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Observer, Volume 2, Issue 35, 14 May 1881, Page 377

"With, questions of such moment claiming the consideration of the Assembly, Mr. Orniond tumbles into pathos when he concludes by recommending that it should only meet to pass the Redistribution of Seats Bill, grant supply, and dissolve, in order that the people may express their opinion on the various subjects upon which he touched. Does Mr. Orniond not consider deliberation one of the chief functions of a Legislature ? Does he not consider it bound, to throw the varied light of various minds upon the matters brought before it, and so assist in guiding the public opinion as to what ultimate appeal must be made? The Assembly will fall short of its duties and lower itself in public estimation if it take the course Mr. Ormond suggests. Nor do we deem it likely. The Ministry is in danger more from its own side of the House than from the Opposition. It may be defeated and prefer an appeal to the country to immediate resignation. It may reconstruct during the session, or even before the session begins ; but it cannot ask the House to abdicate its functions and neglect the consideration of great measures which are not new to the country and which it is the duty of the Assembly and of the Government to mature to the utmost of their power before presenting them to the people. Any other course would not be statesmanship, but a repetition of the trickery which took the electors at a disadvantage in dealing with abolition, and which they would certainly resent if it were again practised upon them. The Assembly that sits for the three next years will have most important work in finance, in local government, in dealing with the millions of acres leased for sheep-runs that fall in shortly, in preventing the cutting up of the country into a few huge estates, and in .securing the fair incidence of taxation. Surely these are not small- matters, and yet they are far from ■exhausting the list which the electors may soon expect to have laid before them. They have a right to demand from their representatives that it be not crudely done.