The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1887.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXVI, Issue 7982, 28 September 1887, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1887.

The answer of the oonstsituenoies to the appeal of the Ministry has been decidedly against them. The defeat of the Premier means the downfall of the present Government. The issue before the country has, however, not been as to whether the Stout- Vogel Goveanment or the Atkinson party should be in power, but between the i old order of things, whioh was so evidently going out, and a new order of things whioh was so clearly desired. Ministerialist and Opposition, as we have known them now for some three years, are as parties virtually disavowed. A new party has arisen — a party ontside - the House, which, as Sir Eobert Stout said, was raising a cry, " a perfeot roar," he wrote— for retrenchment, and retrenchment the publio desire and will have in every branch of the service. The Government have nothing t'o,do but resign, and whoever may be sent for will have to frame a polioy in accordance with the views of the people, who have sent the present members to the House to look after their interests. « It is quite oleat that the publio are as tired of the Government as they are of the leader put forth by the party in opposition ; and something new will have to be devised whioh has retrenchment as its basis, for on that ory most of the members have been returned. Out of a House of ninety-four members the Ministerialists have only seonred thirty-three seats, or about a third. The Opposi-. tion have, however, nob got the remainder, for there are a large number of independent members returned;' sufficient to keep the present party in office, being friendly to them but opposed to the Protective polioy of the Government, whilst we cannot find there is a sufficient number amongst the other members who will be pre> pared to place in offioe the " Continuous Ministry" of the past. So far as we can read the. result of the elections, a new combination is likely to emanate from it. There are five members returned who have all taken leading parts in the past, four of them having at one time or other been Premier. There are Sir George Grey, Sir Julius Yogel, Sir John Hall, Hon. Major Atkinson, and Mr. Ormond. The latter four have been more than once politically connected, and there is no reason that we can see why they should not be so again. With the exception of Major Atkinson, the other gentlemen oannot be said to be addicted to -" fads " of any kind ; nor have they ever shown a desire to introduoe magazine theories into the government of. the country, with a desire to ameliorate mankind by some system whioh would lower the status of the people to that of paupers. Sir John Hall and Mr. Ormond have shown themselves in the past to be men of little feeling where reductions have been necessary, and have before now struck off the excrescences of the Civil Service with the same nonchalance as they would a snail from a tree that the testaceous animal was destroying. Sir Julius Yogel has a fertile brain, and is always ready to devise schemes with whioh money is connected ; and Major Atkinson, as an active, hard-working Minister, would be found, ready, and able to oarry out any reforms his colleagues agreed upon. If these four stars could be got to aot together — and, to use theatrical parlance, with the whole strength of the House to support them — the ship of State might be steered from the rooks she at present is drifting amongst and started again on her voyage of prosperity. Hall and Ormond would undertake the unloading and lightening; Yogel the " raising the wind," and Atkinson following the direotion he is told by the others to steer, New Zealand would soon be free from her difficulties, and the people in their prosperity would forget their troubles, and beoome a happy and contented community. New Zealand Is a small colony ; its prosperity depends upon union and agreement of its several divisions; and it would be little short of a calamity if that union were imperilled through factious strife and intrigue of our politicians. The elections have shown that the country cares very little who is at the head of affairs, but it certainly desires a stable, economical and. enterprising Government, and if the leaders of the parties would only drop their little political differences and all work together for the good of the country, they wpuldrstqp all opposition, and being as it were in a position to be independent could without difficulty oarry out the reforms so neoessary at the present time in New Zealand.