South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1896.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 8546, 15 June 1896, Page 2

South Canterbury Times. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1896.

The Premier seems bent on sacrificing himself for his colleague, or why should he take the trouble Of denying that he has received a “ round-robin ” demanding the resignation of Mr Ward ? It is of a piece with his well-meant but nevertheless foolish offer to join a rescue party at the Brunner mine. He mistakes the relative importance of his two spheresjof duty, public and private, and if he goes so far as to stand by bis colleague through thick and thin there will be nothing for It but to let him do so, and both must share the same fate. For quite clearly, the country and the House have a very substantial ground for expressing want of confidence in the Colonial Treasurer, and if the Premier is of a different opinion that will of itself be a substantial ground of want of confidence in him also.

That “luck” is a powerful element in cricket is well shown in the last match of the Australians at Home. But “luck’ l in this case means unpreparedness to play on a wicket in such a condition as the colonials are not accustomed to. “ The wicket played much better to day,” which means that it played badly the day before. Your crack batsman is very much like a crack racer, who can shut his eyes and run a “ tremendous ” race on a well made course, but would break his legs and his heart on a bit of native tussock. The cricketer who plays only on tip-top wickets, where he, too, could almost shut his eyes and play, is bowled before he can get “ his eye in ” on the vagarious bowling. The moral of the match is that an Australian Eleven before going Home should practice playing on a swamp, a sandy beach, and an unprepared bush pitch, so as to be ready for anything.

Italy acknowledges herself beaten in Africa. At all events it is rumoured that she will retire from her Red Sea Colony and Protectorate. The “ partition of Africa ” will not thereby de* layed, as Great Britain and Germ y are to divide the plunder which Italy cannot carry. For all the benefit this sun-baked territory of Erythrea can be to either of them, the two Powers might as well agree to mark off boundary lines on a map and rest content with that, leaving the country itself to the the blacks and browns to whom it belongs. The nominal division might be useful at some future time, when, if ever, the glacial period should come again, and Central and Western Europe become too cold to support the present populations, by which time the shores of the Red Sea would be a temperate and desirable locality. In which case again, Russian “influence” would necessarily be more pronounced and aggressive than it is now, and the map boundaries would have to be fough t for. This is a remote speculation, but there are other causes of quarrel equally unlooked for, which will surely crop up from this stupendous landgrabbing and national gridironing.