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Otago Witness, Issue 1652, 21 July 1883, Page 17

The Otago Witness.

■nrs v;tncrn to tbtoohpobamtj tsb 'nowra?'siKSSOOiif.' SATUUDW, 21sfc JULY, 1883

If there is one thing more than another which has been established beyond dispute during the present session, it is that the once compact and powerful great Liberal party are becoming email by degrees and beautifully less. When tho present Parliament first mot the Oppositien loudly asserted that Ministers were in a minority. Th\s was doubtless not true, but their majority was certainly small. It is now almost too large — largo enough, at all events, to encourage Maj >r Atkinson in his predilection for dnvm? instead of leading the House, fcisr George Grby avers that the House is corrupt ; that honourable members have been brbed to abandon their principles ; and that this is the cause of such a remarkable defection. We do not believe a word of it. The reason lies chiefly, if not wholly, in tlie conduct of the leaders of the Opposition. The most patient of patriots would get tired of a warfare in which they wore always beaten. And as it no happens in tho present cast) that there is very little difference in respect of patriotism between the two parties, it is little wonder if certain Oppositionists (sacrifice an infinitesimal part of their political conscience for the greater comfort and respectability of the other side. That this is tho wholo secret is pretty conclusively shown by the result of the elections which have taken place Bince the beginning of last session There have been five in all— a large number in such a short time compared with the total number of seats — and in each aud all of these five contests tlio Ministerialists were victorious. So far, therefore, the country has declared in favour of the Government and against the Opposition, and that so decidedly — in some of the cases by such overwhelming majorities — that Sir George Grey himself would hoaifcato to ascribe the result to bribery and corruption. The Opposition have themselves, and them Belves alone, to blame, and tho sooner they recognise this humiliating fact tho better. All the alleged promises, blan-

dishments, and corrupt compacts would have had small effect on their ranks if they hud been true to their principles and alive to their duties as a conatitutional Opposition. But if they only scheme and plot and bring forward want-of-confidence motions, they cannot fail to offend and alienate the better sort of their own party — the men who place the welfare of the country above the triumph of a faction. And such is tho miotake which they have committed all along. The deposition of Sir Qkorqb Grbt was the first step in their downward career : a deep-laid scheme, as they imagined, but a scheme which has recoiled with terrible effect upon themselves. From that day they have gone from bad to worse, till no iv they serve scarcely any other end than that of a butt for Major Atkinson's jibes. There is, moreover, no hope or prospect of a better state of things whilo the present Parliament lasts, nor even a chance of such, unless some question like that involved in the Native Lands and Settlement Empowering Bill should lead to a reconstruction of parties. In the meantime the interests of the country suffer fur the want of a united, vigilaniaud patriotic Opposition. The Major. i supreme and absolute, while the House of Representatives is turned, as Mr SHBrhard remarked, into a Colonial debating society.