MS STAFFORD AT TIMARU.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 619, 17 May 1870, Page 2

MS STAFFORD AT TIMARU.

The Wellington Independent of the 14th inst. , publishes the following article on Mr Stafford, and the Canterbury Press. Our Wellington contemporary would possibly not be quito so hard on the organ of Cashel street, if it knew the real state of the case, and how difficult it is to avoid discrepancies when half a dozen people claim the right of taking a turn at the bellows, without a head to look after them. For the sake of consistency, it would have been better, no doubt, if the gentleman who had to write up Mr Rolleston, bad consulted a little oftener with the gentlemen who has to write down the provinces, but the public are already far too exacting about tbeir newspapers, and it is just as well to teach them not to expect too much. We do not remember to have ever read any speech from a leader of men, which has less, than that of Mr Stafford to the electors of Timaru, evoked public comment, favourable or otherwise. Probably its uniform flatness is the more perceptible, because public expectation on the subject was somewhat unduly raised. It was thought, perhaps not unnaturally, that after the nine months' gestation siace Mr Stafford left office, his statesmanlike mind would have produced an offspring more -vorthy of itself. Many secretly chuckled in hopeful anticipation of a crushing blow to the present Ministry, and a triumphant vindication of the late one. Others expected to see a standard unfurled round which men of all parties could rally, both in respect of the domestic policy of New Zealand and its external relations to the Empire. All went into the wilderness to hear and to see, and have heard and seen— $< a reed shaken by the wind." The speech is conspicuous for its verbose silence, and is as disappointing as a rn'rage.

If is a speech "of magnificent distances.' To take a more homely simile, its fluid is ar excessive as Falstaff's sack, but, unlike it neither cheers nor inebriates. The hard pressing, practical questions of the day art evaded, and we are asked to look through » telescope, into the vista of futurity, and t< discern the signs of that .political millennium. . when Provincialism shall, have bden:Bastiint*. the abyss, when a Superintendent, shall lie down with the lamb, arid the coming. S: afford shall lead them. This is about as comforting to the colony in its present distress, as it would be to refer a poor person to the London Tavern for board and lodging. Finance, the life blood of the colony, is overlooked, except a gentle hint that taxation cannot at present ■be reduced. The Native question, on which the security of life and property hangs, is dismissed with a few words. Stafford and Fox are very much alike, especially Fox. ' The Fox Ministry are honoured for being bolder than their professions, and a hope is held out of their thorough reformation. Mr Stafford does not, however, makS the slightest attempt to defend his former Native policy, or to foreshadow the principles of a future one. This self-denial on his part cannot be either consoling to his former colleagues, or cheering to the colonists, who are especially anxious on the subject of an evil which strikes afc the root of colonisation in both islands. Mr Stafford, we presume, has no strong convictions on native affairs, or much faith in their management by his late Native and Defence Ministers. No one could be more loyal to his colleagues in office, but, once constitut : onally disembarrassed of their presence, he ignores any former connexion with them, and selects more agreeable company. If the removal of a Ministry also simultaneously removed the evils which they occasion, we could cordially sympathise with him, and listen with respectful attention to his programme. Unfortunately a change of physicians is not of itself an instantaneous cure of disease. We have still a bard battle to fight with this native •question, and we prefer the practical recognition of that stern necessity to theoretical promises about the unification of the colony, the extinction of provinces, central administration and local boards. We recollect to bave heard all tbis before. Sentiments of this kind were the fine clothes which Mr Stafford and Mr John Hall regularly put on at the commencement, and as regularly took off again about the middle of each session for three or four years; — they were laid aside last session, when the " conquest of a permanent peace " became necessary, but they are cow, in the leisure of Opposition, taken down from the shelf, rebrushed, and laid out for wear when the good time comes again. It is at present convenient to wait tdl Mr Fox can extricate the coach out of the quicksands into wbich ifc was driven, but so soon as this is done, the "Here we are again" of Messrs Stafford and Hall will at once be re-heard. They are now at the side scenes leisurely -dressing themselves. We hope that when they re-appear they will be prepared with something definite in the place of the provincial institutions wbich they propose to abolish. At present, this defect ** Puzzles the will, And makes us rather bear the ills we have, Then Ily to others that we know not of." Hitherto their utterances on this important point have been most vague, and Mr Stafford is as ambiguous as ever respecting it. His language aboub the provinces is of the type of that of Jack Cade to the London citizens: — " Be brave, then, for your captain is brave, end vows reformation. * * * * When lam king (as king I will be), * * * * all shall eac and drink on my score, and I will apparel them all in one livery that they may agree like brothers, and worship me. their lord." The Delphic oracle of course requires an interpreter, and the chosen priest is the Canterbury Press. In ita^ssue of the sth instant, it speaks of Mr Stafford as, if he had suddenly become the author of a new revelation, and the exponent of a new creed. He has hitherto been, according to the Press, a sort of anfciProvincialisfc in disguise, " hoisted into office on the shoulders of" the Provihcialisfcs "— " a mere administrative necessity of the time " — ■ a leader of opposition who were -c tiled a party, but were not one — and of whom it says, "up to the Very end of the session no sign was given of the grand points of difference between the Opposition and the Fox Government." These statements are rather disparaging, but they are only intended to heighten the present contrast. Since Mr Stafford visited Canterbury he bas lived amongst the prophets, and his regeneration has been effected, — he bas procured in Mr Fox a scapegoat for all his sin's, and he carelessly leaves such trifling questions as Native War, Defence Expenditure, and Peace Policies to take care of themeelves. He only looks now to constitutional reform. " The future is his topic— reform is his watchword." For the first time for years past Mr Stafford bas spoken out as a statesman should speak out," "he is evidently looking forward to leading a party of the most advanced reformers." "Mr Stafford now stands before the colony as an exponent of a pirty creed. 'Ihe question only remains, " Is Mr Stafford the man,— what are the means — and when is the hour." Such are the encouraging phrases with which the Press kindly introduces Mr Stafford in a new character, for the first time, on the public stage. We especially commend the following extract from the article, which we have quoted, to the attention of Mr Rolleston, ihe present Superintendent of Canterbury : — " In effect he (Mr Stafford) tells the Timaru electors .... that the country needs J a union of its resources, of its credit, of its intellect, to supplant »fhe daily increasing i imbecility of the parish system, with its\ beadle and its vestry playing at the work of propling, roading {sic), educating the colony." Mr Rolleston, as Superintendent, has been

