The Poverty Bay Herald AMD East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1879.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 666, 2 April 1879, Page 2

The Poverty Bay Herald AMD East Coast News Letter. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 1879.

There is a split, and • a very serious one it is, in the Ministerial Camp at Wellington. The irritability, the overweening vanity, and the arrogance of the Premier have brought it all about. One Minister has gone so far as to state his grievances, real or imagined, to a newspaper under a nom deplume which almost indicates the name of the Minister. If, says the Wellington Post, Native affairs are approaching a crisis, certainly Ministerial matters are in much the same position. Ministers, like committees, and directors, and other bodies, will, no doubt, at times have their differences, but to say the least, it is reprehensible to parade these differences before the public under a thin disguise of anonymity, by bitterly assaulting their leader. We cannot conceive circumstances which should justify a Minister in taking the public into his confidence regarding the grievances against his political chief, which would not imperatively demand that Ministers resignation. When, says the Post, " Ministerial differences extend beyond the Cabinet table, and

a recognised organ of one section of the Mi . ry assails the other section, it is impossible for the public to have any confidence in the two sections as one entirety. A house divided against itself, all know, cannot stand, but even those who would have no^ objection to see the Ministerial house fall necessarily feel alarmed lest in the preliminary tottering it injures other houses also. Never in the history of this colony was unity in the counsels of the Government more absolutely essential to the public safety. At no previous time have more firmness, "wisdom, and energy been demanded from those who aie charged with the control of public affairs, rarely before, _ perhaps have more momentous issues hung on the action of the Government, and yet certainly, we never before remember a Government which retained office in so disorganised and demoralised a condition." The present position of affairs is a very serious one, and we can entertain no hope of the Ministry settling Native difficulties till it has first settled those existing in its own circle.