VICTORIAN POLITICS.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXII, Issue 9131, 4 June 1880, Page 2

VICTORIAN POLITICS.

- « The following are extracts from a speech recently delivered by Mr Service, the Premier of Victoria, at a banquet in honur of the Constitutional candidates for the representation of Geelong al the late election. If we substitute New Zealand for Victoria, and Greyism for Herryism, *he language of Mr Service would have fallen moat appropriately from the lips of Mr Hall : — " We have been fighting, first, that our legislation shall be of a reasonable character, that it shall be based on reason, sound sense, deliberation, and judgment ; and that it shall not be swayed by passion, or by threats, or by violence. Another of the principles upon which we have been returned is that our administration shall be pure and honest, and not corrupt. There is one other principle which we have gone most heartily for, and that is that this community shall be regarded aa one and indivisable, and that we shall have no class legislation, that we shall have no need to inflame one class against another, but that- we shall have Victoria for the Victorians, not merely for the Berryites. It has been said of us that we are not Liberals. Thank God, we are not Liberals in the sense in which that term has, in former years, been understood. If the principles which we have advocated, and if the careers whicli are now before the country are an evidence at all of libelalism in politics, and liberalism in almost everthing else, I think the present Ministry can boast of a source of genuine and not spurious Libralism, which I think few Ministers existing before us would at all events excell. If we regard the actions of the past, both individually and in Parliament ; if we regard the legislation which those in office before us have assisted to carry out in the Parliament of this country, I think we may venture to say that the true Liberalism lies with those gentlemen who form the present Ministry, aud with those gentlmen who support tlieru in the present Parliament. We all know that this is a democratic country. Wa believe that the Govern* ment of this country must be conducted by the people and for the people, but it must be conducted on honest and pure principles. It matters not what form of Government we have if we have not an honest, an upright, and, a straight Government. It matters not by what name you call it, but corrupt democracy is the most contemptible Government on I the face of the earth | We do not believe that the men who have been industrious and economical in their youth, and who have as a consequence acquired some property in their old age, should be despised. I think on the contrary that the men who have been industrious and economical in their youth, and who have laid aside part of their earnings, so that they may now enjoy a comfortable old age, are better men and citizens than those who squandered their meati3 on thair personal desires, and who have become in their old age burdens on the State Lat it be no longer said that there is an upper-ten cla33 amongst the people of this colony, who hold themselves aloof from those who call themselves the working classes. I know personally of uo upper-ten class who have not attained to their present position by hard work in their youth. I do not believe there is a single gentleman in the whole colony who has not risen to the position he occupies by industry and economy in his younger years. If that be the class that the people of this country are disposed to despise, then I say Woe to the people of Victoria, because if one thin« is more certain than another it is that the prosperity of individuals is really and in truth the foundation of the prospurity of tho country.'.'