THE CALLS TO THE COUNCIL.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XIII, Issue 2560, 7 January 1892, Page 2

THE CALLS TO THE COUNCIL.

"When there is no news otherwise obtainable, make your own" seems to be the motto of some of our contemporaries, and really we feel more than half inclined to condone the vagaries of their imaginations m view of the undeniable dulness of things political, social, and commercial. Si non c vero, ben trovato is the natural exclamation of the reader on finding anything worth perusal, and hence not only the Press generally, but the public at large will be grateful to the Dunedin " Evening Star " for acting upon the motto we have above indicated, and boldly declaring, eoa animo suo, the intentions of the Cabinet m respect to calls to the Legislative Council. It has given the slaves of the pen something to write about—no small matter m times like these, when the task of the journalist resembles that of the ancient Israelites, who were required to make the usual tale of bricks even when there was no straw forthcoming —and by consequence given to their readers something spicy to read. But, this said, all said, or nearly so ; for as to the authenticity of the information nobody imagines for a moment that it has any. It is too ludicrous a thing altogether to imagine that the " twinkler " of the southern city, which is at all times hostile to ths present administration, its personnel, and policy, has been chosen above and before all other organs as the means of making known the proposals of ministers ; and, more, the odds are that even the Government itself, as a whole, has not yet agreed upon any proposals, seeing that its members have been and are now scattered about all over the colony. Such matters as the advice to be tendered to the Governor havenecessarily to be determined m full conclave, and when we hear of full Cabinet meetings being held we may begin to give credence to reports as to decisions having been come to, but certainly not till then. Meantime, however, it rcay be interesting just to see who it is that the Dunedin " Star " says the Government intend to recommend the Governor to call to the Council. There are, says Rumor (whose mendacity is proverbial) to be eleven, but the " Star" is not able to disclose more than six, and those six are; The Hon. J. A. Tole, for Auckland; Mr W. C. Smith, for Hawke's Bay ; Mr W. C. Walker, for South Canterbury ; Messrs John Macgregor and Dr Fitcbett, for Otago ; and Mr H. Feldwick. for Southland. Now as to the first three it required no genius to discover the probability of their being selected, and without knowing or pretending to know anything of Ministers' intentions we imagine that so far the " Star" lias correctly '' spotted the winners." For, as to Mr Tole, m selecting an Auckland name or names, Mr Ballance could hardly have passed over that gentleman, who has undoubted claims upon the Liberal par^y, while all through the latter part of last session almost every special correspondent m Wellington picked out Mr W. C. Smith as a certainty. For South Canterbury the selection of Mr Walker is a very good one, and, moreover, as the old whip of the Party, he has a claim which could not be ignored. As to the other three, we know little of Mr John Macgregor — who may or may not prove to be a good selection, if he be selected—while Dr Fitchett m point of ducation has some special qualifications, and Mr Feldwick possesses the claim of long and steady Party allegiance. As to five out of six names, then, there is nothing to complain of, and as to the sixth we offer no opinion. Anyhow ! the whole half-dozen are quite as good as a good many more of the recent. additions to the Council, and the present Government, which is m a majority, has certainly a better right to ask for additions to that body than had the Atkinson Ministry when m a minority, and at whose instance a batch of seven gentlemen were added rather more than a year ago. Indeed f.t seems to us that if anything like a fair adjustment of the representation of the different schools of political $hougfrs m tl)e Upper Chainbej? is to be attempted, then that a larger num? ber of accessions to the very small knot of Liberals now to be found among our M.L.C.'s than six, or even than eleven, will be required.