The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1872.

Timaru Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 818, 28 October 1872, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. MONDAY, OCTOBER 28, 1872.

His Excellence's advisers must have been bntd jint lo find matter for the Prorogation. ."Speech, m order to clotlie it with n semblance i>f decency. Looking back from last Friday utternoon to the opening- of Parliament, on the lOrh July, we find 11 session almost utterly wasted ; nil tlm fair pron.ises with which it was ushceil into life l*f*in«broken, nnd scattered to the winds. Bemud thebare routine, of business' which necessarily comes before Parliainc.it. there is nothing to murk the session of 1872. All lJills of real impurfiiiice have been put off 10 a more convenient season, and the country has to be snti>fied with small mercies at the hands of its lejri.-hitors. The piece de resistance m the. Governor's valedictory speech to the {t faithful Commons" is, of course, the Public Works arrangement of Mr Vu^el. But we can fancy Sir Georjre whilst delivering himself of the honeyed words of <rrafuiafion re the future of the PiiMio Works scheme, must have had a difficult}' m reconciling his words with his thoughts. It is a hard matter, and requires an enormous amount of faith to speak m terms of praise oi that which is still hidden m the womb of time, and although it is highly "ratifyinsr for the country to be told that m some. three years hence our railways i are to cost so and so, we must be permitted to hazard an assertion that the statement contains, from its very nature, many elements of uncertainty. A three years' term m the life of a colony generally brings about importout changes —changes that very uos- ;

sihly niay upset tlifi most careful, and the best prepared calculations. However — although we have a cool million added totbe previous estimates of our raihva3 r s — we must, we suppose, for ; want of something better, accept the statement as picturing the work of the session. Good were it for the country if, instead of this foreshadowing of dubious outcome, it hud learnt from the lips of her M-.ijesty's representative tangible and more easily comprehended facts of future policy, and of luture results, dependent on a well devised and fairly conceived system of public works being curried out. To our mind, our national Public Works policy, which m July was so misunderstood, and so bungled by Ministers as to cause their dismissal subsequently' from office, stands now, as it were, on even more unfavorable ground, and its position, so far as regards its treatment by the men now m office, is worse now than then. The policy was sadly bungled before, and the very " lucid " statement made by Mr Ormond recently, lends to but one conclusion, that, if possible, it will lie worse bungled m the future. Government, Micuwber like, evidently trusts m eventualities — upon " something turning up." Mr Yogel does not believe m sober matter-ot-fact business, and clearly cares not a rush for details. His mind is occupied with larger nffairs, so taking hold of millions, and' with any amount of promises, lavishing the fjolden shower bioadcast, seeks to delude the country into an idea that it is supremely prosperous, and it is this prosperity still so jar m futuro, that we find our Governor addressing Parliament upon ! Well, certainly, we civdit Sir George with making the most of a very small dish. The Bills which this session have been added to the Statute Book, viz. : the Public Health Act, the Municipal Corporations Waterworks Act, the Public Trustees Act., the Tramways Act, and the Public Revenues Amendment Act are all useful measures, but scarcely of importance enough to be mentioned beyond a cursory allusion m a prorogation speech. But on the present occasion, anything that looked like business, and would pass muster as such, had of necessity to be dragged m, furbished up, and made to do duty for want of more solid material, and so to {j;iv<j more effect to the rich closing farce of the session of 1872, we ore treated to a brief synopsis of the workings of these several Acts, matter which a schoolboy could almost be voluble on. Many questions of really national importance such as those which hear on education, improvement m our judicial system, the licensing laws, and numerous others, have been pitched unceremoniously aside, and wait for more happy days for their introduction, — days when a Yogel reigneth not. As we said before there never was a session since Parliamentary Government came into being m New Zealand, so entirely wasted as the one just closed — and wasted moreover for no earthly good. The enormous loss of time, and the absolute squandering of much public money m members' honnrium?, and what not, have not brought about the smallest modicum of good. July saw a weak, unstable, snd a thoroughly unscrupulous Government, and Uctoher, thoii»h m rbf interval a' sliulJt change of personnel has taken plate, sees a Government fashioned m the same mould, and apparently bent upon being quite as unscrupulous and quite as careless of the true interests of i lie. country. We wish iudeed we could speak otherwisp. On the first accession of Mr Waterliouse to the Premiership, we wrote hopefully of him and. his Ministr}', and were loth to condemn where we saw just the bare likelihood of reform. But Mr Urmond m his Public Works Statement, has. condemned ' the Government, and has ruined it irretrievably m the estimation of the majority of the people.