The Observer. AND FREE LANCE. "Let there be Light." Saturday, August 1, 1885.

Observer, Volume 7, Issue 347, 1 August 1885, Page 12

The Observer. AND FREE LANCE. "Let there be Light." Saturday, August 1, 1885.

The Cabinet of the Colony is in a critical position. The weakness of purpose which prevented it from taking its stand upon its own financial proposals, has borne, as might have been expected, bitter fruit. A Government, which in such matters hesitates, is usually lost. And it, generally speaking, deserves to be so. It was bad enough to abandon a financial policy deliberately adopted — it was far worse to do so at the dictation of a clique of the supposed Government supporters leagued for the purpose with the Opposition. Had the Ministry stood firm, it may well be that they would have been defeated. Nothing worse than a defeat could have happened to them, however. They could have retired with credit as men who believed in their own proposals, and who cared nothing for office for its own sake. The course they did take has involved endless humiliation. They have not been driven from office, but they have been contemptuously allowed to remain. They have not been compelled to resign their seats on the Treasury Benches, but they have been compelled to give up one after another the measures they thought advantageous for this Colony. "We can conceive no better example of the evil entailed by a single false step. It is said the Premier looks unhappy, and we are not surprised. There is in iDolitics, as elsewhere, such a thing as defeat with honour ; there is also such a thing as escaping defeat, yet reaping all its most bitter fruit. The Cabinet is suffering for its mistake, but the House and country are suffering also. At no time within our recollection was the state of the House so bad. There was a time when for several years the Government was followed by a servile majority up to the time when the provinces were abolished. The state of things was certainly a bad one then, but not so bad as it is now. At that time, when the Public Works policy was young, the majority which followed the Government believed in it. Their reasons for doing so may have been bad, or they may have been interested ; but, the fact remained, and it served to prevent the House from sinking into its present state. At present £ majority supports the Cabinet, but no majority believes in the Ministry. On the contrary, nearly every proposal they make is criticised in a hostile spirit, and almost every Act they bring in is altered in principle as well as in detail by the votes of their own followers. And while the members do not believe in the Cabinet, they believe just as little in anybody else. Sir G-eorge Grey stands alone without an adherent on whose support he can count — it is manifest he is not believed in. Major Atkinson has a following, indeed, but he can do nothing with it. He is unwilling to make even an attempt to lead the House, knowing that a majority of its members do not believe in him. It is not too much to say that they are justified, for he does not really believe in himself. He can find fault with the Government, but, so far as appears, lie cannot suggest a course which would be better than theirs. There is said to be a knot of young members banded together with the idea of perhaps gaming office, and no one can accuse most of them of an undue want of confidence in themselves. His worst enemy never doubted that Mr Wakefield believed in himself, whatever else he might disbelieve.- Mr Dargaville and Mr Auckland, who are said to represent Auck-

land in the new confederacy, are, as we all know, modest men ; but not so modest as to allow their merits to be wholly obscured. Mr His] op is conceited, and Mr Hursthouse self-confident, and no doubt the other adherents of the party are fairly blest with self-appreciation. But, alas ! while they believe in themselves, nobody else believes in them. An attempt to form a Government out of such materials would be a farce, the only merit of which would be that it would be but short-lived. Thus the House is demoralised, and its most experienced members fail to see any course which will restore it to a healthy condition short of a general election. And meanwhile the country suffers. So far, the session of 1885 has been the most profitless session yet held. Everyone admits that much requires to be done ; no one seems likely to succeed in doing it. We were to have had Local Government plans elaborated ; we were to have had our forests provided for, local industries encouraged, commerce with the South Sea Islands promoted, hospital and charitable aid placed on a satisfactory and permanent basis. In addition to these we expected, and were led to expect, many useful measures to be set on foot and passed. As it is, nothing has been clone. At every turn the Government are met with a cry of ' Stop, thief ! our revenues are in danger ! our credit will suffer! this is Vogelism in disguise !' or a dozen other things which serve to paralyse the Government and to deprive the House of the power of giving a calm consideration to any question whatever. This is the state of things, and for this we see at present no remedy. The present Ministry may, indeed, do now what they would have been wise to do long ago. They may resign the task of leading a House which will not be led, or directing legislation which the state of parties renders impracticable. But if they do, our case will be but little improved. The new Government, call it by what name we may, will be just as powerless for good as the present, We shall have no beneficial legislation, because there is no time to frame it ; we shall have no comprehensive finance, because more time is required to investigate our position and to devise a new scheme ; we may, or we may not, have an equally efficient administration, although it is difficult to see who is to conduct it. In a word, the present House is a chaos, and we see little hope of improvement while it lasts. The best course for all parties would be to re-organise parties by re-electing the House. The latest effort in that direction was, indeed, no great success ; yet warned by the wretched results of the experiment, it is at least possible that the electors might send men to Parliament with some definite views and the determination to give them practical effect.