DR. FEATHERSTON'S SPEECH.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXI, Issue 2331, 6 March 1866, Page 7

DR. FEATHERSTON'S SPEECH.

(Canterbury Press, 27 th Feb.) Everything that falls from Dr. Featherston is well worth reading. His views are clear and forcible, admirable lor lucidity and strength in stating what is right ; and for audacity and utter want of principle in stating what is not right. A preat part of his speech may be epitomised ac follows : — " Gentlemen, I never agreed with the Weld Ministry at all. I thought the proposal to send away the troops mischievous in the extreme, but I kept my opinions to myself. I submitted in silence to what I believed would ruin the colony, because I wanted Mr. Weld to remove the seat of Government to Wellington, and to establish the port of call for the Panama service at Wellington." Ho states that he took part with Mr. Stafford in procuring a modification of the resolutions by which the House adopted the policy of sending away the troops in the session of 1863, but he neglects to say that Mr. Weld, after accepting the modified resolutions, distinctly informed the House that the conduct of the Government would not be altered by the change in the resolutions, for the advice they would give to the Governor would be precisely the same, namely to send away the troops, as if his resolutions had 1 not been altered. Dr. Featherston heard this statement, and heard it in silence ; but then the seat of Government . had not then been removed to Wellington. We must accept the policy indicated by Dr. Featherston ns that of the present Go* vernnient. Throughout, he speaks of his coincidence in opinion with Mr. Stafford ; it is therefore impossible not to infer that he is speaking the mind of the Minister. His policy is expressed in one woi'd. The troops are not to go, and the colony is to refuse to pay the sum indicated by the Home Government as the price of keeping them. There is something honest about the very dishonesty of the proposal. It contrasts favorably with the unskilful evasions of Mr. Stafford who says : — " Who says I mean to ' keep the troops ? Are not the troops going f Has not one regiment gone since I have been in office? Don't you give me credit for that?" Dr. Featherston does not condescend to such mountebank talk as that. He proposes boldly to retain the troops, and to refuse to pay the price. And,-in order to blind the Home Government to the impudence of this lesser claim, he proposes to send in a demand for the repayment of the whole of the two or three millions lost in the war. We cannot regard such proposals as serious. Were they so, we can only say, first, that the demand will be not only refused but spurned; and, secondly, that it will call down on the colony the utter scorn and contempt of every man in England. It is, however, satisfactory to know that the colony is to be asked' to reverse its de cisions of the last three sessions. It is to he asked to plunge into a conflict with England as to the payment for her Majesty's forces: so utterly disgraceful that no oue can complain if Great Britain extorts the last farthing out of tho colony in repayment of her demand, and keeps her forces in the colony to see it paid. There are a multitude of other points in Dr. Featberston'a speech which we might notice, and which display an. animus hostile to the late Government, even at the expense of accuracy. For example, it is a pure invention that the Native Minister abstained from relying on the Outlying Districts Police Bill in the Opotiki expedition, and preferred rclyiug upon martial law. That expedition was formed before the Bill referred to had been thought of, and sailed before it had passed ; nor, had the Bill been in force, would it have in any way have affected the proclamation of martial law. When tho time came for confiscating and dealing with the land, then the Weld Ministry would no doubt have acted under the Police Bill, and charged the lands with the cost of maintaining the peace of the dis trict. Mr. Stafford in pursuance, of the provincial policy so lauded by Dr. Featherston, proposes to give the lands to Auckland, and to leave tho colony to pay all the cost. I Again, it is a very disingenuous remark of Dr. Featherston' s, that Mr. Y/hitaker's Government got through £1,000,000 of the loan, and Mr. Weld's another £1,200,000 or £1,500,000. It is hard to give any man credit ior honesty who makes such statements ; when he knows, as every one knows, that every farthing paid away by Mr. Weld's Government was paid in fulfilment of en-' gagements entered into by Mr. Whitaker, and that Mr. Weld incurred the unmeasured abuse of the Auckland press and Govern- I ment for months, for not paying more. Lastly, Dr. Featherston advices Mr. Stafford to raise more money than the whole loan of £3,000,000, by the difference of the discount ; that is to say, to raise so much that, no matter at what sacrtfice it is raised, £3,000,01)0 shall come into the chest, and he says he would do it if he were in Mr. Stafford's place. We quite believe the learned Doctor. Why should he begin in his old age to pay the slightest regard to law if it stands in the way of a scheme ? To impose a burden of £400,000 on the country, without the sanction of law, is exactly in accordance with the fashion of the day. We can only be thankful that our credit is so low at this moment as to save us from this robbery. We cannot, however, but accept Dr. Featherston's hint as a feeler put forward by the Government of what will be proposed. More taxes, and more debt, as a happy way of fulfilling the promise to save a quarter of a million. But we must go farther, and say plainly that if Wellington endorses this policy of its Superintendent, and is guilty of so scandalous a treachery to the interests of the Middle Island, there are not «i fow who will deem it their duty to reconsider tho opinions they have formed upon the future of the colony. It is possible for any position to become untenable, if not by the attack of enemies, by the treachery of allies. If a million of our securities are to be given to Auckland, and an additional debt of £400,000 to be imposed by a Minister without our consent, it is almost"time to inquire whether there is any safety but in retreat.