Daily Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1889.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 4540, 2 December 1889, Page 2

Daily Circulation, 1500. The Oamaru Mail SATURDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1889.

We wish to goodness that Mr Brjce would get the Premiership. For years It has been dinned into the ears of colonists that he is the man above all others fit for the position. By the Conservative newspapers he has been eulogised to such a pitch that one eannot help wondering why we did not long ago seek him and weep no more. The queerest feature about the Bryce mania is that nobody seemed to be aware of the grand traits now attributed to Mr Bryce when he waa in the House and held the portfolio of Native Minister. Perhaps, however, this may be due to the circumstance that he never displayed any of these saintly oharaoteiistlos when he had an opportunity of displaying them, It is just the way with the world. We are given to longing for that which we

have not, and when we get it we are disappointed. Mr Bryce was a great disappointment. He was, and is now, we believe, a martyr to that distressing complaint asthma, and thongh, in spite of it, he staok manfully to hia Ministerial datieß, and performed them according to his lights, or to the be* heats of the puty to which he belonged, he never did anything more than spend L 20,000 in the Parih*ka campaign, pardon Te Kooti, and promote those gigantic native land transactions which have been alike disastrous to the colony, to the speculators, and to certain banks. Mr Bryce is not fit to be a simple representative, much less Premier; but the sooner he is elevated to the position the sooner will his lack of qualifications be demonstrated. Then the country will seek in some more likely quarter for a leader.