Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3334, 1 November 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1871.

The present Government is the best abused Government the colony has ever had. Nothing it docs can the Opposition journals think worthy of any praise. What of good they have done is generally ignored. An exception to this rule lately occurred in the case of the Canterbury " Press," which contained an article highly laudatory of the Go vernment insurance and annuities scheme. We were so pleased and surprised that we reproduced it in our columns. No other instance occurs to us ; it is the exception which proves the rule. It would be a dark day for New Zealand if the policy and administration of the Government of the day were not keenly criticised. We would not complain even if the language were unnecessarily severe. Nay, we would make allowances for those who, having made prophecies which have been falsified by events, feel a natural and temporary irritation. But to persist day after day in finding fault with a Government for nothing but simply carrying out the -wishes of the legislature, as expressed in resolutions and acts passed by overwhelming majorities, is, to say the least of it, preposterously absurd. To find fault merely for the purpose of finding fault is neither useful nor decorous. With reference to questions recently discussed in our columns, it would be an amusing speculation to conjecture what such journals would have said had the Government acted otherwise. Suppose, for instance, that Mr Yogel, flying in the face of the late Parliament, and utterly ignoring die San Francisco postal resolutions, passed after a long debate by 86 to 16 in committee, and subsequently adopted after another Jong debate by the House, had made a contract constituting Wellington the sole port of call in New Zealand, what a hubbub there would have been throughout the co'ony ! Supposing Mr Yogel had made overtures to the AustraliauGovemments, and with a view to secure the common interest of all the Australasian colonies, had treated wilh contempt the idea of a ( coasting run to Port Chalmers, how these journals would have printed, in italics, if not in glowing capitals, from the journals of the House the following resolutions: — "Seeing that neither of the Australian colonies has become a party to the San Francisco steam contract, and that New Zealand has been j left single-handed to initiate this line, the committee is of opinion that in the future conduct of this service this colony should look to its own interests exclusively. With which view it is expedient that the vsteamers arriving at Auckland from Honolulu should proceed to Port Chalmers instead of to Sydney, calling again at Auckland on the return voyage to Bonolulu." Only imagine what a howl of indignation there would have been raised, and justly too, hud he acted according to the letter and spirit of the lost amendment, and arranged " that such service should, if possible, be carried out in concert with the governments of the Australia colonies." What can be more ridiculous then than to find fault with him fur not defying the legislature •' The Brogden contract is another illustration of this wretched and absurd fault-finding. We have so lately shown thut it was within the limits of the powers conferred by several acts pussed last session aimost unanimously, that it is scarcely necessary again to refer to it. We may point out, however, that the railways mentioned in the first schedule of the Railways Act, according to the cost per mile there laid down, would cost more than £500,000, the sum contracted for, and thai it was Mr Stafford who moved an amendment adding five hundred pounds a mile to the cost of the railway from Blenheim to Picton. The amount of the contract is therefore not in excess of the sum agreed on by Parliament, increased us that sum was on the motion of the leader of tin 1 Opposition. Then, as to the mode of payment, the third section expressly enacted that " The Governor may under the provisions of the said act, contract or enter into arrangements with any person for the construction of any or all of the railways mentioned in the first schedu c hereto by guaranteeing to such person or company fur and during a period not exceeding thirty five years, a minimum rate of interest not exceeding five pounds and ten shillings by the year tor every hundred pounds of thu conduction at a rate per mile not exceeding that set

down in the firat schedule, &o." The marginal reference to the next clause speaks for itself—" conditions to be set forth in contracts for guarantee." Anyone therefore who compares the Brogden contract with the acts passed last session must admit that Mr Vogcl in ranking it carried out the wishes of the Legislature. To find fault with him for doing so in this instance also is supremely absurd. Suppose again he had acted otherwise. Suppose the Government had acted like the Provincial Government of Otago with the Clutha line, or suppose they had acted like the Nelson Government with the Nelson and Cobden line, who have been endeavoring to make terms with the Messrs Brogden and jjSon for about four years, without advancing a step nearer to the cud. Parliament would have met in no better a position than last year to carry out the railway policy then agreed on. What vials of indignation would then have been poured out on the devoted heads of Ministers! How they would have been accused of incapacity aud neglect, of disappointing the wishes of the country, and disloyally disregarding the acts to which Parliament with an unprecedented unanimity had given its solemn sanction ! Then, as did Mr Mervyn in the House last jear, and Mr Reid out of it this year, these journals would have stigmatised the policy of the Government, as an elec tioueering dodge, a scheme that was never intended to be carried out into practice, a trick played on the country to secure the elections of ministers and their supporters. We have only space to mention one more instance of this absurd faultfinding. "Of all the jobs that have been jobbed since the days of Walpole to the present time," the greatest we are gravely told is the proposed Board of Works. So says one journal. Another writes of it, " The country is indebted to the writers in these pages ( Examiner) for the Board of Works," while a third a few weeks ago claimed that the credit of this "job of jobs" should be ascribed to the Opposition ! " There shall be a Board and Sub-Boards ' yes, and in those words lies the secret of Ministerial success.'" Such is the solemn dictum of one of these veracious journals. Let us again suppose the Government had acted otherwise. Suppose they had made no proposition for a board. What jobbery, corruption, and perfidy would have been laid to their charge ! Now these journals would have quoted in righteous indignation and withering scorn the following provision of the Act of last year, giving it the emphasis | of double capitals thus : — " There shall be a Minister for Public Works, to be appointed from time to time by the Governor, and such Minister or the Minister for the time being, then acting for him, shall have charge of administering this act, and he shall, from and after the end of the next session of the General Assembly, assisted in the administration of this act by any persons as i board, who shall act as a Board of Advice and not of Control." The Government are therefore fouud fault with again for obeying the law, and it is important to remember that the creation of this very Board was loudly demanded last year by all sections" of the House, the Opposition especially declaring that withour.it they would withold their support from all the Government measures. The Board was to check the expenditure, was going to make a " Gambling Policy" truly so f e — was, in fact, to be the very salvation of the country. We never could see the advantage of these " railway buffers." A board implies the possibility of decided counsel and divided responsibilities ; but the Legislature decided to have it. Why 0 audacious Gisborne ! didst thou propound this — " this most barefaced and monstrous proposition ?" simply because the law of last session required it ? Why didst not thou virtuously and valorously defy the Legislature ? Why didst thou not " strike out these clauses," and prove that " political honesty" is a delusion, and, the men we trusted and looked up to (Richmond and Stafford to wit) a pack of impostors !" "Itis an atrocious world" we must admit, when ministers are condemned for doing what they could not choose but do, when obedience to the law is considered a " fantastic trick," and when the carrying into effect the decisions of Parliament, as recorded in its Journals, is stigmatised as " a studied disregard of public opinion."

