South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1884.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3355, 4 January 1884, Page 2

South Canterbury Times, FRIDAY, JANUARY 4, 1884.

The Premier of New Zealand cat quite a dash in Melbourne when replying to the toast of “our guests ” at a banquet to the Sydney conference delegates. The hon. gentleman is the antithesis of an orator, yet we venture to say he held the attention of the company, for, to “ give the devil his due,” we must own that Major Atkinson, though an unpleasing, harsh, and laborious speaker, contrives to fix his audience, simply because, whatever he says, be it right or wrong, is the result of thought, and the world will always listen to words which are the direct product of reflection. We are bound to admit that, on the whole, the Major placed the matter very fairly before his audience. But there are one or two little matters about which he ought to be taken to task. Said the Major—“We want to obtain the result of united consultation and the wisdom of the whole colonies. . . . The duty of the Convention has been fulfilled in, as it were, giving body to this national idea, which seems to me to be fast spreading all over the colonies, and I submit that we have succeeded in doing that work. It now rests with the people and the Parliaments of the several colonies to bring the work to a final result.” Whatever preparation the other delegates may have made, this we know, that the Premier of New Zealand went to the Conference to express Ms own ideas. Nobody sent him, and the people were never consulted in the matter. The “ wisdom of the whole colonies”whatever’that means, amounted, so far as this colony was concerned, to “ the wisdom ” of its Premier and of him alone. The people have yet to be instructed, not only in the entire subject, but also in the theories of their Premier. Knowing the Major’s fondness for pet theories and foreseeing that probably he will

have been a good deal elevated by the process of “ lionisation ” which he has just passed through, it occurs to us that very likely he will meet Parliament with a long and plausible harangue, and get them to back him up in some expensive and showy scheme without practical utility, and knowing, further, by bitter experience what a knack he has of obtaining support and making men traitors to their political cause—we regard the danger as real and imminent. What we have said all along, we repeat—and we repeat it because its truth will become daily more apparent—the'whole thing was blundered. The representatives of New Zealand should have been representatives of the people, not merely of the Cabinet—expounders of national sentiments, not of individual theories. How does the Major know that the people of this colony would have sent him to the Conference or that they share his views on the dual subject of Annexation and Federation ? It was surely a tremendous bit of presumption on his part to take this for granted, a presumption, we may add, that only Major Atkinson would have been guilty of. “We have given body to a National idea, and now the Parliaments and people of the colonies must ratify what we have done.” This is, in effect, what Major Atkinson said at the banquet. What he meant was :—“ I have settled the question for my colony and on my return I shall instruct my Parliament to pass certain resolutions.” Perhaps if some of the company had known the autocratic failings of the gallant Major, they would not have been so liberal of their applause. For our own part, we cannot help being intensely amused at the Major’s “ cool cheek.” We ought to he thankful that we have at the head of affairs a gentleman who is prepared to settle everything for us without reference to our wishes, to relieve us of the burden of Government, and to “ boss ” us generally. But somehow, such is the perversity of human nature, we are not at all grateful, on the contrary, we are amazed and indignant at the impudent assumption of the Premier, in posing over in Melbourne and Sydney, as the representative head of the colony, when in effect, he held no commission to do anything of the sort. We are quite prepared for a new scheme, we even expect to see this modern Ulysses setting out presently on a stumping tour—-this time with a Federation-cum-Annexation, instead of an anti-pauperism scheme. The audience now await the rising of the curtain, and the re-appearance of the famous conjuror—Harry A. Atkinson, with his new Federation trick.