PLUCKY REEVES.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10503, 26 November 1901, Page 3

PLUCKY REEVES.

TO THE EDITOR.

L" ' Sir, — A fair reply to tho letter in your contemporary on "Our Agent-General" would be: What a blessing for the people of this colony that John Ballance was in the position and had the moral courage tq put in the much> required leaven among the rankly Tory fossils who had in the past obstructed every attempt to pass progressive legis--lation." It is not correct to say these nominess were all either Ballancite or Seddonite. All were in advance of the "collar-the-land and shirk taxation" ideas common to the majority of Legis-. lative Councillors, but otherwise independent- in their notions, being a reasonably fair selection from extremes either vrny. The pity is tliafc a more drastic measure of reform had not boon applied to that nept-bed of wealthy antiquities by making tb,e aevon-year term apply to both old and new appointments. Privileges are, however, dear to the fossil heart, and then also the. money: to give that up would have been pain indeed. Had the seven-year term applied all round, wo should by this time, without going to" extremes either way, have had Legislative Councillors who were generally in sympathy with the times, and with sufficient stamina to attend the lighter duties falling to Legislative Councillors. The irreconoilonblo fouler* of this glorious colony of New Zealand and the Ballance crowd and all its works would not now have had -he opportunity of ereoting themselves into obstruction blocks. The merit of the Ballance Ministry waß its individual excellence nud the backi bone each was ready to show when occasion required the pricking of some fossil bubble, or indifference to the .tailor-man made fashions, even though custom had sanctified tho business man's original eye to business in shaping the rut of the coat or the pose of ! the body. Honour to Reeves for his I pluck, I have never beon a blind wor- : shipper of John Ballance. With all hia intelligence he had many weaknesses. : Briefly he had the ideas, and as a good f chess-player he knew bow to select and place his genuinely live men in positions where they could develope to the greatest usefulness, and, as subsequent history has shown, also to positions of highest honour. Of himself John 'Ballance could not have accomplished much. He had tho right ideas and sympathies, but lacked the strong executive ability to force methods he so well knew would be for the good of the people and the making of the colony. The names and achievements of the original team are too well known to require repetition. There are still strong members in the running, and though personally some of them may . get legged-down, their work will live, and their 'fame will prove a stimulus to. the coming generations to do good work, Tho present Governor, himself a practical man of the best type, who -from his position must perforce uphold the formalities, has too much good sense to take umbrage when face to face with another strong personality who cannot see eye to eye as to either, formalities, politics, or methods of governance. — I am; etc., HONOUR TO GRIT. P.S. — Lord Glnsgow was a goqd man, but having been too long a sort of little king as commander in the Royal Navy, was too strongly dictatorial and obstinate for a democratic oountry, so Mr Reeves' reminder of his past wrongdoing was appropriate, and did Glasgow good.

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Soler,