THE POSITION OF THE MINISTRY.

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 6887, 18 May 1883, Page 2

THE POSITION OF THE MINISTRY.

If one-half of what has been published by some journals in the colony about the leaders in public affairs were true, the Ministry are likely to have a very rough time of it during the coming session. We read confident assertions of the people having lost all confidence ;n the present Cabinet, of hostile majorities in the House of Representatives, of votes of want of confidence to be moved and carried, of a Grey Ministry being installed in office, and of a political millennium being thenceforth at hand. We fail, for our own part, to see all this. Like the politically critical Mr Edward Wakefield, who may possibly be returned as member for Inangahua a few days hence, we also would assent to the replacement of the present

Ministers by superior men. But then the hitch is, that we cannot anyhow see whore the superior men are to be found, and so we object to a change in the meantime. There is practical work to be done, and, as President Lincoln put it, “ it is not wise usually to awop horses in crossing a stream.” Perhaps the estimates formed of the state of public sentiment by our journalistic brethren referred to may not be correct. Just about a year back there were many similar prophecies of the earthquake which was just about coming. The most influential organ of the Opposition—the Lyttelton Times after careful scrutiny, had come to the conclusion that the Opposition bad a clear majority of at least 7 —42 against 35 and that several of the independent or doubtful members -would most likely join them, to say nothing of the Maori members, who almost always act as dummies of Sir George Grey. Hero was a splendid chance. But the earthquake did not come off. Some of the political Balaams who came to curse remained to bless, and the Wm-takzr-Atkinson Ministry remains in power to the present day. We can picture to our political imagination a better set, and wo admit that the Cabinet is not like a Mans cat or a crack cricketing team —destitute of a tail. Still, on the whole, for any one better Ministry which might possibly be formed, there might be twenty or fifty worse. We do not in the least ignore the fact that some portions of their policy have been adversely criticised by many people who have been usually their strong supporters. Perhaps the weightiest of the exceptions taken has been that advanced by the Canterbury Press and some other papers, representing the more intelligent and substantial residents in the Middle Island, that the agreement to contract the four-million loan last session was a most objectionable proceeding, at variance with all sound public economy, at a time when already the colonial debt was nearly twenty-eight millions, and every addition to the amount would greatly increase the already-complained-of annual taxation. There is much real force intrinsically in the objection, but it must be borne in mind that, rightly or wrongly, Parliament assented to it by a large majority. Mr Montgomery's hostile resolution, “ That the financial proposals of the Government are unsatisfactory, was an obvious sham, and when the bona tides of the Opposition was tested by a motion hostile to all borrowing, the leaders of their party were afraid to vote against the Government lest they should lose caste with their constituents by a stoppage of expenditure of public money. The policy of the Government might or might not have been sound, but it is idle now to enter into that discussion. Parliament approved of it, and the leaders on both sides voted tor it. As a matter of abstract principle the Press opposition to all further borrowing for the present may or mav not be on valid grounds j as a partisan argument for the displacement of the Ministry, it is obviously mere moonshine. So also with regard to the native policy of the present Ministry, and the amnesty to Te Kooti, The Opposition can scarcely blame Mr Bryce for doing effectively what Sir George Grey and Mr Sheehan, with the assent of their party, attempted, but did not succeed in accomplishing. Others besides Mr Bryce had endeavored by means of pardon to secure permanent peace: the present Ministry have accomplished the object. The only remaining objection to the present Ministry among those lately advanced is that some of its members are men of only moderate talent and achievement. Possibly in every Ministry New Zealand has ever had there have been some members who would not sot Wellington Harbor or even Evans’ Bay on fire. Seraphic light and culture, and cherubic love of country have always been scarce commodities, and the stock of angels on hand in New Zealand has been very limited. It is well when we order a banquet to have a good one if we can get it ; but we don’t expect a roast moa every day at the Occidental Hotel. Possibly Major Atkinson and Mr Bryce have made mistakes like other people ; probably the Premier and the other Ministers may have followed suite. Tet still it is the fact that no serious blunders have been made by them, no public offences sheeted home to them. The general administration of the Government has not even been charged with corruption or inefficiency, and in the Treasury and in the Native Department there has been something more than average capacity shown. We fail to see that, under such circumstances, a change for the mere sake of change in the Ministry would be advisable, until better and abler men than are visible at present come to the front.