honourable gentleman would accept it as time to skedaddle. And if I did run to Kumara I should run to the right place, for it is there that all the crack shots are. Last year the Kumara Volunteers took the first, second, and third medals for the best shots in the Island, and two years ago they took first place, firing against the whole colony. Where would a man go for safety rather than to the stalwart miners, who make the finest volunteers in the colony? And where would the best men be more wanted than for the protection of the coal ports of Greymouth and Westport?”
In 1890, he was breaking his mind away largely from its close association with the West Coast. He took up questions with broader aspects; but he was always liable even then to rush back to the old place and drag it into his speeches, no matter what subject he happened to be dealing with. To his mind, the principal blemish in the Financial Statement and in the Governor’s Speech was that neither of them said one word regarding the mining industry, and the former seemed to him to be about as clear as the mud that came from the Kumara sludge-channel.
In the midst of the Government’s troubles, the “Skinflints” became active again, and demanded some kind of satisfaction. They would not vote for Mr. Ballance’s motion because it came from him, but they still insisted that the Government had not gone nearly far enough on the road of severe retrenchment. Mr. Ballance’s motion placed them in a peculiar position. They talked of retrenchment for months. They had promised their constituents that they would insist upon retrenchment being made without delay. If they voted for the motion, they might put into office men whom they regarded as political opponents. If they voted against it, they would have to account for their actions when they went back to their electorates; and that tiresome thing, a general election, would take place in a few months. They saw that something must be done to lift them out of the hole into which they had fallen. They therefore appointed a deputation to wait upon Sir Harry Atkinson. His health had become so bad that he was unable to read his Statement, and he had been ordered by his doctor not to enter the House at all until he regained some of his strength. In the meantime, the leadership of the House was taken by Mr. E. Mitchelson, Native Minister.
