WHO WILL BE LEADER?

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 456, 20 May 1890, Page 2

WHO WILL BE LEADER?

The inspired organ of Government, the N.Z. Times, has put forth another political “feeler,” this time to try and discover whether Sir John Hall would be an acceptable substitute for Sir Harry Atkinson. The latter, it is feared, must relinquish the Premiership, and then—the deluge. The proposal to put forward Sir John Hall is worthy of the ingenuity of the motley crew of which he has long acted as a kind of matronly nurse, but Sir John was long ago branded by the mark peculiar to the Monopolist Patty—that mark which is the record of their actions.

“ You may break, you may shatter the vase if you will— The scent of the rose will hang round it still.” A less pleasant perfume hangs round the works of the great Monopolist party, who would be true to its instincts when it had a man like Sir John at its head.

But the people of New Zealand may have something to say about all this. The pulling of the political strings is pretty closely watched now by an outspoken Press, by organs not given to toadying to the powers that be. It is a very happy thought to place Sir John at the head of the ricketty Ministerial ship, whose crew comprises only one competent hand, and his health has unfitted him for the control of the helm. Sir John Hall, as has been said, would make a respectable figurehead for the political hacks who now follow the guiding-hand of Sir Harry Atkinson when that gentleman’s health permits him to attend to such matters. He would also be able to suavely repudiate responsibility for the glaring blunders of his predecessors in the continuous Ministry. We are afraid that we must partly re-echo the sentiments of our Wellington contemporary, the Press, which says :—“ We know too well that as long as this Parliament and Ministry last the odious Government by compromise will continue and it is impossible to say what price the colony will have to pay for support of any proposals that the Ministry may think fit to make.”