MR. FOX'S RESOLUTIONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 921, 24 July 1869, Page 1

MR. FOX'S RESOLUTIONS.

The Opposition appear to bo somewhat jubilant at having, as they phrase it, reduced the Government majority from twelve to six within a fortnight It is hinted that oven thin reduced majority would not have been obtained but for Mr Fox's manoeuvre in separating the two resolutions embodying his Defence policy ; and we aro told that there is no definite policy in the resolution which was carried. The debate which occurred upon the occasion we refer to shows that however easy it may be to explain the words of the resolution into anything or notlrinjr, no suoli indefinite meaning was attached to them by the Government or by the House. They undoubtedly reiterate that condemnation of the Native or Dofonce policy of tho Stafford Ministry wliich was bo explicitly expressed by tljo voto which brought Mr Fox an 4 hiscollcaguoa into power ; and the House in accepting them undoubtedly gave expression to the prevalent feeling of the country. Any where in Now $o*land, with tho exception perhaps of the province of Wellington, tho dotermination which the House ha» oomo to, under Mr Fox's leadership, to reduce our expenditure for defonco purposes to a minimum, is applauded by a viwt majority of the tax-faying publia The fact that on the first important division tfter it ftwuaed office the pwwnt

Ministry! did <notj| secure as large; a following as "MJf^.ok did for his motion of " Want of , Confidence,, need caxise' US' no surprise' } l nor, on the other hand, need Mr Stafford and his friends regard 'it , l too hopefully.. t For the present/ r al i ' &ny rate we have done with them. Aiiy future change of- Ministry will bring; into power tfre representatives of opinions still more widely divided from theirs ! on most questions of importance, than are those of their successors in office.

•Theresolufcions of which wehaye been speaking are' as follows: — * (t.)"That, in the opinion of this House, the existing expenditure on the Colonial Forces is altogether bejond the financial resources of the colony,, and that it is impossible to continue the same consistently with the maintenance of the publicoredit. (<?.) That it is therefore necessary that steps be forthwith taken to bring that expenditure within the Appropriation of the current year, which ought not to exceed £150,000.' The 'evasion' of which Mr Fox is accused refers to the taking- a division on the first of these resolutions only, and allowing the other to stand over until after the Financial Statement is made. It is claimed for the Opposition that it could have placed the Government in a minority had not the acting Speaker ruled that the Resolutions — which had passed through Committee without any debate — could*. be put to the House separately, the division list leads us to a contrary conclusion. The Government was wise in postponing the second resolution,' because it involved details on which the House could not fairly be asked to come to a decision until more ample information was put before it. Nevertheless, if the Acting Speaker had ruled as the Opposition appear to have desired, there does not seem to be the least reason for the supposition that the Government would have been defeated, or that a single vote would have been lost to it. Another thing, of far more importance, we take to be quite certain ; and that is, that the vast majority of the people of New Zealand are with the Government on both resolutions. The personnel of the Government may not be altogether acceptable to the great body of eleotors, but, so far as it has been developed, its policy has not certainly excited any spirit of opposition among them. The members of tho late Government are strangely anxious to eat their own words, now that the cool shades of Opposition have somewhat sobered them. Mr Hall went so far as to say that 'it was absolutely untrue to describe the policy of the late Government as an endeavour to carry on an aggressive war,' Such a statement, characteristic in its effrontery, only needs to be placed side by side with a well-remembered paragraph in the Governor's speech to Parliament. No othor comment on it is necessary, but if any should be aaked for, we have but to point to the expeditions to Taupo and to Waikaremoana, or to recall the speech made by Mr Richmond to his constituents. At | New Plymouth.

The meaning of Mr Fox's Resolutions we take to bo that, viewing tho aotual position — so far as it is ascertainablo—of our assailants on cither side of the North Island, wo should contont ourselves with an attitude of defence, and that wo should not maintain a largo organised, forco nvon fov that purpoao. Ar expresßlvo of such a polioy those resolutions were debated in tho House of Representatives. As wo have said we are not at all surprised to find that tho majority in favour of tho Govcrnraont was not so largo as that by which tho late Administration was defeat^. Of thoso who voted with Mr Stafford on this occasion, ho will hardly venture to claim Messrs Row«W. Ton and Stbvbnb as of his party. Be* fide* thete gentlemen th»ro were only two other* who daertod Mr Fox'o standard,

Mr Potts ind Mr, Patterson,. the lat^, ter a half-caste and representative of a , Maori constituency. Of the members who were absent when the division took place in the Want of Confidence motion Mr Howorth voted with the Government and Mr Tbavers against it j , while, to compensate, for the desertion of "the, .four gentlemen we have named, Mr Farmer went over to the Government side.

* Southern ideas ' have been very illnaturedly criticised >by the Wellington Press. The division on. which we are commenting shows that they are gaining ground. The most satisfactory part of the matter is the fact made evident by the division list, that they are shared with us by a clear majority of North Island members.