Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1884. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1050, 14 June 1884, Page 2

Tuapeka Times. AND GOLDFIELDS REPORTER AND ADVERTISER. SATURDAY, JUNE 14, 1884. "MEASURES, NOT MEN."

The result of the division on the amendment to the Address-in^Reply, proposed by Mr Stewart, has taken the country by sur prise, as it must have been an un* looked for surprise to the Government. Major Atkinson has all along taunted the Opposition with disorganisation, and perhaps these taunts have caused the apparently irreconcilable parties to eschew discord and combine for successful attack. Howe'er it be, the motion was carried against the Government on Wednesday night by 41 votes to 32. Since then all has been confusion, and the ranks of the Opposition aro filled with confusion worse confounded. However, they have one line of policy, which is the only one at present before the public, and that is their hungry desire for office. This is the key note of New Zealand politics ; and it is a deplorab'e admission, which we would fain suppress, that the welfare of the Colony has, on many occasions, been sacrificed to the same unseemly scramble for office. Even if Sir George Grey should succeed in forming a Government, it could not be expected to maintain the confidence of the country. While there are three nominal parties in the House, any two can easily combine to oust the third. A dissolution and the conseque>it double session (with double honorarium) is an expensive resource, but we believe that affords the only solution of the intricate problem.