THE HALL MINISTRY. [FROM THE LYTTELTON TIMES.]

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3737, 19 May 1881, Page 2

THE HALL MINISTRY. [FROM THE LYTTELTON TIMES.]

In natural history every species, or group, has its representative type. There is an analogy in this respect in political parties, especially in that particular species, or group, which is known as a Ministry. The Colonial Treasurer may be taken as the type of the present Ministers. He possesses and exemplifies their essential characteristics. We 1 see in him that adhesiveness to office which makes him cling more and more closely to place, while all that makes place acceptable to a higher mind is rapidly disappearing. It is not enough that the Government are too weak to carry their own measures through Parliament. It is not enough that they actually accept, as the alternative, to resignation, instructions from their own followers to adopt a course, like that of all round ten per cent, retrenchment of salaries and wages, against which their consciences revolt. Their cup of political humiliation is still fuller. They arc taunted by their own supporters with wretched weakness, and. are publicly told that their sole claim to support is the dread of Sir George Grey. They seem to mistake insult for compliment, and are deaf to every hint that their room would be more desirable than their company.

Possession, in their eyes, is nine points of the law ; and nothing short of the policeman can turn them out. This feline characteristic is predominant in Major Atkinson. There can be little doubt that he fully sympathised with, and supported Mr. Bryce as Native Minister, in the policy which was rejected by a majority in the Cabinet. Mr. Bryce, however, on principle, felt compelled to go, but Major Atkinson, on principle, felt compelled to remain. In the Wanganui speech, Mr. Bryce, in one plane, wished it were more common for Ministers to retire when they differed on important points of policy from the majority of their colleagues ; and, in another place, stated that his proposals were not unanimously opposed by the other members of the Cabinet. These contemptuous allusions were significant enough, and could not have been much relished by the Colonial Treasurer. We have laid some stress on this ruling vice of Ministerial nature, because practically it lies at the root of many other sins. When a Minister loves himself first, he will be ready to sacrifice independence, patriotism, principle, and every other public virtue, on the altar of Self. Another distinctive feature of the Hall Government is false pretence. They began with sham Liberalism, and tiiey are ready to profess anything else at the bidding of a majority. They have no faith, no conviction, no principle. All about them is counterfeit ; all their wares are paste and pinchbeck. Again, they are fortunate in their Treasurer as their typical representative. He is the Proteus of Parliament. He will assume any shape that fits into place. He was for war in the palmy days of " the conquest of peace ;" and he is now for peace at any price except the loss of office. He was returned in 1872 as the opponent of Sir Julius Yogel, and in 1874 he became his Minister. He begets successive Budgets with no family likeness between them except that they are meant to gain time and keep him in possession. To that end, he is as ready to slay his financial offspring as he was to bring them into being. All that he is consistent in is the desire for " political rest," which means his permanent retention in office. His last Budget was an elaborate juggle, but he gracefully postponed the performance when he saw that all his tricks were found out. For two years he has been declaiming against the Land Fund being part of the Consolidated Public Account ; and he has held up its elimination as a cardinal principle of the policy of the Hall Government. In fact, great political capital is quietly appropriated by that Government for the great change which, it is boasted, they have thus effected in our fiscal economy. What is the fact ? The Land Fund is still, just as much as ever, carried to the credit of the Public Account as ordinary revenue. And even we may say more than ever, for the Colony last session, at the instance of the present Ministry, took back the twenty per cent, which was payable to Counties for local purposes.