POLITICAL NOTES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5502, 29 February 1896, Page 7

POLITICAL NOTES.

o———. I Amono* election rumours are statements 'that Mi^J W. Sawle will be a candidate for Ashburton at the forthcoming general election; that Mr Grimmond will . contest the' seat for Westland against tiie Hon E. J. Seddon ; and that Mr George Beetham intends returning from England, settling in Masterton, and contesting the Masterton seat with Mr Hogg, M.H.R. I It is reported that Sir Robert Stout wm I shortly make a tour of the colony to carry the platform war agai nsti the Government throughout the constituencies. . . The special correspondent of the Auckland Star at Wellington stated in the course pf a recent message ;—" I understand that, though -Mr Carroll has been: raised to full Cabinet rank, he will not receive any addition to his present salary. It is also, I believe, contemplated ' to appoint Mr Carrol' Native Laud Purchaso Commissioner." The Herald correspondent corroborated this, and also .stated, with regard to the rumour that a seventh Minister would be .appointed as AttorneyGeneral : — "I have seen a member of tho Government, who assures me they will act according to the law. He says tho Government are 3 not absolutely bound to appoint an Attorney-General, and that it will be time enough to raise the question of the legality of the appointment when it is proposed to overstep the law." Mr Hall-Jones is (says the Oamam Mail) an honourable, clear-headed, plain-spoken mii.ii, and his presence in the Ministry will mean the reinforcement of those qualities which are indispensable in oui- administrators at the present moment. More than that, fuller confidence will be reposed in the Government by the prohibition party, and the hopes anddesi'gnß of the Conservatives — who fondly believed that the result of the Christchurch election indicated that they would .carry all before them at the end of the., year— will be frustrated. The liquor party have left the Government, .havijig at last come to the conclusion that they have nothing to gain from favouring administrators who view it to be their duty to carry oub the behests of the people. The licensed victuallers have gone over to the Tories — their natural friends, the capitalists who keep their trade going— and the Liberal Party will never see them more. All the better. It was hardly to be expected that those who live by the liquor traffic could adhere to a Government who have pledged themselves to carry through national prohibition. The issues will be less, complicated now that they have gone, but they will be complicated aud critical enough. tflie Southland Times in its issue of Wednesday apologises for the statement it made 'some time ago with regard to. the Premier's overtures to a Christchurch j ournalist. It says : — " We have to express our regret that in the issue of this journal of Fob. 19, a leader was published regarding, overtures alleged to have been made by the Premier to a well-known journalist in Christchurch: Since the publication we have learned upon good authority, that either our informant had been grossly misled or must have drawn largely on his imagination for -what he declared to be facts. Therefore we now unhesitatingly withdraw -the statements made." The^-HTeivs, referring to the above retraction, writes:— "There is, a ..moral to.be learnt from the humiliating position which some of the Conservative journals haye recently placed themselves in by having to eat the leek and bend the proud knee of autocracy to members of the Ministry, and it isj that newspaper.peraecutors should be sure of the alleged facts . upon which they base their unscrupulous attacks, and see that those 'facts' emanate from respectable and reliable sources." Those who take ah actiye interest in political.affairs have been (sjxys the 6W7iland News) closely watching for a considerable time-past the extraordinary efforts that have been ■ made by the Conservative. Press throughout the colony to bespatter the party now 'in* power. * * * Considering that the Conservative Press professes to represent the higher intelligence and the propertied classes of the country, it is surprising that it should adopt the r&le of attacking the private concerns of members of the Ministry;- and there is no more striking ease than the underhand stabs in this respect that are given to the* Colonial Treasurer. * * * There has been in the political arena of this colony for the last twenty years nothing more debasing or degrading than the methods adopted to injure the Colonial Treasurer. But we would assure the honourable gentleman that he has the respect, esteem and support of the majority of the people with whom he has grown up and spent a lifetime, and, that instead of injury or harm arising to him from the mean attacks that have been made upon him by the Conservative Press,/ they have had the effect of creating. for him a very active sympathy, which, if needs be, would be practically demonstrated in a manner that would surprise the insignificant section of tSie publio embodied. in his detractors. ; We trust (continues the same journal) that at an early date Ministers, who have been so shamefully attacked, will take the. opportunity of speaking in different parts .of the. colony,. and .exposing; some of the' ntechihatiohsoftheenemy.Theyniaydepend upon it .that the sense, of fairness of-, the British public will .be with them at any rate in resenting the practice of attacking public men in the dark,- «nd obtruding into public affairs their private concerns. The necessity for members of the Ministry adopting some such course as we suggest is apparent, in view of the evident existence of an organised effort on the part of the opponents of the Government to try and ruin one member of the Cabinet through his private affairs in order to burst up the Ministry. Such conduct cannot fail to be strongly resented by every fair-minded person throughout the colony, and the conspiracy— for it can hardly be termed anything less than that —must in the end recoil on the heads of those engaged in it. [Per Press Association.] • DUNEDIN, Feb. 28. Mr Earnshaw addressed a meeting of his constituents this evening and received a vote of confidence. He strongly denounced the . banking and land legislation, and declared that the finances of the colony were so mismanaged that a loan would be necessary to clear up.