PASSING NOTES.

Otago Witness, Issue 2009, 25 August 1892, Page 25

PASSING NOTES.

As everybody else is delivering his on the constitutional question, alias the row between the Ministry and the Governor, I may as well deliver mine, particularly as today (Tuesday) the subject is to be debated in the House, and unless I hasten to get in my word of wisdom some one else may anticipate me. Reduced to its lowest terms, the case stands thus :

1. The Ministry tendered to the Governor certain advice. 2. This advice was rejected. 3. Nevertheless tho Ministry have continued in office. The inference from these facts is plain as a pikestaff. By iemaining in office the Ministry have acquiesced in the Governor's rejection of their own advice — have become in fact responsible for that rejection, and by the theory of the constitution are bound to defend it. Possibility of escape from this conclusion there is none. By the theory of the constitution the king can do no wrong. In other words, the king's acts are not his own, but his Ministers'. Responsibility for those acts is with them, not with him. For what other reason, indeed, are they called his "responsible advisers"? Their one and only way of refusing responsibility for an act or decision of his that they disapprove is instant resignation, leaving him to find, if he can, other advisers who will accept the responsibility. Otherwise the Sovereign would be acting apart from his Ministers, acting us an autocrat, and the constitution would be superseded by a despotism. But these Ministers did not resign. There they are, in office still. Assuredly then they are responsible for whatever the Governor has done, be it right or wrong — including his rejection of their own advice. In that matter they must be tak-n to be no longer of their own opinion, but of his. Could there be a more delightful reduclio ad absurdum ?

" The Governor of a self-governing colony is a Constitutional King," writes Sir Robert Stout, quoting Professor Anson, his last discovered authority on the subject :

The Governor of a self-governing colony is a Constitutional King ; his discretion must be that of his responsible Advisers ; he may endeavour to influence them, but he must not act contrary to their final decision, unless he is prepared to appeal from them to the colonial Parliament, and ultimately to the colonial electorate. Which 'is precisely what I have been saying above. But Sir Robert Stout, holding, as he does, a brief for his protegees, the Ballanse Ministry, eapiently adds : "If the Governor