submitting both to the Council and the public his plans for immigration, for public works, and for schools, — and the Press h\a been strenuously supporting him. Has it done so, with the latent conviction in its mind, that he was the princip.il character " in the parish system, wiih its beadle and its vestry, playing afc the work < f peopling, -roadingi educating the-, colony ? " Does it suppose that, as member; for $ Avon 'ln , the General Assembly, he will practically "subscribe such a degrading confession, deg-ading to himself and to the Provincial institutions of Canterbury, of whioh he is the head? He has lately said on fche hustings, and we honour him for the statement, tbat he preferred the elected office of Superintendent of Canterbury to that of a Cabinet Minister ol New Zealand. Is he, then, the man whom tbe Press professes to support, and at the same time compares to a " beadle playing at the work "of colonisation ? Have the e'eators of Canterbury triumphantly elected him, in spite of all opposition, and with the strong support of the Press, to be their Superintendent, merely to masquerade for a time as a beadle to enact a solemn farce, and to simulate a lie, until it pleases the Press and Mr Stafford to depose him from Bumbledom, and expose his false disguise ? Can the Press for a moment expect that Mr Rolleston, wifch an inconsistency greater than its own, is to be one of those " advanced reformers " who is to aid in inscribing such an epitaph on the tomb of tbe Superintendent of Canterbury ? Mr Rolleston, we are sure, would be the first to immolate himself in his official position for wbat he conscientiously lelieves to be the public good; but we are equally sure that in doing so he would never consent to any sacrifice of public character and self-respect. We cannot congratulate the Press on the patronage which it gives to its friends. It clumsily crowns Mr Stafford, and offensively disrates Mr Rolleston. The coronation is, we fancy, rather premature, and savours some what of tbe mock-heroic. We also believe that the Superintendents of Canterbury and of other provinces will survive the anathema hurled against them by the Press, which reminds us of the lines:— " Never was heard such a terrible curse; But what gave rise To no little surprise, Nobody seemed one penny the worse."