THE DYING MINISTRY.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 559, 20 January 1891, Page 2

THE DYING MINISTRY.

PARCELLING OUT THE BILLETS. [rBOM OUR OWN OOBRESI'ONDENI.'I Willington, last night. The Government is determined to resign. The Government have decided to appoint Major Atkinson to the Speakership of the Legislative Council. They nominate Mr Rolleston to the Speakership of the Lower House, against Major Steward, and also put up Mr Hamlin for the Chair, manship of Committees. A strong Conservative paper, the Auckland Herald, thus kicks the dying Ministry : —“lt seems that the Ministry are now convinced that they could not carry on, and that it is likely they will resign before Parliament meets. It was quite certain that they could not carry on as they stand, because the Premier must retire, and that carries away the whole Cabinet. It will require a considerable amount of charity to entertain any other supposition than that the Ministry have since the election been indulging in the game of ‘ bluft,’ till certain arrangements were made as to the Speakership of the Legislative Council, the Agent-Generalship, and who were to be called to the Council.” Journalists and others who have been so anxious, in violation of all the rules of propriety, to appoint Sir Harry Atkinson as successor to Sir William Fitzherbert in the Speakership of the Legislative Council have, we think, overlooked the provisions of the Disqualification Act. While he is a member of the Lower House he cannot be called to, or appointed Speaker of, the Upper House. That office must necessarily be filled before Parliament meets. Therefore it follows that Sir Harry Atkinson cannot legally appoint himself, however desirous of doing so he may be. There is aiso this complication in the way, the moment he resigned his seat in the House he would cease to be Premier, and the Governor would certainly decline any longer to receive his advice in that capacity, The moment also that he ceased to be Premier the Ministry as a whole would be dissolved, because its existence is dependent on that ot the Premier. The appointment of a Speaker to the Council would therefore devolve on a new Ministry, and it is impossible to believe that the Governor would, under existing circumstances, lend himself to such an intrigue, as the formation of a bogus Ministry simply to appoint the ex Premier to the Council Speakership.—Pest.