SATURDAY, 22nd JULY, 1876.

Southland Times, Issue 2482, 22 July 1876, Page 2

SATURDAY, 22nd JULY, 1876.

« The fanaticism of party politics is sometimes best illustrated by its effect on the most eminently respectable organs of some sections of public opinion. The actions of the most able statesman are represented by those under the influence of such a sentiment as being always the exact reverse of what they ought to be, if he happens to belong to the opposite political party. Unlike the King or Queen oi' Great Britain, who is theoretically incapable of doing wrong, he is theoretically incapable of anythiug else. If his whiskers are black, they are only a type of the darkness of his soul; and if be happens to eat fish at dinner time, he is something next door to a demon for indulging in such a taste. Sir Julius Yogel is at present about the most prominent lightning conductor for the discharge of the electricity of political animosity. The Opposition journals, until they were set right by the accurate account given of his daily habits by the " Intelligent Vagrant" in the New Zealand Mail, denounced his billiard playing aud his games of poker; the salads be partook of at luncheon were an abomination in their eyes ; his attacks of gout were providential inflictions for his sins ; and whether be put his hat on, or took it off, he was equally guilty of not walking with the fear of Turveydrop before his eyes. The latest instance of this particular mode of criticising the ablest financier which New Zealand ever had, we find, strange to say, in tbe Lyttelton Times of last Saturday. The leading organ of Provincialism in Canterbury is, it is needless to say, an intensely respectable journal ; the weight of its respectability would, doubtless, sink a man-of-war. If its moral precepts are not as valuable as gold, they are quite as heavy. When, therefore, our contemporary, after quoting some very sensible remarks made by Sir Julius about Fiji, indulges only in a vigorous effort at playful sarcasm, the idea is suggested to us of the Archbishop of Canter-bury tucking

up his garments and playing at leapfrog, or of a 3tately elephant standing 'on ..his hind legs and dancing a Highland fling. ~We shall not attorn pt to weaken the force of our contemporary's ponderous irony, by quoting a few sentences of it, but refer our readers to the original. "We can only say that if Sir Julius does not feel himself crushed to the earth, and declines to recant his heretical opinions, he can scarcely be the man the rabbis of Canterbury Provincialism take him to be. For our own part it seems that Sir Julius Vogel's notions about Fiji are pretty much the same as those ot' most other people of common sense, outside the charmed circle of ' Canterbury Provincialism of course. It appears that the present Premier, acting on the notion generally current in the colony, that New Zealand is to be the Britain of the Southern Hemisphere, actually sketched some scheme of Polynesian dominion or federation of which New Zealand was to be the head centre. Perhaps he was too sanguine, and if so he only fell into the error rather common among New Zoalanders, — Canterbury Provincialists included, — that we are quite as big people ?s we generally fancy ourselves to be. But why the raisan d' etre of this fanciful dream of Polynesian empire, a thing that could not take place by any probability until after Sir Julius Yogel is dead, was the chance thnt might be furnished for the Premier's indulgence in bribery and corruption ou a large scale, has not yet been explained to us. Still there must be something very wicked in 'the notion, or the Lyfctelton Times would not say so. It appears also that two more sins of thought and word have been added to the concoction of the Polynesian policy. Firstly, Sir Julius declined to accede to Lord Carnarvon's rather cool proposal that New Zealand should pay part of the expenses of the Government of Fiji, whilst exercising not the slightest control either over the arrangements of that Government, or over the control of that money. Probably Sir Julius Yogel's sentiment at the time was that of the ecclesiastic in the Ingoldsby legends — " As for the holy Sacristan, he oxprosso 1 not a doubt, But put his thumb unto his nose, and spread his fingers out." One thing is very certain, that if | he — the Premier, not the Sacristan — had offered to put a sum of, say, £20,000 on the estimates for the purpose mentioned, our moral friend at Canterbury would have dropped down upon him directly like a thousand of bricks. Indeed, we fancy that within the last fortnight the Lyttelton Times has more than once commented on Sir Julius's over-readinesa to spend the public money. But then Sir Julius Yogel can't go right, no matter in which direction he walks, and who may happen to be in hia company. His South Sea Islands policy and fancy of making New Zealand a " Great Britain of the South," was adopted by New Zealanders generally ; his dislike to throwing away m.mey was shared by the Lyttelton Times itself ; and his last, and perhaps greatest sin, the closing count of his indictment in our contemporary's coluuidf, namely, that he concurred with the view now taken by British statesmen as vo the advisability of the retention of the colonies by Great Britain, is one probably shared by almost all the world, except a minority of British politicians, commonly called the Manchester School, whose doc trines have been pretty plainly repudiated by the immense majority of the people at home, and the colonists abroad.