BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1872. PARLIAMENTARY ECHOES.

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume I, Issue 13, 16 October 1872, Page 2

BAY OF PLENTY TIMES. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16, 1872. PARLIAMENTARY ECHOES.

In the. Legislative Council on Friday, the Cite Assurance Companies Bill was read a third tnno and passed. The Maori -Representation Bill was read a second tune. In the Committee of Supnlv Mir Gillies made a speech charging M/Vogel with misrepresenting figures in his speech ou the want of confidence motion He said ie did not know what claims Mr Ormond had to financial reputation; his own financial training commenced in a banking establishment at home, followed up by large commercial experience in Manchester, He condemned Vogel’s shielding himself behind the officers of the Treasury, and said that after a number of years' experience of the Treasury ho should be competent to check errors himself. He condemned the system of granting overtime to officers of the Treasury. ; In i lustration of Mr Vogel’s statement that . 16 province of Auckland bad “married its own grandmother,” Mr Gillies said there was. a-.rich and dazzling young heiress who became enamoured of a gay a *. liee 4y Lothario, who plundered her of her fortune, gambled it away among ms companions, aud then abandoned her, _ j? e colony, in this case, was the heiress, Mr v ogel, in reply, condemned Mr Gillies for not replying on the want of confidence motion. Because Mr Gillies bad been ia a large commercial bouse it did not follow that he had any financial knowledge. He might take a horse to water, but he could not make him drink. Ho could y honsider Mr Gillies had wasted time, ilr Gillies, instead of obtaining figures tor the Financial Statement from the head officer of the Treasury, had got them from a subordinate, with such mistakes that the chief officer refused to sign it. By increasing the salaries Of officers of the Treasury, instead of granting overtime, ho had effected a saving. Mr Gillies had occupied a seat on the Government benches twenty-eight days, quite long enough for the House. lie would never sit there again. The House went into committee op. the ||timates on the item of postal. * Mr ’ °S e d said that bo could not pro’' jfiso fhe

subsidy to Melbourne steamers; but to was quite possible some arrangement would be made with the Victor hi a Guveruimmf lor the carriage of letters by Suez. Ho also promised to enforce a stricter adherence to contract in San Francisco Service. Mr McLean said lie saw a way to reductions in the native vote. The greater part of the estimates were then passed. In the Upper House on Friday last, the lion. Mr VV atorhouse said that it was the intention ot the Government to continue grants to Head Boards. The coni! sc a ted land matters would bo regulated .according to local consideration.” The native reserves would be carefully watched, and the Commissioner of them would be assisted by a Native Board of advice. In tbo matter of local native committees he said that the movement would be carefully directed into usefulness. A searching enquiry would he instituted into the Civil Service arrangements. ° deferring to the defeat of the Stafford Ministry, the Thames “ Star ” says : I he verdict of the House in this instance wiU be fully endorsed by the country. y* hatever the shortcomings of the Fox Ministry, the House did not put that Ministry out in order that the financial affairs of the colony might be managed after the manner of one who would haggle over an ounce of Scotch snuff, and its native policy be conducted by one who knew nothing about it. The causes of Mr Stafford’s defeat qre of bis own making ; be has himself alone to blame for his disgrace. Allying himself with our own estimable Superintendent, whose presence in any M inistry should be a sure precursor of destruction, and with a number of other political Ishrnaelites in tim House, he sacrificed the policy of a legislative lifetime in order to attain office. In doing so he sacrificed himself. Ihe recent rapid changes of Gfovommeut, however, will have done good. Mr Gillies’s birth as a Minister of the Crown will hare been nearly simultaneous with his death —he has been found out. We all along prophesied that so soon as he got amongst .'Statesmen Ins shallowness and his groundless claims to occupy a higher position than a mere pettifogger in politics would be discovered. So they have.”