The Southland Times. FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1872.

Southland Times, Issue 1607, 19 July 1872, Page 2

The Southland Times. FRIDAY, JULY 19, 1872.

" Speech is silvern, silence is golden." This famous maxim, or something like it, must have been uppermost in the minds of those Ministers who framed His Excellency's opening address at the meeting of Assembly on Tuesday. The document is certainly a remarkable one, not for what it says, but for what ifc leaves unsaid. It must have been listened to, we imagine, with feelings of considerable disappointment by those members of the Opposition who may have been on the watch for some incautious sentence, on which a question might be raised, and an amendment hostile to the Government proposed. The three opening paragraphs may, we think, without much hesitation, be attributed to the classic pen of the Governor himself. The illness of the PRINCE of Wales is now happily a thing of the past, but we must not forget to send a loyal address to the Queers' on the subject. The tranquility of the Native districts through which the Govebnob has been travelling, and tbe respect with which it appears His Excellency was received, are of course gratifying alike to himself and those who have had to pay pretty heavily, in years gone by, on account of a state of things in j which a tour of the kind would scarcely have been so agreeable. The most determined opponent of the Government can scarcely quarrel with the announcement that the leading industries of the Colony are prosperous, and that the revenue is increasing. The Assembly is further informed that the Government have been busy in carrying out the instructions they received last session to make railways, and that papers will be furnished to show what has been done in the way of securing a steady stream of immigration — both excellent things in their way, to which no one can object. The Government scheme of Life Assurance next comes in for a word of praise, and then ' we have the stereotyped statement that the Estimates will be framed with a due regard to economy, so far as consistent I with efficiency in the administration of government. Next comes a list of the | measures which the Government propose | to introduce. The Vaccination Act is to be improved, presumably by making vaccination compulsory, the Act of last session leaving little else to be done. , The quarantine regulations are to be amended, and measures are to be taken ior the repression of epidemic diseases. As we anticipated, the laws relating to Gold-mining and to Bankruptcy are to be amended, and some other minor reforms are promised. So much for what the speech has said. The legislation promised appears, so far as it is possible at this | stage to form an opinion, to be of a '

practically usefuf kind, ancl likely to be favorably received by the public. It is possible that the- Ministry may entertain the idea of confining the attention of the Assembly as far as possible to subjects of tbis nature, and that the session is intended to be a short one. The address, so far as it goes-; affords litHe positive ground for hostile criticism. It raises no disputed questions, aud foreshadows no policy. But this characteristic, doubtless intended to be its strength, may possibly prove to be its weakness^ Amongst subjects conspicuous for their absence, and on which a strong and active Ministry might have been fairly expected to utter some more or less certain sound, may be mentioned in the foremost place, the success of the Financial Policy of the Ministry, as evinced by the reception of the second million ofthe loan in the London market. 'Of this we do not hear a word. The i absolute silence preserved on the subject I ( of the Californian Mail Service, and the ' bargain with Victoria, may be more intelligible. But why is there no mention made of two subjects so important as the question of Education, and the regulation of the Liquor Traffic, on both of which ifc is understood Government Bills have been prepared ? These and other omissions, rather than any salient features in the programme itself, may furnish the Opposition with materials for sarcastic comment. But it is now pretty well understood that hard words break no bones, and from the course which has been adopted it seems tolerably certain that the debate on the address will aflord no test of the relative strength of parties in the Assembly, or sive any clear indication of the future of the session.