had acted constitutionally the new Legislative Councillors would ere this have been appointed." Now wherein has the Governor acted unconstitutionally? It is his constitutional right to have an opinion of his own, and equally his constitutional right to stick to it in the teeth of his Ministers provided (mark this 1) provided "he is prepared to appeal from them to the Colonial Parliament, and ulti' mately to the Colonial electorate." But how is he to make this appeal unless his Ministers resign? Answer me that, Sir Robert 1 In what conceivable way can he "appeal to the Colonial Parliament" but by going to it for new advisers ? Previous to which, as I opine, it would be necessary that the old advisers should hand in their "resignations. As I construe the situation, tha persons who have acted unconstitutionally are the Ministers who, whilst homologating the Governor's action by remaining in office, claim the right to dissent from it. THE MAY-QUEEN. (Not to be prononnced " Macqueen.") Wake up and call me early, call mo early Ballance dear, For that will be the loveliest time of all this blessed year ; Of all this blessed year, J. 8., the crummiest day t will be, For I'll bo an M.L.C., old boy, I'll be an M.L.C. ! There's scores of the right colour, John, but non<j so right as mine ; There's J. A. M., and W. B.,— Lord ! ten times Glasgow s nine " ; But none so " servile," Ballance dear, in all the land as mo ; So make me an M.L.C, dear, do make me an M.L.C. 1 As I came through the lobby, whom think ye should I see, But H. S. F. declaiming loud about— what I'm to be ; ' He thought of that sly wink, John, he twigged you give to me, And he's finessed I'll be M.L.C, John, r oh ! ho knoics I'll be M.L.C. ! They say he's dying all for spite— but bless you I don t care ; They say his heart is breaking— (though his tongue keeps pretty fair) ; But there's many a man stands better now with the wuckin' man than he. So give him your coldest shoulder, John— and give me the M.L.C ! Yes, wake up and call me early, call me early, Ballance dear, Oh! it just will be too nyum-nyum, to bo a colonial peer ! Yes, it'll be of all the year the maddest, merriest spree — Hang your constitutional squabbles, John— l must be an M.L.C ! There is little need just now to praise our Otago climate. It speaks for itself. Not even the Garden of Eden could have had more celestial weather than that of Sunday last, and the weather of Sunday last has of late been the rule, not the exception. And this in the heart cf winter ! The proper time for a Dunedin man to put in a good word for the weather is when it is blowing great guns and raining cats and dogs, a thing which, at rare intervals, may happen even in Dunedin. Small merit in standiDg up for your friends when they are in the right 1 True affection is to stand up for them when they are in the wrong. The Otago climate at this present writing does not happen to be in the wrong, nevertheless I may be permitted to quote some interesting statistics in its favour from the annual volume of " Transactions " just published by the New Zealand Institute. "It is always raining in Dunedin," Bays the conceited and ignorant Northener. Very well ; to the law and to the testimony. 1891. Number of days Total inches on which rain of rain. fell. Auckland 3(5 149 Wellington ... 35 l(i(5 Dunedin 32 151 These are the three meteorological stations, and Dunedin is the driest of the three. Climate steadily improves as you go South 1 True, we had two more rainy days last year than the Aucklanders, but this was an exception. The average for 28 years past is — Auckland 182, Wellington 159, Dunedin 159. In respect of wind, Auckland is not reported, but in Wellington the average velocity of the wind is 202 miles a day ; in Dunedin 149. There is some force therefore in sarcasms about " windy Wellington." Of sunshine we get exactly as much as Auckland, the mean amount of cloud in both places being 54. In Wellington it is only 39, a difference due, I should say, to the Wellington winds. Calm days are unknown, and any cloud inclined to loiter over the Empire city is promptly compelled to " move on." Our Liberal Government is labouring vigorously in its vocation, and if bills can bless us, blessed shall we be. Mr Seddon has just brought in a sample batch, as a sort of first fruits or promise of good things to come. There's the Dairy Industry Bill, the Adulteration Bill, the Servants' Registry Office Bill, the Building Appliances Bill, and other bills whose names I forget at the moment. The happy day is at hand when no man will be permitted to milk a cow, make a pound of butter, bake a loaf of bread, hire a housemaid, take in a lodger, or pufc up aEcafli' lding pole until he has been officially inspected, registered, and hall rnarki d according to ace ol Parliament. Tories of the o'd sc'iool aro angrily protesting, but why? Because, like Di- Watts' doge who bark and bite, It is their nature to. Legislation run mad, says Mr James Allen — which, as Mr Seddon properly observes, is a mere committee objection. Ut. justifiable interference with the liberty cf the subject, shouts Mr K-.lleston. A little while hence and half the population will be inspectors, sarcastically observes Mr Clutba Mackenzie. And so on and so forth. Entirely forgetting the welfare of the Working man, who has each his vote, and will live in his lodgirg house, eat his bread and butter, and climb his scaffolding pole in comfort and content under the protecting and inspecting care of his own paternal Government, We may expect the beneficent principle to be steadily extended till, in the fulness of time, everybody is periodically inspected and registered — except, of course, the Working man himself, who will probably be set apart to do the inspecting and registering — at a fair rate of pay. As a cure for the " unemployed difficulty" I know nothing better than a judicious system of appointing inspectors. It's self-aoting, for no sooner do the unemployed present themselves than you draft them off

as inspectors, and the difficulty is at an end.

" Who is Bill ? " abruptly exclaimed Mrs O. the other morning at breakfast. She was reading the Daily Times, a custom of her's — or, as Mr Baeyertz would say, a custom of her — ever since she began to apply her powerful and ingenious mind to politics in general, and the female franchise question in particular. " Bill, my dear ; really, ahem— Bill who?" I rejoined in the Socratic manner, as I laid down that morning's Daily Times, and'gently hinted that she had forgotten to ponr out my coffee. Ignoring as irrelevant my reference to the Mocha, she slowly proceeded to read— "Mr Jackson Palmer introduced the Deceased Husband's Brother Bill." "Now, to my mind," she continued, " it's 3imply " " I suspect, my dear," I hastened to explain, "it may have something to do with the " "Jackson Palmer," she went on in a meditative tone, and with a slight wave o£ the hand, "he's one of those Labour men, I suppose, and doesn't know anybetter. " Brother " Bill, indeed 1— a nice way to talk in Parliament. People will be called by their proper names when Women get — — " •• Pardon me," I politely broke in again, " but I rather fancy Bill is a measure, and not a man. My cup " "Of course it ie," said she, with just the faintest rise of intonation. " Surely, Mr C, you ought to know that without being told — poring over Hansard, too, as you do. What I wanted to know was, but .never mmd — Oh, here's your coffee. Cold, you say 7 Ring the bell, please." Which I did, and thereafter the serious business of breakfast •was pursued in 6ilence. But for this, I might have availed myself of Mrs O.s views on a very important subject. As it is, I can't, and views of my own have I none ; so this Note is written in vain. It is long since the wrongs of the deceased wife's sister were righted by marrying her to her late sister's husband, and I merely desire to congratulate Mr Palmer on his magnanimous effort to rescue the deceased husband's brother from despair by marrying him to his late brother's wife, for as everybody knows, he has always been pining to do it. The bill is distinctly and progressively Liberal, and the Government might do worse than make it one of their policy measures. '

