SKETCHES IN THE HOUSE.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2246, 19 July 1870, Page 2

SKETCHES IN THE HOUSE.

(From the Press.) Wellington, July 6. Time: afternoon ; place ; the small and inconvenient gallery set apart for the gentlemen of the press. Looking towards the strangers gallery, we will take a bird’s eye view of the House. To the left of the Speaker’s chair, which is directly beneath us, as in our own Ceuueil Chambers, sits the Father of the House. Mr Hugh Carleton, Chairman of Committees, a very pedantic gentleman, much given to quoting scraps of Latin and other dead languages, stuffed full of precedents, and having “Hansard’’and May at his finger’s ends, he wearies the House with long rambling dissertations which generally have theeffectof clearing the House to a bare quorum. Next him, on the same row, may be descried the well known face and form of the hon. member for Coleridge, Mr J. C, Wilson, C.B. He has not spoken

much this session; what he has said has principally been in reply to the strictures of hon. members on his motion for the abolition of the honorarium and a question of privilege, in which he was stated by the hon. member for Bruce, one of the newly-elected members, to have poured forth a torrent of abuse upon him. On the upper row of seats, next the wail, you will see Mr Potts, a gentleman not much given to [oratory, but remarkably good I am told at ornithology. Next him sits Mr E. C. J. Stevens, who has also said very little this session, but is supposed to be reserving his strength for the debate upon the financial policy of the Government ; finance b ing h : s strong forte. Next him sits’a pleasant looking short.gentleman, dressed in a light tweed suit, who you will observe speaks logically and to the point. That is the Hon. J, C. Richmond, and the measure he is now advocating is one which has for its object the placing of married women on a better footing as regards property. He was a member of the Stafford Ministry, and now sits for Grey and Bell, a small constituency in the Province of Taranaki. But see, a general hush comes over the House as a member who sits next to Mr Richmond rises, and in eloquent and well rounded periods addresses the House. Somewhat over tho middle height, with a highly intellectual face, he rivets the attention of the House whilst he addresses himscif to the question befoi’e the House ; he must surely be a member of some weight to judge by the deference which is paid to him by all sides. That is the Honorable K. \V. Stafford, late premier of New Zealand, now the leader of the < Opposition. Cool, calm, collected, and wary, no possesses all the attributes of a good statesman, and from the uniformly high tone which he adopts as his mddel in debate, takes the foremost rank in the House as the leading orator of the present Parliament. In arguing a question he appears to grapple with it in a clear and logical manner, and in a way intelligible to even the meanest capacity states his reason for arriving at the conclusion ho has done. He is uniformly respected throughout the House, and is generally looked up to as the leader of the House second to the Government. He is wily and nstate in no ordinary degree, and as a party loader has not his equal in New Zealand, because he can in an instant, as it were, be prepared for an entc rgency, aad avert the evil consequences of any indiscretion or had political generalship on the part of any of his followers. Let us listen to him. He is now speaking on the relations with the Home Government; looking from our coign of vantage in the gallery, note how all the faces are turned in his direction, listening intently to the close and logical arguments which fall from his lips. You observe that the little knots and coteries of members round the fireplace or in the lobby are now broken up, and every member is in his place, eager to listen to what the leader of the Opposition has to say on so important a subject. In a few well-put, quiet sentences he expresses his opinion that the Government should have led the House in this matter, and regrets that definite proposals had not been embodied in his proposal, and he resumes his seat amid the cheers of hon. members.

But see, the stately form of Sir David Monro (the Speaker) is seen rising from the exceedingly comfortable chair in which he presides over the deliberations of the House, and in sonorous tones he announces that he will leave the chair for half-an-hour ; a release from their arduous duties which is hailed with gratitude by those hardworked slaves of the pen, the gentlemen of the press and we follow their example.