The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1890. THE GOVERNMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2089, 23 August 1890, Page 2

The Temuka Leader SATURDAY, AUGUST 23, 1890. THE GOVERNMENT.

' We do not think that in the history of 1 parliamentary institutions a parallel to the present political position can be found. The House is in a chaotic state. There is the Government party, the Ballance party, and the Skinflint party, and neither of them is strong enough to goyern, and we do not think that either of them has. felt a proper sense of their responsibilities. The result is tbat neither of them has done what it ought to do. The blame does not lie so much at the door of the Ballance party; the Skinflints are monomaniacs, and the whole responsibility rests with the Government. Sir Harry At&inson has never possessed the confidence of the majority, and has been kept in office to keep Mr Ballance out of it. He has never behaved bo bad as during. this Parliament, and probably the reason is that he chose for his assistants useless men. In 1888 it was the Ballance party carried his measures for him when his own supporters deserted him. In 1889 no measures worth speaking of were carried at all except the " one man one vote" measure wbich must be put to the credit of tur George Grey. This year things have gone from bad to worse. Sir Harry has been sick, and the house has been without a leader, with the result that there has been nothing but confusion dismay and disorder. The present Government ought to have dissolved Parliament-in April last. The House has been reduced by 20 members and they have bo right to sit there now. The absolution of plural voting and the reduction of members has so changed the character of the constituencies that the present Parliament can under no circumstances be regarded as representative of the peeple. Parliament ought to have been dissolved, but the Goveramen} did Dot do this, and the first step the Opposition took was to more a no-confidence motion' I with the view of forcing on a dissolution. The Government were victorious, but the skinflints insisted on a reduction of £50,000 in the Estimates. The Government promised to effect retrenchment to that amount, but insisted on allowing the Estimates pass as they were submitted. The skinflints would not hear of it; they

insisted on reducing the Estimates item by item, and, no doubt with the view of rendering the Government odious and contemptible, the Opposition have assisted them in the cheese-paring. There can be no doubt that the Government deserve all the humiliation that can be heaped upon them; they ought to have gone to the country or resigned long ago. and no blame is attachable to anyone for harrassing them in every possible way. Still we cannot altogether approve of the Opposition in countenancing the maniacal vagaries of the skinflints. However, one result has been produced. The Government has been degraded in the eyes of the colony, and he will be a bold candidate who will now come forward in their interest, Still how can men who have givea them a thick and thin support, through evil report and good report, through the Judge Ward and Bank of New Zealand affairs, come before the conntry and say they do. not believe in them ? Candidates of this class will have a very difficult part to play in the coming elections, and, unless we make a great mistake, very few of them will be called before the curtain at the declararion of the poll.