Marriage, like charity, covers a multitude of Bins, but it is not often that a debtor urges it to mitigate the rigour of the bankruptcy laws. Yet so it was at the last sitting of the Bankruptcy Court at Oamaru. He could not account for a deficiency of L 45. In the interests of his creditors, said he, he thoughtthe best thing he could do was to get married, so married he got — four days before filing-r-and "he supposed he blewedit." Whioh was candid if unsatisfactory. His counsel — who in the course of the argument was convicted by the bench of being a bachelor — frankly admitted that his client's conduct was wrong throughout — quite indefensible in fact — Still his Honour could well imagine that a man might be so fond of a woman as to spend all hi s money on her to the detriment of his creditors. Ingenious this, and bold withal, but his Honor did not blench. It was a novel point, but he could not see his way to take judicial notice of the doctrine that The more a man loved a woman the greater the likelihood of his dishonesty. If counsel wished to " urge that bankrupt's misdoings were mellowed by matrimony " the lady should have been produced in order that the court might have had "some definite evidence as to the value of the matrimonial alliance as 'an extenuating circumstance." The lady was not produced, but as in the end the discharge was granted, it would appear that the learned counsel** arguments had not been wholly in vain.

There seems to have been something particularly pointed in Mr Labouchere's exclusion from the new Ministry. He was not merely omitted, he was excluded, and for the reason that he is personally obnoxious to her Majesty the Queen. " Don't blame me I " says Mr Gladstone, expostulating with the indignant Labby ; " I did what I could, buc the Queen wouldn't have it." It is hardly to be expected that Mr Labouchere will accept this explanation. From his point of view the Queen should have had no say in the matter, and as a question of constitutional law I don't suppose she should. Bat in these matters a good deal has to be concaded to the preferences and prejudices of the Sovereign, particularly when that Sovereiga is a woman — a woman, moreover, of 73. In exchanging Salisbury for Gladstone and Gladstone's motley following the Queen has swallowed without visible grimacing a good deal that is unpleasant, but she draws the line at the editor of Truth. Small wonder ! Here are two or three specimens of Mr Labouchere'a sarcistic advertisements of the future :—: —

MARCHIONESS-Good Plain-Wanted in a parvenu's family ; must have some experience of behaving at table, &c. WANTED— At Once— A strong well-trained Duchess ; no fringe ; willing ; not less than one year's personal character ; for a sma'l family in the surburb3. &c.

A RETIRED COLONEL (Victoria Cross) seeks employment as pot-boy in a respectable public house, where the barmaids have all been presented at court, &c. A RESPECTABLE CABINET MINISTER (Conservative) required to exercise a millionaire brewer's dogs ; short walks twice daily ; state previous services, and full terms upon application, Ac. A BISHOP'S LADY— Accustomed to dust mitres, polish croziers, and to attend to ecclesiastical trimmings, will be happy to lend her services for a few hours daily to .address wrappers, wind clocks, twist spills, or in any other capacity requiring delicacy and social training, &c. As Mr Labouchere has chosen this line of things, has cultivated it, prospered in it, made his money by it. let him be content t herein to abide. Kissing hands at Com tis ro^ for republicans such as he. Ho thinks Ihe Queen, and in a sense she is right. All Iba same one may regret that she has not teen a little more worldly-wise. The surest pan to convince a radical politician of the error of his ways is to make him a peer, or a r'ght honourable, or — in this country — to put him in the Upper House. The Quean's true path of revenge, had she but seen it, was to insist on Mr Labouchere's biiog included in the new Government.

The Melbourne Hospital is in debt to the extent of over L.22,000,