The Globe. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 432, 1 November 1875, Page 2

The Globe. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 1875.

The banquet at Clutha, at which Sir George Grey, Sir J. Eichardson, and Mr Macandrew were the principal speakers, does not appear to have been a great success. Mr Macandrew, who spoke first, insisted on the importance of the office of Superintendent of Otago, and would have his audience believe that it was the most important position in New Zealand. He then made the usual promise, that if the side to which he belonged should by any chance be victorious in the new House of Eepresentatives, the victory would be followed by a “ very great “ reduction in the enormous unrepro- “ ductive expenditure now going on.” Of course he had a fling at the members who supported the Government during the last session, and charged them with voting that black was white to obey their leaders. Sir George Grey’s speech was after his usual pattern: wild and unsupported assertions in plenty, with no arguments of any weight to back them up, and a few details which are, if he was correctly reported, decidedly inaccurate. The younger Civil servants, and the members of the Armed Constabulary, came in for depreciatory remarks, although how the number of these public servants is to be reduced, to effect the promised saving of £150,000, would probably appear a more difficult task to Sir George were he in office than it does when he is in opposition. The Legislative Council, to which Sir George has ere now nominated a considerable number of gentlemen, had interests which were opposed to those of the body of the people ; and as there were no means ot bringing them into with public opinion, which in this instance means that they do not agree with Sir George and his following, they were subjected to censure from that gentleman. The Speaker of this Council followed, and though acknowledging that it was his duty to speak up for the branch of the Legislature to which he belonged, yet he condemned the Council altogether. We shall be anxious to know what his brother members will think ot this when they read the report of Sir John Richardson’s speech. That the Legislative Council should be attacked by the present Opposition is natural enough, but to find the Speaker of that body joining in the condemnation indulged in by Sir George Grey and his party is most extraordinary. If Sir John Eichardson wishes to be free and unfettered, is there anything to prevent him resigning a position and a seat that must be an intolerable burden to him, and taking his chance of a seat on the opposition benches in the Lower House ? He could easily find a constituency that would return him, and the “ autumn and winter of his life” might be spent in trying to conserve those institutions which he so thoroughly believes in. He would be able, too, in this case to bring forward a scheme for the accomplishment of his dream of an insular separation between the two islands, and a federal government situated at Wellington. Only if this was the case, and the Middle Island was to rise up in its “ virgin simplicity,” he would find some of those whose opinions are now so congenial to his own urging on the North Island to rise up in the character of an “ unscrupulous ravisher.”