A COALITION.

New Zealand Illustrated Sporting & Dramatic Review, Volume VI, Issue 265, 22 August 1895, Page 10

A COALITION.

According to the Evening Post, this is the Hon. J. M’Kenzie’s idea of the next Ministry : — Premier, Attorney-General, and minister for Education, Sir Robert Stout ; Colonial Secretary and Minister for Defence, Captain Bussell; Treasurer, Mr G. Hutchison ; Minister for Labour, Public Works, and Bail ways, Mr Earnshaw ; Lands, Mr Massey ; Dr. Newman to be transferred to the Upper House. It is almost superfluous to point out the fact to our readers that we have on more than one occasion spoken clearly on the subject of a possible coalition, and the great menace such a combination would prove to the Trade. Now our anticipations are borne out by one of the leading Opposition papers, which prophecies as almost a certainty what we looked upon as a dangerous contingency only. If Sir Bobert Stout were to succee I in gaining the Premiership, aided by a Ministry sueh as is foreshadowed above, it would mean, as we have often said before, the introduction and re-introduction of prohibition legislation until it became an accomplished fact. Under these cir cumstances we again call most earnestly upon all, whether directly or indirectly interested in the Trade, to rouse themselves from the apathy in which they seem to be steeped, and after a vigorous system of organisation, to make a definite stand and fight against the insidious foe that is putting in motion every instrument that is available to force its tenets down the throats of the people of New Zealand. The time for contemptuous indifference and masterly inactivity has 1< ng passed, and now something must be done, and at once, for the subject has resolved itself into a fight for actual existence. Vulgarly speaking, the motto of the Trade from this time forward must be “ A long pull, a strong pull, and a pull all together.” We can consistently claim that we are and have been closely looking after the interests of the Trade, since it was the Review that first pointed out the dangers that would ensue if such a combination were to come off. This

being the' chse, what better leader, what better exponent than ourselves ? A papbr the party must have, and the Sporting Review and Licensed Victuallers’ Gazette is of all other organs the one most fitted for the task.