expediency. Mr Johnston, the Minister for Public Works, is, it' is said, about to resign, as he intends to leave the colony for a season, and his place will probably be filled by one of those Ministerialists who have been led to expeet the favor of intimate association, sooner or later, with the Ministry. It appears to us, then, probable that the Ministry will be patched np as follows :—Major Atkinson, Premier .and Colonial Treasurer; Mr Dick, Colonial Secretary ; Mr Rolleßton, 'Minister for Lands,, &c. ; Mr Conolly, AttorneyGeneral; Hon. Dr Pollen, Minister for Justice and Postmaster-General, in the Council; Mr Wright, Minister for Public Works ; Mr Bryce, Native Minister ; Mr Oliver, in the Council without portfolio. Such a Ministry as This would practically be a continuation of the Whitaker-Atkinson Administration, and that is all Major Atkinson can aim at. The change which will come over our little political world through the Premier's retirement, will, then, be no practical change. Everything will proceed as usual. The policy of taxing and spending will be as rife as it has ever been under an Atkinson Administration.