POLITICAL NEWS.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3786, 3 September 1883, Page 3

POLITICAL NEWS.

[BY TELEGRAPH.]

[FROM OUR OAVN CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, This day,

Pious legislation has once more been indulged in. The House sat till 1 o'clock on Sunday morning - , due entirely to the stoneAvallmg tactics of Mr M. AY. Green, who did not Avish the Harbor Board Bill of Otago to pass because of the amendment that had been made in it. He Avas not, however, quite as cute as both of the Dunedin members. Mr Fish offered in the early part of tho evening to talk against time on the other bills, Avliich would haveprcA'cntcd the Harbor Board Bill from coming on at all, but Mr M. AY. Green would not join in such, and so on Sunday morning the bill Avas passed, to the very great disgust of its promoters.

To-day Mr P\-kc's motion .arill be discussed as to a separate government for each island. lam not at all sure lioav this Avill go. Apparently at present it Avill bo carried, unless some now unforsccn developcmcnt takes place, for the noses have been very carefully counted on this occasion. Ido not see, however, what is going to result from the motion, and at such a period of tho session it does seem just a little inopportune.

There was intense excitement in the Council on Saturday evening over the division on the LaAv Bill. Nearly half the Assembly members were in tho galleries watching the result. It was knoAvn that the voting Avould be close, and the excitement Avas at fever heat. I do not knoAv that I ever saAV more excitement manifested in Avhat avc term "tho other place" over any division this session. Of course the mode of taking the division in the Council on the voice being so difficult tends to increase that excitement. The diA-ision aa-as on "that tho Avords now proposed to be omitted stand part of the question." The first ten gavo a majority in favor of the bill, the next ton put matters even, find then thero was a give and a take for the next ton, neither getting more than ono ahead of the other at any period. Colonel Brett, avlio Avas writing, caused some astonishment by his Aye, and then the excitement Avas increased Avhen he jumped to his feet and said he should have said No. He Avas not, hoAvevcr, alloAved to amend his A-ote. The diA-ision Avas 10 for and 14 against. On tho Speaker putting the main question, '' That the bill be now read a second time," tho unusual course Avas taken, in the face of tho other divisions, that tho Noes had it, and another division AA'as the result. Of course they reckoned on Colonel Brett, and kneAV Mr Buckley would rote No, as on the previous division

ho had been shut out. It Avas no good. The GoA-crnment had got another supporter, and tho division AA'as 16 each, and then the Speaker gave his casting vote for the second reading, and the trouble Avas over.

AVhcn they were rushing bills through in the Council at the rate of ten to tho hour, Dr. Pollen protested against passing bills Avhich they had not timo to read, and then, donning his hat, he stalked out of the chamber, saying he Avould take no part further in such indecent proceedings.

To-day there arc 37 questions, 48 orders of tho day, and a lot of motions in tho Assembly, and 23 bills are to go through the Council.