THE HON. JOHN HALL,.

Poverty Bay Herald, 18 October 1879, Page 2

THE HON. JOHN HALL,.

In the Lyttelton Times, one of the staunchest newspapers supporters „ Sir G. Grey has in the colony, there appeared a some little time ago the following article on Mr. John Hall. Perhaps it would not have been quite so favourable had it been knowrtthen that he was to become the leader of the party, which was to depose Sir George, but, as it is, it may be looked upon as a perfectly unbiassed sketch of the present Premier :- — " Mr. John Hall is a public man of whom the colony, and especially Canterbury which owns, him, has a right to be proud. Nature has not endowed him with excess in some parts and with deficiency in others, but she .has made him good all round. The lantern in the lighthouse of his mind is not of the flashing order, and it does not revolve. Monetary brightness does not suddenly burst forth and as suddenly disappear, but the light shed is fixed, permanent and equable. Mr. Hall is one of those men who are born to public life. In the nursery we can imagine that he pre-

ferred statistics to sugar plums, and playing at ministers to playing at marbles. As a school boy he never could have been so happy as with a Hansard, and his holidays must have been passed in moving for and preparing imaginary returns. He grew up a complete Bluebook in breeches. But Mr. Hall is far more than a mere political encyclopaedia. He is a man fit for any public business, and he delights in work. He will sit on any number of local boards, and only succumbs to the physical impossibility of sitting in two places at once. .He is ever ready in his place in Parliament, and is as much at home in the clerical alteration of the clause in a Mnnicipal Bill as in the midst of a Ministerial orisis. Whatever may be the subject, and however long the sitting, Mr. Hall is never at a loss, and he is Beldom to be caught tripping. He is not an orator, and is not given t<*declamation ; but he is a good debater, and what he Bays is not easily answered. He does not dash into a subject and then dash out again, — with great gallantry and greater indiscretion, gaining nothing and losing much. He knows when and were to attack, and how to retreat. His industry is unwearied, and his energy is indomitable. In 1868, when Parliament was in session, Mr. Hall who was in the Stafford Ministry, and was then in the House of Representatives, undertook, in addition to his own proper share of the work the duty of Colonial Treasurer, who was then in England. Part of that duty was to bring in the Budget, in the face of a strong and violent Opposition led by Sir W. (then Mr.) Fox and Sir (then Mr.) Juliuß Vogel. Mr. Hall was overworked, and suffering from severe illness. He rose from a sick bed and ably performed a task which would have taxed the powers of leading statesmen in good health. It was a remarkable instance of mental resolution compensating for bodily weakness. Had it not been for ill-health and for his subsequent retirement from the House of Representatives, Mr. Hall would long ago have been Premier. Although he would not probably have had the grasp of mind and the boldness to create and launch the Public Works policy of 1870, he was in many respects better qualified than Sir Julius Vogel to direct and administer it when launched. At the same time we do not intend to impute to Mr. Hall any unconcern before 1870 in the formamation of railways. It is mainly to him, as one of the Canterbury Provincial Executive in 1865, that we owe the commencement of our great South railway. Mr Hall has been five years a Minister of the Crown. He was in the Fox Ministry of 1856, in the Stafford Ministry of 1866, in the Fox Ministry of 1872, in the Waterhouse Ministry of the same year, and in the Atkinson of 1876. . But he was in none of these Ministries more than a few months, except in the Stafford Ministry of 1866, of which he was a member for nearly three years. As he left no Ministry of which he became a member from political disagreement, and as it cannot be said with truth that in joining any Ministry he sacrificed his principles, his Ministerial career would show that there was no distinctive policy in those times on either side of the House. There was no doubt one exception in the case of the Stafford native polioy of 1869, as compared with that of Mr. Fox. But the events which have taken place between 1866 and 1872 -T»*»^ia.t«A_jmy-iK>«aiU»-<>l»3aotion--on_that ground to the accession of Mr. Hall to the Cabinet of Mr. Fox in 1872. A man would have been mad who in that year advooated a return to the war polioy. Mr. Hall was not less able in departmental than in Parliamentary affairs. He had a remarkable faculty for the despatch of business, for methodical arrangement and for organisation. His chief attention was devoted to the Postal and Telegraph Departments, and he brought both to a state of great efficiency. The Telegraph Department he created, and in the face of trying difficulties it soon became eminently creditable to Mr Hall's administrative ability. Mr. Hall is an excellent judge of character and qualification, and is very successful in the selection of public servants. That is a gift essential to good administration. As a member of the Canterbury Provincial Council, and in the Provincial Executive, Mr. Hall has been zealous, able and useful. " It would be difficult, take him all in all, to find a better type of politican."