"THE SPOILS TO THE VICTORS."

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5655, 28 August 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

"THE SPOILS TO THE VICTORS."

(Waikato Times.) It is becoming more and more evident as time goes on that the Opposition .are lacking in the courage necessary to assault the Ministerial policy and programme. Their plan is to stir up -with all the vigour of "which they are capable the waters of administration, in order to bring up whatever little mud there may be at the bottom. They cannot forget what a murky compound was disclosed whenever' the pond was agitated in their time, and they hope that the old process will produce hi these days the same old effect. So far they have wasted a great deal of labour upon wretchedly small results, but the members of Captain Russell's party are not easily discouraged ; we must do them the justice to say that. Moreover, the contest is, so far as they are concerned, a life and death one. Their order is doomed, but they will not yield without an obstinate contest, and in such circumstances, perhaps, we ought to be indignant — certainly we should not be surprised — if they act freely, even invariably, upon the convenient axiom that all's fair in love and war. It is a mistake to suppose that the members of the Opposition are place-hunters, or that that love of office which they imputo as a fault to the Liberals is one of their weaknesses. It is not office, or place,, or power that they want, per sc — they simply desire to perpetuate the system of privilege. To accomplish this end they would be content, if such a thing were demanded of them, to administer the Government of the colony for ever, and to draw salaries on account of such, service from the public treasury; but; on the other hand, they would be equally willing to place the affairs of the State in the hands of menials, only taking precautions against the poison of innovation. It is a favourite theory with this class that the Government of New Zealand would be best administered if it were placed in commission, if some Imperial official of high standing were imported to manage the entire political machine, and although we may laugh at it, this theory is no mere creation of an idle fancy. It affords, indeed, an illustration of the persistency with which human nature reverts to type. *. •* * Fortunately for England, for the colonies and for the world at large, to which our institutions have served as a bright example, the power of the classes to chaffer wholesale with the liberties of the people was early taken from them, and their leaders have ever since been kept at the grindstone by the active spirit of Liberalism. And now, recurring to the title of this article, it is curious to observe how tenaciously the old idea of privilege clings to the Conservative mind. No longer able to exercise the faculty themselves, the Tories still believe in its permanency, but, with remarkable inconsistency, they impute as a fault in their opponents what in themselves they always regarded as a virtue. Whenever a modicum of power is restored temporarily to the Tories in this country we shall see what use they will make of it. The present generation is quite old enough to reniember what they did when fortune last smiled upon them.