Wellington Independent FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3275, 11 August 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent FRIDAY, AUGUST 11, 1871.

We have much pleasure in announcing that Messrs Brandon, Pearce, and Hunter received notico yesterday from the petitioners' solicitors that no further proceedings in the matter of the election petitions - would be taken against them, and consequently that they will take their seats unopposed, When we consider how much will depend in the coming session, so far as Wellington is concerned, on the unanimity of our represonlatives, it is in no spirit of party triumph that we express our satisfaction at the scat of our city members thus being made secure. Mr Brandon expressed himself very favorably in the Provincial Council to the resolutions brought forward by the Executive, happily characterised by the Superintendent as " the complement of the policy of the General Government ;" and whilo we cannot but name him among the list of Government supporters, we . infer from the tenor of his speeches at the election, that ho is not particularly cordial or enthusiastic. In the North Island, the opposition cannot: be set down as more than six strong, and it is especially noteworthy, in the view of our anticipated railways, that the three provinces of Wellington,

Taranaki, and Hawke's Bay, return no member tliat can fairly be so classed. In Canterbury there is a large majority for the Government. In Otago, while the members seem about equally divided, it is important to note that all the influential members are on the side of the Government, the list of Government supporters including Bell, Macandrew, Haughton, Reynolds, MoGillivray, McLean, Lumsden, &c. In Marlborough, Nelson, and Westland together, there is said to be a clear majority for the Government. It may, therefore, be safely said that tbe position of the Ministry is stronger than that of any former Ministry at the first meeting of a new parliament. It is but fair, moreover, to many members whom we class as opposition to remember that their objections to the Government policy were simply that it was too good to be realised, that they feared the money would never be forthcoming, that the peace with the natives would not be lasting, and that the whole scheme, to use the words of one of the most bitter of them, was " a great electioneering dodge." When these members, many of whom, we believe, are sincerely anxious to see the colony resume the longinterrupted work of colonisation, discover that their fears have been disappointed, that the money is to be had, and on ! favorable terms, that the peace with the ' natives, on which, after all, hinges the success alike of all financial and colonising operations, is every day becoming more secure, and that the scheme, far from being a mere electioneering dodge, has been the result of long and anxious deliberation, and its initiation has engrossed the attention of the Ministry throughout the whole of the recess, it is but reasonable to suppose that their opposition will disappear with the grounds on which ifc was based. It canuot be concealed (and in taking a bird's eye view of the whole political situation we do not wish to conceal anything) that not a little opposition is of a purely personal character, affecting rather the personnel than the policy of the Government. The Premier and the Colonial Treasurer seem particularly obnoxious in certain quarters, and it is but fair to assume that they have done something to merit it. Thafc both are very sarcastic opponents when provoked is but too well known. Let us hope that as their respective " red rags" are removed— Carleton and Richmond —they will not be so ready to make a " rush." They ought to remember that what would be accepted as a matter of course in the British House of Commons is " tolerable and not to be endured" by those not accustomed to the invective of St. Stephens. The Colonial Treasurer is especially prone to indulge in this unnecessarily, and we have not hesitated, nor will we ever hesitate to point out what in politics is more than a crime, this blunder that no Minister should fall into. He is, we are glad to say, not the bete noir he was considered last session, and his successful mission to America and England must have had no inconsiderable effect iv removing many of the groundless antipathies that existed against him. The colony is now on the threshold of a great future. Before it is a new era of immigration and public works for which the present Ministry have prepared by conceiving a large plan, and finding the means to give- it effect. It would bo ungenerous, it would be unpatriotic, it would be suicidal, to obscure with the chilling mists of party or personal spite the brightening future before us. Never, surely, was there a time which called for more patriotic selfabnegation, when the discordant cries of faction should be more appropriately stilled, than when the colony enters upon vast undertakings, the successful issue of which largely depends no less upon the ability of the Ministry that has projected and begun them, than on the willing* co-operation of the local governments and the colonists themselves. As in all grand and difficult material undertakings, it is of the last importance that the projector should not be impeded or superseded in the prosecution of his own designs, so in great financial and colonising schemes the very attempt to entrust their administration to others than those who have conceived and commenced them would be fraught with irretrievable disaster. Il is this feeling which animates, we believe, a very large majority in the new parliament. It would be strange if it would be otherwise. We believe day by day the cries of faction are being hushed by ifc, and the important business before the new parliament seems likely to be approached in a practical, patriotic, and earnest spirit. Tbe attempts to divert tbe attention of the colony by raising questions about the paternity of the scheme, have been singularly unsuccessful, the whole colony seeming to say " we do not care a jot or tittle about who should have the credit; of (say) Mr Gisborne's circular— the circular commends itself to us as an earnest appeal to carry out the very purposes for which we have come to this new country, and to this we will respond. If, as Mr Macandrew asserted, the paternity of it could be traced even to " the great adversary of man," we will judge of it on its own merits, and support ifc if we think it right." As throughout the colony this feeling of growing earnestness is spreading clay by day, so we aro glad to say its healing influence is every day increasing in the City of Wellington, of which fact the announcement which we made at the outset is a pleasing illustration. This feeling, we are happy to say, so strongly animates even ex ministers and their warmest supporters that it is very probable indeed it will bo further illustrated at no distant day by one or moro of them accepting portfolios. As it is, there is no opposition party properly so called, nor do wo see any common standard round which they can rally.