THE PROROGATION SPEECH.

Timaru Herald, Volume XVII, Issue 817, 18 November 1872, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE PROROGATION SPEECH.

[From the Timaru Herald, Oct. 28.] His Excellency's advisers must have been hard put to find matter for the Prorogation Speech, m order to clothe it with a semblance ot decency. Looking- back from last Friday afternoon to the opening- of Parliament, on the 16th July, we find a session almost utterly wasted j all the fair promises with which it was ushered into life beingbroken, and scattered to the winds. Beyond the bare routine of business which necessarily comes before Parliament, there is nothing- to mark the session of 1872. All Bills of real importance have been put off to a more convenient season, and the country has to be satisfied with small mercies at the hands of its legislators. The piece de resistance m the Governor's valedictory speech to the " faithful Commons" is, of course, the Public Works arrangement of Mr Yog-el. But we can fancy Sir George whilst delivering himself of the honeyed words of gratulation re the future of the Public Works scheme, must have had a difficulty 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 of that which is still hidden m the womb of time, and although it is highly gratifying- for the country to be told that m some three years hence our railways 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 important changes— chang-es that very possibly may upset the most careful, and the best prepared calculations. However — although we have a cool million added to the previous estimates of our railways — 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 had learnt from the lips of her Majesty's representative some tang-ible and more easily comprehended facts of future policy, and of future results, dependent on a well devised and fairly conceived system of public . works beingcarried 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, leads to but one conclusion, that, if possible, it will be worse bungled m the future. Government, Micawber like, evidently trusts m eventualities — upon " something turning up." Mr Yog-el does not believe m sober matter-01-fact business, and clearly cares not a rush for .details. His mind is occupied with larger affairs, so taking hold of millions, and

with any amount of promises, lavishingthe fjoklen shower broadcast, seeks to delude the. country into an idea that it is supremely prosperous, and it is this prosperity still so luvinfuhiro, that we iind our Governor addressing' Parliament upon ! Well, certainly, we credit 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, an}' thing 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 give more effect to the rich closing' farce of the session of 1872, we are 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 bear 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' honorariums, and whatnot, have not brought about the smallest modicum of good. July saw a weak, unstable, and a thoroughly unscrupulous Government, and October, though m the interval a slight change of personnel has taken place, sees a Government fashioned m i I the same mould, and apparently bent upon being quite as unscrupulous and quite as careless of the true interests of the country. We wish indeed we could speak otherwise. On the first accession of Mr "Waterhouse to the Premiership, we wrote hopefully of him and .his Ministry, and were loth to condemn where we saw just the bare likelihood of reform. But Mr Ormond m his Public Works Statement, has condemned the Government, and has ruined it irretrievably m the estimation of the majority of the people.