The Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1886.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5550, 23 February 1886, Page 2

The Star. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1886.

The membeb fob st albans is to address ■ his constituents on Friday evening. Tn doing so he will have the advantage that • since the close of the session there have been various Ministerial utterances, in . which tb# policy of the Government has I been broadly sketched. We have no doubt that Mr Garrick will succeed at Si Albans, • as he has invariably done in the House, in creating and maintaining a good impreEsion. For this fortuitous characteristic, Mr Garrick is unquestionably indebted largely to his legal training. His. subjects are | closely analysed, and his speeches are free | from that inordinate amount of verbiage • which is a too common characteristic. Of what will Mr Garrick speak P He is astute enough to recognise that just now the one absorbing subject is the inclusion of the West Coast Railway in any Public Works Schedule that may be brought forward ; and he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has not besn the least successful champion of that project.. He it was, who in the coarse of the debate on the famouoBussell amendment, made an able speech in defence of the Colonial Treasurer. He protested at that time against the gross injustice of those who affected to regard Sir Julius Yogel as & political Jonah, and wanted to throw him overboard. The depression then being felt here was being experienced all the world over; yet the slightest personal incon--1 venience had made some men forget how ' enormously they had been advantaged by | the Public Works policy of 1870 ; and this aspect Mr Garrick did not fail to comment upon in trenchant sentences. Nor did he omit to expose the miserable jealousy observable : the spirit of hostility and personal distaste and dislike which was so frequently manifested. If, he told the Houe«> it was time, as had been claimed, to recognise the brotherhood of nations, they had nevertheless failed to recognise the brotherhood of Provinces* His position, from which he never deviated, was this "The East and West Coast Railway must be set at rest before there can be any successful Government of the Colony." That the claim was no idle one, that it had nothing in it of empty boast, the House and the country soon learned. The cutting down of the public works expenditure taught a moral, and "rubbed it in." Nor has the position been changed, save that the determiuation of the central Provinces of this island to secure justice has been strengthened. A hardening process is going on. This is due to a realisation of the fact that unity here can accomplish as much as it has done for other distrusts, and possibly more. It is due to the persistent work of the Eailway League, to advocacy such as Miss Smithson gave last night in the Queen's Theatre ; to the unsolicited and therefore most welcome testimony of such men as Messrs Hallenstein and Eempthorne, of Dunedin ; to the evidence of people who have passed through a bind of goodly promise ; and, not least, to the incisive speaking of such Parliamentary representatives as the member for St Albana. Were it for no other reason than this constancy of purpose with regard to the East and Weßt Coast Railway, Mr | Garrick's mooting on Friday night ought j to be an overflowing one ; and that sweetest j reward of political men, the confidence of a unanimous constituency, ought \q be]

ungrudgingly given him. YA-»-i» -ourthinking the member for St Albsns has another strong claim upon the people. In his professional capacity he had abundant opportunity of estimating the hardship arising from distress processes for 'the recovery of rent j afld doubtless it was this special knowledge which induced him to introduce an amending Bill making the provisions as against unfortunate debtors far less severe.