SIR R. STOUT'S RETIREMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 2292, 3 February 1898, Page 30

SIR R. STOUT'S RETIREMENT.

THE CHANCES OP A DISSO-

LUTION.

THE POLITICAL OUTLOOK.

(Fhom Ouk Wellington Co-respondent.) Wellington, February 2.

Some considerable time ago I advised you by telegraph that ther^p was likely to be a byeelection for the City, of Wellington before very long, and though the accuracy of the statement was questioned at the time, tha information proves to be correct, and the projliecy is no.v ; on the eve of fulfilment. Tha vacancy to which ! I refer will nob be caused by the financial d'fficalties of a Ministerial supparler as has been j stated, but the retirement from the political ] arena of the Govern meat's most powerful i antagonist, Sir R >barb Stout. General regret will, no doubt, be expressed throughout the colony when Sir Robert' j determination bscjtiiea known, for both friend and foe will &<?mit thab he is one of the most capable policies! m^n who have ever entered the Parliament; of 2<Tew Zealand. The plain faci of the matwi: is that | the financial losses Sir Eobsrti has receutly ■ made are so large that he deems ib abso- j lutely necessary in the iobsre&ts of his j family that he should for some f.ms lo coaie I devote his entire attention to his p< ofessionTl His attitude to the Goverr.mc;jt remains unchanged. A statcmenfc has been m.de in one journal that sjme arraugementa hid buou made by which Sir Robert was to get a large sum of money from certain people »nd retire from ! public life. This, lamin a position lo say, is j a pure fabrication. There is no such agreement; of any sorb or character. It may not 1)3 ! generally known, too, thab there ha<s bes:n &n i agreement between Sir Robert aud hi« parsnti-s by vehk-h the former does not derive any benefib from moneys which the other members of the firm may ea'-n from the Government ; bub such is the case, and that agreement will remain iv existence even when Sir Rjberb retires from politics. There can be no gainsaying the fact < that the retirement of Sir R. S out from the ] political arena will simplify matters very con- j eiderably in ?o far as the preheat, isciie a« between ! the Seddon Administration and the Opposition j is concerned; aud, much as Mr Seddon m\y dread the keen lash of Sir Robert's criticism, he mu-itbs an} thing bub ove>'j.»yed with bis retire- j naeut. Just at ttis juncture, with the position of parlies as at presenb constituted, and when Ssddoah-m is decidodly on the wave, Sir Itob^rt Stout ss the lesder of a left wing or middle party would undoubtedly have to be considered, bub with bis resignation the issue will be greatly simplified. No doubt Sir Roleit relinquishes hia position in Parliament wilb some i-eluctftuce, bub he will probably still continue to u« bis undoubted abiii ies iv tha interests of the colony, and especially iv the direction of the advancement of education ; and if his vo'.aa is nob to be he.-ud in P*riis.nifcnt he may do equally good work outside its vralSs with bii pan as opporvuni y offers — for Sir R >bsrb is, after all, first a philo opher snd nexb a politician, — and as sitting in his library he remarked ths other evening: " I sbi.l have my books. No one kaows what friends they are to me." This I could easily understand, tor I had often looked round th<j well-isf-eckid shelves where are stored the thoughts of till the brightest and boat minds bo'.h of wcUmb and modern times ; and this morning, afber we Liad gone from policies bo talk of caianiU«.s and trilobites, and he had handsd me one of Osjian Bchubin's books to wile away an hour iv the train, 1 was amused to se« him pick up a wo:k on Latin and Greek derivasion iv connection with biological nomenclature, and subsequently to find him deeply interested iv a. work issued from the Lclaud Stanford University on I the geology of the paleozoic asea of Arkansas j south of the novaculite region. And then I learned th&t Hugh Miller ui>d Sir Robe.t'a uncle (William SLout, ot Lerwick) were mutual friends aud admirer?, and than it was in the quarries osvned by the latter that the great geologist, with the assistance of William Stout, made his researches iv rr-gatd lo the calanaiteß. The qu»r-ry is f.till held by the Sbout family, bufc of this and o^ber niatiei-3 we talked of there is nob much oeewbioa to write here save to show the versatility of s, man whose Fervioes" for some time to come are, in tha interests of his family, to be turned from the channels in which thsy would be of most service (o the Sbate. Still, as I say, we may hear from Sir Robert occasionally, for he ofteu does half a day's work before most men breakfast, and this

i morniDg he wrote the greater part of an article while waiting for hia cab. THE CHANCES OF A DISSOLUTION early in the eotniug session are now being fcalke 1 about, and there are indications that the Prtmier may endeavour to briug ib aboub. Whether he will succeed or nob is a different question. Ib ie, however, a pretty open secret th»t Mr Seddoa recognises he ennct carry on for long with his present Ministry. There are at lease two members of ie that will nob be tolerated by some of the rank and file, and whoee chances ot lv-election for anoiher ParhaI msii are not at all certain. Oa the obher ; hj.nd, Mr Sed ion must recojnue thit he cm!- ! nob very well turn th<±s° men out of his M-nistry. What, then, is he to do ? He can ci h':c bry for a dissolution or M.d*avcur to maintain his posit ion till a general election, when he would, no doubt, endeavour to i strengthen a party which now he caanob drive by the inclusion of stronger candidates. The clause wh'ch, notwithstanding the Premier's asauraneb to Mr Kollrston, was " j -ck j jed " into the Appropriation B'll in the d^ing houra of the session, txerjpt'ng the G-<ver.imbnt from the provisions ot the Truck Act, saeon, however, to point iv the direction of a aissoluiion, for fuc^i a clause will permit the cn-opera'-.ive voting machine to be brought into full pl*y. A r iotaer matter thab should not be 1 Dsb sii»ht of is the fact thafr the Appropriation Bill provides thab moneys from Native lauds purchase and the Jaudb improvement fund c^u be transferred to the public works fund, and thab presumably they can now be used fjr public workd purposes, although they have been previously earmarked. The quarberly accouuts show that of the pubiic works fund proper £11 4,000 w?s spent for last quarter. Id the i expsudilure goes on this rate the fund will soon I bs d-ploted, and either works will have to ceise or tbe Government wli have to tcz^ theae moneys earmarked for Native lands puv chase and lands improvement funds. si a r stout's career. Sic Robert Stout entered political 1-fe in ! 1872, whsn he bejame a member of the Ofcago j Provincial Council. Thfre were many not-Able j men iv the Oiago Council iv those days, and i it was a splendid U'aiuiog ground for ih*) yonng ! puliticiau. Sir Robert waa a ineoiber of r.he j Ptvwinc a' Exeuu'ive from 1873 to 1876. Iri i 1575, at which time he was 1.-cSnrer on law ab tht, Cago University, Sir lioberb wai urged by Mr Macandrew_ to come forward as a candidate for ths House, to help to fight I the bafcsle of proviaciiiiam. -He slocd for the C&vjrshain constituency agiu?ssb Mr Larnach, whom he defeated af er a good | fight. Towards the end of the year Ira stood for Dunedin against Mr Reynolds, and sis elected on the same ticket along with Messrs Macandrew and Lirnach. Ho joined the Gey Government in 1878, but retired in 1879, as Lid purtner in business (Mr Sievwright) wjjs st-ffer-ing irom ilinealDh. From 188 Llo 1884- hs was a member of the Otago Land Board. In tha latter jea r he agAin entered Parliament, Mid was head of the JVlioiatry till 1887. In 1893 Sir Rjbert again entered the H^use at lise sugp< stion of Mr Billaace, just before thts fitbjr died.