Colonial Croakers.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 480, 15 July 1890, Page 3

Colonial Croakers.

THE BRYCE STAR SNUFFED OUT. When Sir Harry Atkinson’s state of health rendered the party once more anxious to secure a good leader, Mr Bryce was again looked to, and his unexpected return to the House was hailed with general acclamation. When he stood up the other night to discourse upon the present and the future of the colony, he may be said to have had the reversion of the Premiership in his pocket. He had within measurable distance the possession of leadership of one of the strongest parties this colony has seen for a lo; g time. Had he shown a comprehensive grasp of the situation of the colony, a statesmanlike appreciation of the evils affecting it, a liberal sympathy with it in its difficulties, and a reasonable understanding of the remedies which need to be applied, Mr Bryce would have sat down marked as ‘the coming man.’ Instead of that the exp osion left him shattered in political reputation, stripped of all pretence to statesmanship, and standing naked and alone, hopelessly exposed, in a political sense, as narrow-minded, ill- i liberal, and bigotted; one to whom the * light of progress was utterly abhorrent, j and who absolutely revelled in political dark- - ness, and derived his only pleasure in con- i templating the future from the most hopeless | and melancholy point of view. Instead of | being prepared to grapple with the evils of | the present, he hugged himself in gloomy anticipation of those he predicted as yet to come. As Mr Bryce poured forth his lamentations, members looked at each other aghast. Before the first echoes of his Nihilistic explosion had died away, it was seen that this was no possible new leader of a party, and that political regeneration could not be looked for from that quarter. Mi Bryce sat down a solitary, gloomy, dyspeptic individual, who, in the course of his speech, had failed to touch any chord of sympathy in the breast of any member of the House, eave, perhaps, Mr Stuart Menteath. That gentleman has so long enacted the part of one of the minor prophets uf desolation and woe, that he must have felt a certain degree of gloomy satisfaction at finding that a greater than he had appeared on the scene to pour forth prophecies of evil to come, and to chant mournful lamentations over the past, present., and future. We can imagine Mr Menteath clothed in sackcloth, wi-.h hia head plastered with ashes, sitting at the feet of the major prophet while they pour forth their tears together, and Mr Menteath, as becomes his prophetic position, choruses in a minor key the denunciations of the wrath to come, which proceed bo fluently in shrill and unmusical tones from the thin cynical lips cf the great Parliamentary Jeremiah. We do not know if Mr Bryce is politically ambition®. With the narrow creed he profespfes we can scarcely believe that he desires to become an active agent in working out the grevious destiny which he has predicted for tbe colony. Wo should think he would rather that any one lhan himself should endure the ‘ cursed spite ’ of trying to set the disjointed times right. He indeed regards the task as a hopeless one, and his congenial position would be to sit on high on a rock, and with Mr Menteath’s aid try to discourage and dishearten any one who honestly, ably, and courageously endeavors to face the ills we know of and suffer from, while manfully striving to avert any others wh : ch fate may threaten us with. Such a role remains open to the member for Waipa, but he has effectively killed all chance of ever being recognised as a political leader in New Zealand. His advent to power, were it possible, would throw a pall over the colony, paralyse every hopeful aspiration, and plunge even the most buoyant in the depths nf an abyss of despair. Under such a policy as Mr Bryce advocate?, hope would be utterly extinguished, a chill, dead hand would be placed on every colonist’s heart, and such an exodus would pet in as, with all our misfortunes, we have never lyet experienced. Every man in wbnse veins the warm blond of life

still beats, would deem it a sacred duty to himself and those dear to him to flee from the abomination of desolation and woe predicted by the prophet, ere their energy was deadened and frozen by the realisation of these direful predictions. But fortunately we now know Mr Bryce beyond the possibility of any misapprehension. He stands out the most Fcarred, scorched, and blasted result of the explosion caused by hirnse l !, and the colony, knowing him and his views, will shrink with loathing and horror from the idea of ever entrusting the guidance of its destinies to his cold, clammy and palsy-stricken hands. Mr Brvce mav, in company with his one disciple, take up bis place in the cave over the portals of which is tbe inscription, ‘ Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,’ but prophesy he never ro wisely, he will never get the people of New Zealand to take up his parable or accept him as a pospible head of the Commonwealth.— Post.