MR GARBICK'S UTTERANOES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5988, 25 July 1887, Page 4

MR GARBICK'S UTTERANOES.

An Audacious Trimmer. (From the LyUeltdn Times.) Mb- Qassic:k has hitherto been let aldUe, itpt by any means because his change of front has been unexpected, bat from a wieh among the members of the Party he has just deserted not to gite him tbe least excuse to complain of harsh treatment, As a matter of foot he had had far better treatment than' he deserved after hia exceedingly Unsatisfactory behaviour during th£ tatetfoVO.onfidence debate. Undoubtedly ft£r- Garrick, on that occasion, ■ dealt a hard blow to the Government he wa& supposed to trust, and ,the Party he professed to work with. , W^en a soldier in the ranks, instead o£ firing his rifle at the enemy, discharges its contents into the back of his Own leader and commanding officer, he does a very dasUfdly act. Mr Garriok behaved mttoh in this fashion, and though he did not actually vote against his Party, deserves remarkably little credit for that little bit of selfrestraint. Suppose the soldier aforesaid were to remain in the ranks after wounding his leader, he would ns! i'"haV6 got much 'credit for doing so we imagine. Mr G^arrick chose the time for striking his blow at his old friends and coinmandefs with cruel precision. At the moment wh.en he tfose in his place in the House the Ministry's fate was trembling in the balance. Hard whipping was going on all routid, Life in the lobbies was rendered intolerable to the weak and doubtful by the desperate canvassing of the Government's enemies. The crisis of the fight was at hand, and at such an instant every good shot told heavily. Mr Garrkk'd speech #as a good sh6t indeed — for the Opposition. It was a clever enough bit of criticism, and as spiteful " as they make them/ It was hailed with joy by the Opposition itt Wellington and elsewhere. It watt quoted in the most rabid Opposition papers all over the Colony. Yet Mr Garrick coolly presented himself at. Mwivale as one who had been a staunch Ministerialist The force of audacity can no further go. {There, is not much id admire in Messrs Pearson, Allwright, and foeese as politicians. But there ftro rats and rats, and we declare that we infinitely prefer the fl^Vcer and more courageous type of animal represented by the trio named, to the speoies among which Mr Garrick must be classed. Messrs Eeeae and Allwright had at any rate the, courage to risk

their seats by openly deserting the Ministry and openly ranking themselves with Major Atkinson's following. But Mr Gtarrick had not even pluck enough even to act in accordance with his own speech. He received a certain historical telegram, and at once took the hint. He had gone the length of malingering, but did not dare to face the risks attendant on open desertion. That he declined the offer of the Opposition leaders to move their vote of " No? Confidence," says much for hia prudence, but little for his fidelity. What virtue was it in him to decline their offer, when he knew that if he accepted it his public life was not worth four months' purchase? He spoke against his vote, and voted against his speech, and, when a man has done this, nothing but the clearest and most specific pledges should ever induce electors who wish well to their Party to trust him again. Such pledges Mr Garrick has distinctly refused to give to the electors of &t Albans. In this we think he has done wisely, as it is better to refrain from pledges than to break them. IVT r O arrick is going to oppose the Stout- Vogel G-overnment, and wishes to hold himself free to make one in any new combination which may manage to grasp the reins of the Colony next session. We do not see how he could have supported the Ministry without modifying the opinions expressed both in his letter which we publish this morning and in hisMerivaleand Wellington speeches. He i$ a Freetrader, and the Ministry is Protectionist. He disagrees with their taxation policy, and charges them with failure in retrenchment. He does not believe in the success of of the village settlements ; indeed, it is notorious that he has no faith whatever in Mr Ballance's Jjand Policy, nor is he in any sense an admirer of the Government Native administration. Supposing these views to be matters of conscience with him, we can hardly comprehend how he could support the Ministry. As it happens, he has no intention whatever of supporting them. He is, to fyuote his own words, looking forward to that " good G^orernment which can be obtained without including the Stout-Vogel Ministers, or Messrs Atkinson and Eolleston." In his opposition to Mr Eolleston, indeed, we believe Mr Garrick to be sincere enough; — he hates a liberal land system ac heartily as Sir John Hall himself.

Taken as a whole, the Merivale speech is the clever manifesto of an audacious trimmer awar.e that he is speaking to a constituency threefourths of which is favourable to the Party he has just deserted. Audacity playing on a packed and extremely confused meeting procured Mr Garrick a nominal victory, on the strength of which he published a letter which is a very amusing contrast to the speech. The speech was conciliatory in the extreme. It bristles with pleasant things about Sir Julius Yogel und tarty ; it contains plenty of shrewd hits at the Opposition. Mr Garrick was ready to praise, to admire, almost to worship the Ministry — to do anything, indeed, except pledge himself io support them. The letter we publish should have come before the speech, but it comes after, a significant, difference. However, it is a useful letter, and we shall not quarrel with it. It puts Mr Garrick's severance of Party ties as plainly as need be put. If at this juncture, when the people of this part of New Zealand are straining every nerve to send back the StoutYogel Ministry with a good majority, the electors of St Albans wish to desert their neighbours, and to send back to Wellington an astute, able, and bitter opponent of the Ministry, they had better return Mr Garrick, But if they want a staunch, unselfish Government supporter, whose sympathies are with the poor rather than, the rich, and who will work with the friends of Canterbury on behalf of her growing industries, they cannot do worse than return Mr Garrick.