THE COLONIST. Published Daily—Mornings. Nelson, Tuesday, March 8, 1892. AN IMPENDING QUARREL.

Colonist, Volume XXXV, Issue 7264, 8 March 1892, Page 3

THE COLONIST. Published Daily— Mornings. Nelson, Tuesday, March 8, 1892. AN IMPENDING QUARREL.

Whatever may have been the secret cause, there is apparently too muoh reason to think that something more than pure misunderstanding was involved in the failure of the permanent officials of the Colonial Office to give effeot to the assurances of their chiefs as to . the forwarding of the names proposed for the approval of the New Zealand Government to take the place of Lord Onslow. There has in days. ;'■ by no means distant been so nanch interference with publio ; business byi men ranking little above olerks, that • it is by no means an indication 1 of a suspicious temperament when a ' neglect, to say no more, has come in . the way to baulk the -desires of the !< Ministers, who are engaged in the try-' j ing duty of flaming a policy, disliked by a majority of those who have long ' had the ear of tbe Department iu . England. To say that the Earl of Glasgow is not objectionable in tbe I sense of the Irish Goercioni-t, who . was successfully resisted by Qaeans- \ land, amounts in faot to very little, or , to talk about distinguished service as a naval officer as a qualification for the position of Governor of a oonstitu- ■ tional Colony is a mere evasion. The good properties of ; our,new : Governor . may possibly be. as. many and as great aa his warmest ftiecda eadwYoi. to

■ make out, yet they do not touch the question . of the breach, of tbeunder- , standing, as to th- piooeedings pre- - limiuary to the appointment of any one. What can Lord Onslow be thinking about when be tells his Sydney interviewer that no promise had baen - given by the Seoretary of State for the Colonies to submit the name of. his sucoeesDr to the-New Zealand Government for its approval, but one or two names were suggested to himself for his private opinion ?. There i. a simplicity in this assumption of the gobetween to be treated as the principal that is beyond the reach of art. Does his Lordship aotuaily fanoy that his views were of the least importance In the matter of eel-cling his successor ? There was dearly at the outset tbe intention to treat our Government with special courtesy, and our departing Governor has taken to himself what was never meant for him. Nothing more maladroit was ever the outcome of what must be supposed to have been well intended. Early in January, it was given out in a well informed London journal, a supporter ot the Conservative party, that " the New Zealand Government have requested Lord Knutsford, the Secretary for the Colonie**, to submit to them the name of the proposed successor to the Earl of Onslow, in the Governorship of New Zealand, before the appointment is definitively made." There is nothing in this to bear out Lord Onslow's statement about " his private opinion " being wanted, and in truth, this is nothing more nor less than a blunder, one that puts our A gent- General in a j false position, making him appear to have committed himself in the first days of his service. In any case, there has been enough done or omitted, as any one chooses to put it, to lead to heartburnings between Lord Glasgow and his Ministers at the very outset of his entrance on his duties. With true official fidelity, Lord Knutsford and the Baron de Worms utterly deny there being any breach of faith on the part of any person in authority, but what must our Ministers think or feel about the way they have been tricked ? Just at this time, when they were left by Lord Onslow to settle their differences as best they could with- his successor, they find themselves denied by some underhand influence their expected opportunity of having a say in the appointment. That Ministers must resent their treatment is certain, or they are more or less than human, It is a plainjduty to themselves and their supporters to make it perfectly clear to all that there- has been no neglect so far as they are concerned. But what will then be the portion of poor Lord Glasgow, who comes to a new country with all the materials for a quarrel, he having done nothing to provoke it ? | If he is a wise man, he will do all in his power to pacify his justly offended Ministers, while they may find their account in letting him down easily.