The Policy of the Government.

With regard to the policy of the Government, it had been freely condemned all over the colony, and, strange to say, the majority of the papers of the colony had declared against them. He might say that, from the time they first took office, the press was against them. The Government were in this position, that they never had had a large party or a strong party supporting them. At the time of the last election, in 1884, when the Atkinson Ministry appealed to the country, the question before the colony had very little to do with the personnel of the present Ministry, as most of them at the time of the defeat of the Atkinson party were not in Parliament. During their term of office they had been resposing, as it were, on the top of a pent up volcano, not having a strong party to assist them in carrying out their policy. He thought, however, considering the circumstances, that the Government had done more in the way of passing measures for the welfare of the colony, and measures which he thought had been endorsed by the people of the country than could have been expected.