There are certain minds "so constituted by nature" (to use Kinglake's favorite phrase) that they cannot help using their utmost endeavors to bring about the very slate of things they clamor most ugainst. They believe a certain course of action is wrong; their opponents hold ihe same views ; the natural deduction would be that both parties would unite to fashion the best measure to meet the case. Not so with these eccentrically disposed individuals ; they do their utmost to force thoir adversaries to adopt measures which would justify a third unbiassed party in crying out that the interests of the country are being sacrificed. Such, we regret to say, is the case now with regard to the Manawatu question and the Horowhenua dispute. A lay of sunshine has at lust shot athwart the gloomy darkness which, pall-like, has so long hung lowering over the island ; wearied of defeat, of pursuit, of privations, the fierce tribes openly in arms against her Majesty one after the other huve laid them down and given in their abject submission ; emboldened by the additional support they received from the present Government, the friendly natives have assumed another attitude, vastly different from that they held, when a disastrous policy made them waver in their loyalty, and when, while fighting on our side, they carefully threw away their bullets before loading. They have shown proofs of a different spirit, not only in their beha vior in the field, but also in the tone

they have adopted towards the so-called King. It is not so very long ago that many of those who were considered our firmest adherents did not care to conceal their opinions and to avow they would not take our part against Tawhiao ; and yet now we see leading chiefs assuming towards him and his council a tone which three years ago they would not have dared to take. Wo see that we have at present peace, and that there is every likelihood of its continuance. It might then he thought that this, the summum bonum of New Zealand, would have been hailed with joy by all parties, and that those individuals by whoso pacifying endeavors such a hiippy result had been brought about would have met with their due meed of praise. Not so. There is no war in Waikato, Taranaki, or the East Coast ; butthereis a squabble inManawalu ; and so the tailors of Tooley street gather themselves together and say, " Let us drive M'Lean into making a blunder, and so i drift into a disturbance, and then we shall have him on the hip for having plunged the colony into a war." That is exactly how the case stands. With regard to the questions themselves, the Manawatu dith'culiy is one the very name of which is enough to frighten anyone who has anything to do whh it, and we should be very sorry to recur to past events connected with it. Taking it as it now stands, it may fairly be thus staled: — Mr M'Lean, to prevent haggling, and to bring the matter to a close, last November agreed to increase the native reserves, not, however, going be yond svhot ought to have been given in the first instance. Dr Feathcrston remonstrated against the award, and the native owners, wide-awake people themselves, and well kept up to the mark by agitators, pretended to see in this a probable repudiation of tho promises made to them. Ili/ic illai inc. That the trust reposed by them in ihe Native Minister has never been touched, is amply evinced, but they were induced to believe his engagements could not be carried out. Consequently they held koreros, &c, and stopped surveyors, though in a most peaceful manner. The result lias been that a few grievances have been brought to light, and that stops have been taken to remove them. The question is one which the lapse of time has made more difficult to solve, but the present temper of the natives gives not the least reason for any apprehension of danger arising from it. We feel quite confident that the forthcoming visit of the Native Minister to the district will remove all remaining obstacles. The same may be said of the Horowhenua dispute. It was a simple Maori quarrel about boundaries ; and had the claimants been allowed to have their own way there is but little doubt they would have resorted to the " arjuimenturn baculinum." But here the maligned Government stepped in; and, in spite of what jealousy and ill-will can allege, calmed the turbulent feeling in existence by a judicious interference, and a careful abstinence from vague menace*, induced the contending parties to remove off the disputed ground, saw their proposals for disarmment meet with a ready response, and had the satisfaction to find that the disputants agreed to forego their ancestral ideas of having recourse to arms, and, instead, to refer the whole cose to arbitration. We think we are not far wrong when we assert that persons, interested or not, who egg on the Guvernment to adopt more stringent measures (when none are needed) in these cases, may fairly bo classed in the category to which we alluded in the first sentence.