CURRENT TOPICS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 4675, 20 June 1893, Page 3

CURRENT TOPICS.

♦ ■ The Pall Mall Gazette says that Lord Onslow is giving a series of interesting little dinners. The guests are selected from the ranks of politicians, litterateurs, journalists, dramatists and other circles of light and learning. The invitations permit evening or morning dress to be worn, and punctuality is neither expected nor insisted upon, since the cards state that the host will be pleased to receive his friends from 7.30 to 8.30. Little tables are provided, and they fill up according to the time of arrival. The second of these dinners took place on May 9, when about twenty guests were entertained by tho late Governor of New Zealand at his house in Whitehall. The New Zealand Herald has the following' references to the Premier: —Mr Seddon *s deliverances in Auckland appear to us to justify the conclusion that he is a statesman who, with the possession of power, has arisen to a sense of its responsibilities; and who sees that while the party in office is bound to carry out its declared policy, it must not cease to be the Government of the country aa a whole, nor treat public questions as if they only ooncerned one section of the community. In saying so much, we trußt we shall not be suspected of any intent to make mischief between Mr Seddon and his supporters, or of suggesting that he means any deolenßion from the socalled Liberal or popular views which he represents. If we wished ill to the party in power we should desire for them a weak leader, subservient to the theories, fads and caprices of its most extreme sections, in which case it would not remain long in power. As it is, we feel bound to congratulate them that in choosing, for their leader a man who, by sheer capacity and force of character, and without any plausibilities, servile compliances or tricks of manner, has risen to the top, they have been lucky enough to find a man possessing the shrewdness to perceive that if progress is to be steady, its measures must be well considered; and that if a party iB to continue to command the confidence of the country it must exhibit a statesmanlike appreciation of what is for the benefit of the country aa a whole and in the losg run.

In an article referring to the death of ; the late Mr Ballance, the British Austral' \ asian narrates, aa an example of hia for- j giving and generous nature, the following incident, which, it says, has never yet . been made public :— For some fifteen years of Mr Ballance's career his most determined opponent waß Sir William Fox, who, on one occasion, succeeded in ousting him from the Wanganui seat. Sir William j was at length defeated by Mr Stevens in a j contest for the Rangitikei seat, and then j finally retired from political life ; but in his retirement, for years after, he never lost an opportunity of assailing his old rival by speech and by pen. Mr Ballance, : so far from resenting this aB personal, always admitted that the "Rangitikei : Squire/ as he called him, was acting from a sense of publio duty, while, on the other hand, he was never slow to take up the glove in vindication of himself. On a recent occasion Sir William Fox visited Wellington, where he celebrated hia eighty-first anniversary. ' Hundreds of congratulatory telegrams , poured in upon the worthy knight, who was deservedly regarded as the Nestor of Colonial politicians, and one of New Zealand's best friends ; but the most touching courtesy was a letter from the Premier — _ | himself too ill then to leave his roomcongratulating Sir William on his natal anniversary, and bearing testimony to the single-heartedness with which be had devoted a long and useful life to the service of his country. Sir William Fox wrote at once reciprocating these kind expressions ; and we happen to know that he was as much gratified by this delicate courtesy aB he was by the consideration shown by the Governor, Lord Glasgow, who paid him the compliment of a personal visit soon after his arrival. < ■-— — — -——-—- __—_—_