The Otago Witness.

Otago Witness, Issue 1243, 25 September 1875, Page 13

The Otago Witness.

DUNEDIN, SATURDAY, SEPT. 25.

Notwithstanding the truce re Abolition it is evident that, to use a common phrase, the atmosphere of tbe House is charged with electricity, and that an uneasy and excited feeling exists which may at any time result in personal warfare. Many matters remain unexplained which create a most uneasy feeling on the part of the more independent members of the House. It would be absurd to deny thab Sir George Grey, though he is unfortunate in the opportunity he takes, and the language he employ, is supported by the whole sense of the country in imputing the most corrupt conduct to the Ministry now in ofiice. It is of course a most unfair and improper thing to make a series of insinuations against the gentlemen who sib on the Government benches and their tail, without attempting to prove those charges. We are not in possession of facts, or anything like circumstantial evidence, to prove that corrupt practices are going on, and we have no intention of slandering men whom we believe incorruptible in their private relations. It would be absurd to deny that there is a wide spread belief in the country just now that the Ministry are using the power placed in their hands, by their having the disposal of large sums of money to make their tail wag which way they will. W cannot approve of the way in which Sir George Grey gets up at odd moments and makes this accusation, or asserts that proposition, and then lets the subject drop. Such guerriia warfare cannot be justified, though we can quite understand the difficulty «nder which fee tybbutfj in. Qomjng a{

the details of the truth. It is one thing to be quite sure that bribery, in its grossest form, is being freely practised, and quite another to be able to prove certain facts. Hardly a supporter of the Ministry in the country, or in the House, but believes that practices which will not bear daylight are being freely indulged in. Thoy cannot attempt to deny it. Most Englishmen are accustomed to suppose thab the purity of tlfe House of Commons at tbe present time is an oldestablished virtue, that it has become a hereditary intuition in the lapse of time, and that the various offspring's of that bighly-respectable body have inherited the virtue and Glared the honesty of mefchod of their great prototype. That ie, we used to think a few years ago— and we thought ifc then with some justice— that the representatives of New Zealand electorates were as pure as the burgesses of England. The events of the last few years have rudely shattered that idea, and now we talk familiarly of rings, and so on ; in fact our ideas have rapidly been Americanised. Hardly a century ago, it may be noted, that secret service money was regularly voted in the English Parliament, and spent on the purchase of votes. "I bought you,^ and by G d I will sell you," was the answer of the member for Southampton to his constituents when he was called to account by them for voting against their interests, in the promotion of bis own. We do not find the same honesty of speech now, though the same deed is often done. There is on record the story of a conversation between the Duke of Newcastle and Fox touching the disposal of the secret service money — "My brother, said the Duke, never told anyone what he did with the secret service money." "No more will I," p uX replied, « but how can I lead in the House of Commons without information on this head ? How can I talk to gentlemen when I do not know which of them have received gratifications, and which have not." The same difficulty might well be supposed to happen, in New Zealand. The tendency of stock to throw back, which so puzzles and annoya breeders, is showing itself in our Assembly. The reversion to the original type has become marked of late years. Sir Gbokge Grey ia on the scent ; we shall not be surprised if he runs down his fox in tbe open ere the end of the session. Mr Stout hit upon a great truth when he pointed out the grave impropriety . of associating a great constitutional question with a purely money matter, and when Mr Fitzherbert spoke of the Colony as in a state of intoxication, he merely described, in pointed and sarcastic language, the obliquity of moral vision, which all of both parties on either side must candidly acknowledge besets our ruling states* men. Ib ia true, now-a-days, we do not coarsely put notes into members' hands, though there is on record one scene in our own Provincial Council where a certain gentleman ratted on a crisis and flourished a fat roll of notes as his reason. By an ingenious process of refinement, now-a-days, a good contract, or a sale of valuable land cheap, the striking the pen through an! overdraft, &c, &c, are adopted as more sultle and less easily detected means for conveying gratifications to members. Letters from Wellington inform us that the reckless expenditure of public moneys, the unbusineas. like method of managing accounts, the general laxity of control, would be enough to turn even the Daily Times towards ardent Provincialism. We do not regard matters quite from this poinfc of view. Because the Assembly i 8i 8 corrupt to the core, and because public moneys are spent in bribery, it does not follow that we should too highly extol Provincialism. There are tine or two very awkward facts in connection with "certain railway contracts in this Province, to which we shall not hesitate to refer ag»in and again, until we have stirred up the public to demand a strict examination.

We know nothing of the particularcase of attempted bribery of a Government Agent, by offering hi m a share in a claim worth £Q 00 0, to which Sir George Grey more particularly referred. If he is right in Ms facts, he will be very wrong indeed if he does not bring the matter forward again in a more formal way, and demand the strictest enquiry into it. A good man* people will probably know to whom the statement referred; i n j usfcice to country, Sir George, and the clerk who he said, received the money, the fullest enquiry ought to be made. * that the country wiua moS t suspicion? top 9 mW 4m*. «• CZ