The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, January 22, 1891. POLITICAL SITUATION.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 560, 22 January 1891, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, January 22, 1891. POLITICAL SITUATION.

Be just and font not; Let all the ends thou atua'ht at bti thy oonntry'n. Thy God’s, and tnith’B. g

The condition of things in Wellington is not pleasant to contemplate. The good of the colony as a whole seems quite a secondary consideration to many of the politicians who are now flickering in the sunlight. It is all a question

of who shall get this piece of patronage, and who the other piece, and so on. The Conservative party have at last been compelled to admit that the voice of the people has unmistakably gone against them. With unblushing effrontery the party, through their newspaper organs, have striven to keep up the pretence that the Government were still in a majority. The Ministry have clung on to office with a tenacity that is on a piece with their earlier history, and by pricking off cards with bogus majorities, they have succeeded in disceiving some few people, even if the plain fact has been painfully patent to themselves. The “ nobbling ” process, perhaps, has been relied on to improve things in the future, but “nobbling” is of little avail when there is no money in the Treasury to enable bribes to be given in the shape of railways, etc. None of these things can save the decision of the country being given effect to. The Ministry now recognise this, and have set their mind upon acting handsomely towards their friends while they yet have the power to do so. There is a Speakership vacant in each body, there is the Council into which men who cannot gain the confidence of any constituency may yet be given a seat for life, and there is the possibility of the Agent-Generalship being available at some future time. The evident intention is to appoint Sir Harry Atkinson to the Speakership of the Council, and the proposal has been vigorously denounced. One leading journal goes so far as to Isay that it would be “ a most improper and positively indecent proceeding,” but men of more temperate minds are not likely to pay much heed to such vituperation. It is a pity there cannot be more generosity of spirit in dealing with one who, whatever his faults, has served his country to the best of his ability. Though opposed to him on political grounds it is with a feeling of disgust that we read such charges of “ indecent " procedure, There should be no necessity for Intrigue in such a matter, as none but a very unreasonable and bitter opponent can object in the circumstances to Sir Harry Atkinson having such an appointment conferred on him. The Opposition should exhibit a more lofty disposition in this matter. Were the public interest being prejudiced in any way it would be quite a different thing, but nothing of the kind can be seriously urged. It is sheer nonsense—and the writers know it—to say that Sir Harry will not make as good or better Speaker of the Legislative Council than did Sir William Fitfiherbert, afflicted as the latter was with deafness. It is equally ridiculous to say that his combative temperament will prevent his making a good Speaker, and we believe that his health his happily not so bad as is made out. There should be no need for him to grab eagerly at a billet which no opponent should be mean-spirited enough to deny his right to in preference to any other politician. The colony does not want any pensioning off of men who can still be retained in its service. What the Opposition ought strongly to object to are the proposed appointments to the Legislative Council. The appointments are not necessary, and those men selected have done nothing to deserve such appointments.