The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1885.

Timaru Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 3420, 12 September 1885, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 1885.

The author of a political phrase which has been more quoted tbis session than any other saying, bas found out that although it is calculated to catch tbe ear of the public, there is considerable doubt as to tbe soundness of tbe principle it affirms. We refer to Mv M. J.S. Mackenzie and bis epigrammatic remark as to the effort of members to keep Ministers m and their 'measures out. As regards the present Government this expresses half a truth. It has proved eminently desirable to keep most of their measures out, but tbe policy of keeping Ministers m has daily become more and more problematical. Mr Mackenzie was one of those who voted against the Government on their financial proposals and then urged them notwithstanding their defeat to remain m office. He has now arrived at the conclusion that that was a mistake, that the Government ought to have gone out, and like a candid straightforward politician be does not hesitate to own to his having been mistaken. Following up bis altered convictions be is distinctly of opinion, as we have urged all along, that Captain Russell's resolution ia a pure waut-of-confidenee motion and ought to be regarded by the Ministry m that light. There is some allowance to be made, of course, for the fearful and wonderful condition of parties m the present House, but still we must confess it is a, standing wonder to us how members of common sense and good standing can ever have brought themselves to imagine that it was their duty to keep m power a Government whom they could not trust, and whom they would not allow to govern. Nor should we have previously believed it possible that seven leading politicians could have been collected m a New Zealand Parliament who would consent to continue m office under such degrading conditions. It has usually been understood to be the function of the Ministry to lead the House, but m this instance it is the House which has led the Ministry. The nature of the mazy course through which those estimable gentlemen have been conducted, baffles description. Surely such a series of corkscrevvy staggerings, snch unkind trippings-up and such facetious twists and twirls, have never before been witnessed since the tricksy Ariel led Prospero's enemies snch a devil's dance m bis enchanted island. There is a good deal m the spectacle to make the unthinking laugh, but at the same time there is much to cause the judicious to grieve. It may be, for instance, an amusing spectacle to see the House forcing the Government to open its mouth and swallow its own measures, telling it that this is merely a friendly little attention at which no resentment need be felt. It is undoubtedly comical to see Ministers accept the situation and try to look as if they liked it. At tbe same time it cannot be otherwise than humiliating to every true colonist to reflect that New Zealand has drifted into such an unhappy position. At present we have a Ministry whose administration we mistrust, whose policy we will not have at any price, and yet its members have not sufficient self-respect to extricate themselves from a position which would not be tolerated for a moment by a man of honor, and tbe colony admits that it has fallen into i such straits that bad and contemptible fas the Ministry are it is not able to replace them by better men. Such an admission is calculated to make one blush for the country, and the sooner it shakes itself up out of such a morbid, j pitiful state of mind the better.