A telegram from Melbourne in Wednesday's Times states that Mr.
G. H. Reid, Premier of New South Wales, cabled on Tuesday to Sir Saul Samuel, the Agent-General, in the fol- lowing terms :—" The Governorship of New South Wales is too important a post to justify this protracted delay. If no one in the mother-country is eligible and willing to occupy the position, we are quite prepared to suggest a suitable appointee from our own people. Acquaint Lord Ripon." If that was not a strictly private telegram treacherously divulged, Mr. Reid has been guilty of a breach of good manners. At the same time, we cannot absolve the Government from the gravest censure for keeping the post open for so long. To do eo is not to treat the Colony and the statesmen of New South Wales with proper courtesy and respect. The Times states, on the authority of a correspondent, that the explana- tion of the delay is to be found in the fact that Sir Arthur Hayter has been fixed on for Governor. "In these circum- stances it is surmised that if there be any hitch, it must have arisen in connection with a doubtful report of the Whips on the subject of the relative strength of parties at Walsall." In other words, the present Government cannot even fill up a Colonial Governorship without conferring with the Whips and reckoning up the majority in " Dod." This sacrificing of everything to Lobby considerations is as foolish as it is scandalous.
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