The Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1568.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 120, 1 October 1868, Page 2

The Star. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 1, 1568.

The telegraphic newa received from "Wellington this morning is of the utmost importance. • It shews very clearly that we have not over-eatiiuated the effect of Tibokowaru's recent successes'. That wily and savage chief, emboldened by the victories he has gained, and strengthened by reinforcements from various quarters, has made a forward movement ; has, in short, assumed the offensive, and intends to make an attack on Wanganui itself. He has been joined bj several prominent chiefs. . The Assembly news is equally unsatisfactory. Mr lAjx, as will be seen, brought forward a resolution to the effect that it was advisable, in order to allow the people an opportunity of erprsssing their opiniou on the present serious aspect of Native affairs, to advise an immediate dissolution. Mr Stafford's answer shows that the Gk>vernmeut , are determined to stick to j their s^-als. The Opposition have, apparently, adopted the very extraordinary, yet quite Parliamentary expedient of 'talking against time in order to force on a dissolution. They are prepared to oppose, in this way, every money vote proposed in th«* House. It is iudeed time for a dissolution.

There is a newspaper called the New Zealand Advertiser published in "Wellington. Latterly it has had a sorb of intermittent existence. Some year ago it expired, and re-appeared as the New Zealand Times, a daily morning paper with very lofty and very impracticable aspirations. The New Zealand Times lived only a few weeks or months — we really forget which. Not that it matters much. People naturally supposed that the shade of the deceased journal would be allowed to rest in peace. But nothing of the sort. About five or six months, ago, it again re-appeared as the New Zealand Advertiser; this time in the shape of a penny morning paper. A few weeks passed, and it was changed to a tri-weekly issue, still retaining the same title. Since the session of the Assembly began, the Advertiser has been generally supposed to be the mouthpiece of the Stafford Miniafcry. The old-established Wellington Independent, which undoubtedly supports the Opposition, speaks of the Advertiser as " the poor creature who lives upon Contingencies" — another way of saying that the journal in question ia supported by Mr Stafford and his colleagues, and supported by them out of the money voted by the Assembly under the head " contingencies." We don't say that this is the caae. At the same time, there are many coincidences which can hardly be explained on any other hypothesis?? Many of the articles which have appeared in the Advertiser during the .session have been attributed to Mr Richmond, one of the Ministry, and there is internal evidence in the caae of a few which would go far to convict that gentleman of the authorship in the minds of those who are acquainted with his peculiar style. Mr Richmond is the gentleman who, when in opposition to Mr Stafford some three yeara ago, reminded him that, The mill of God grinds slowly, But it grinds exceeding small, which kind hint was taken to imply thut a day of fearful retribution would overtake Mr Stafford, though it might be long delayed. It is impossible to mistake Mr Richmond's style when once the trick of it is understood. His mind is saturated with a. sort of mysticism, which is always hovering on the verge of speculative philosophy. He j is occasionally, and then always inopportunely, practical ; and he has a sort of rationalistic reverence for truth which Mr Stafford has sometimes found very inconvenient. Mr Richmond is also rather fond of quoting or drawing metaphors from Scripture. Last session, for instance, he horrified a less gifted member of the Assembly by some allusions to the wise and foolish virgins, in whose conduct he professed to see some analogy to the conduct of a section of the House. Having said this much, we would now remind our readers that in our telegraphic news from Wellington, a

day or two ago, we published extracts from an article in the Advertiser, which article was supposed to represent the minds of the Ministry after their defeat. We thought at the time, from the brief specimens scut us, that the article smacked strongly of Mr Richmond ; we are convinced, now that we have had an opportunity of reading it in full, that he is the author. It is to this article that we wish to draw the - attention of our readers. They will bear in mind that it appears three days after the virtual defeat of the Ministry. The article opens thus : — " In the extremity of Job's trials his wife counselled him to ' curse God and die,' a piece of desperate advice which the sufferer himself was too much of a man to adopt. Probably every one in his inner bosom ha« felt promptings analogous to these. In despair of some private or public cnuse which he has taken in hand, he has felt momentary impulses to cast away the best principles that have hitherto animated him, and seek his own ease anil comfort at the sacrifice of his former aspirations and aims. We can imagine such a disposition infecting members of the Colonial party, in view of the dead-lock which exists in the Legislature." Mr Stafford has been compared to all sorts of characters, in ancient and modern history, in real life and in fiction. The Job comparison strikes us as being the least successful of the lot. But the sequence to the above extract is thus expressed : — Would it not be excusable for far-seeing men to retreat and shut themselves up in private and non-political occupations and interests ? We trust they may act upon the precedeut furnished by the patriarch, and sit down patiently to wait for that relief which their efforts have done little to briDg. A " waiting policy" will, at least, give time for all sound seed to germinate, and it would be prudent, perhaps, to give the ill- weeds liberty to attain their full growth, and sicken the land. From the above it would appear that the Ministry have no intention of dissolving the House. And the following, which refers to the Native question, is also very significant : — Upon the troublesome .^native question the t:.-st is sure to be put, and that very shortly. Ie is impossible to dissociate the native question from that of the unity of the colony. This ii:!p')ssioiiity will be adopted as a cry at the next election with a new energy. "With regard to the land fund of the South, the article says : — Mr O'Neill's motion for reserving the land fund to the colony, isnot to b^treated witheontempt ami derision. \\ c oppose it as we should oppose the attempt to re-open any deliberate money bargain after many year?, without the assent of both parties; but it has new justification in the new financial proposals, ami it has a good argument for houth aa well as for North i;i the fresh calls upon the funds of the colony, which a new phase of Native troubles must bring It may be better for the peojile of the SouJi to surrender a portion of their special revenue rather than incur new debts, and abandon all hope of reducing the Customs tariff. The Maori troub es are, in their nature, even more transitory than the laud fund, and a temporary diversion of that fund to meet the temporary trouble might not >>c distasteful to the people of Otago and Canterbury, if accompanied by a visible diminution of taxes. The writer goes on to say that the subiect of the land fund is " an interesting oue, and must come up for discussion at the first appeal to the constituencies." He seems to anticipate that any organised attempt on our laud fund would necessarily load to separation; but even this, he says, " would be less hideous i;han the anarchy which threatens and is indeed upon us." This wonderful article winds up in the true Richmond vein. The f?upportera of the Groverriment are told that the day of great difficulty often precedes Uje hour of victory, and that the " infinite blue is ever over-arching the rain and storm," which is very pretty, and was no doubt very consoling.