WELLINGTON.

Evening Star, Volume VIII, Issue 2247, 20 July 1870, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(THOM OUR SPECIAL COPvRKSPONDBNT.) 14th July. Since my last the debate hu 3 dragged its slow length along. Last night it was arranged that Mr Stafford should resume the discussion at 7 o’clock, and ho followed by Mr Macandrew. Mr Stafford’s speech was oalm and temperate, andexcedingly friendly to ministers. With the sohemo as a whole ho expressed his entire sympathy, and as to several modifications in detail he would esteem himself happy if the Government would command his services. At the con elusion of his speech he broke down, and on referring to his past public services he fairly sobbed. The House was taken by surprise, and seemed variously affected by astonish-

meat, sympathy, and disgust. His part were greatly disappointed, and the Hous felt that the ex-minister had not been equal to the occasion. Mr Macandrew then followed in a speech very bold in language, but pregnant with instructive facts. He regarded the proposals of the Government as likely to realise his day dreams of twenty years, and as being the very thing calculated to advance the prosperity of Otago and Soutnland. His indication of the colonising schemes now pending in Otago. took the House by surprise, and bis hearty determination to sink his objections founded on Provincial considerations before the great schemes of colonisation propounded by the Treasurer, was much applauded. He was followed by the Superintendent of Auckland in a very caustic, egotistic, and anti-progres-sive speech, which the Premier to-day, with evident gusto, turned inside out, of which more anou. The debate was then adjourned. To-night it was resumed by Mr Collins, in a short speech, the mere repitibion, and in a very effective way of the anti-progressive remarks of former speakers, superadded to the oft repeated asseveration that he was a man of property, and had a small stake iu the country, and was voting against his own interest ! The debate was then taken up by Mr Fox, wbo summed up the speeches of all the previous speakers. His summing up was masterly, especially iu the cases of Richmond, Travers, and Gillies. As to mond, the member for the Clutba (Macandrew) had fully shown that there is no analogy between the cases of Victoria and New Zealand, the exports of the latter being (50 per cent, greater per head than the former. He (Fox) also adverted to the progress in railway making since the days of the broad guage, heavy rolling stock, &c., and to the fact that the wages of the men employed were LI a day. The proposition of Travels to relegate tha groat colonising scheme to an irresponsible Board, he “showed up” as so full of absurdity, and dangerously unconstitutional, that the effect of that well-de-livered speech vanished into thin air. Gillies’ speech he happily summarised under two heads—the first containing a beautiful case of special pleading ; the second containing a new chapter on political economy, which would be road when : Mill would bo forgotten, As he proceeded to comment on the first, and show the difference of discussing a question from the narrow standpoint of precedent and rule, the only course open to a judge, your Judge Chapman fairly rose from his seat in eager attention, and sat down with “inextinguishable laughter” at the masterly expose. On the second head he was perhaps even more successful. The fallacy that a country should live within its means, and only project and execute great works when it could pay for them in “hard cash,” he showed to be contrary to theevery day practice of individuals, corporations, governments, and the world at large.|Where, he indignantly asked, would be the railways of America, and where the great colonising schemes of that great continent if such a doctrine had been acted on ? The money of investors was fearlessly embarked in railway companies, and the only security was their prospective profits. He then concluded with the most eloquent and telling peroration it has ever been ray lot to hear, and I should only spoil it were I to attempt further to describe it. Last night and to-night the Strangers', Ladies’, and Speaker’s Galleries (I name them in the order of their size) were inconveniently crowded. The Ladies’ Gallery is in no way screened off, as in the House of Commons, and the young ladies leave their bonnets in some ante-room, and with their seam in hand sit down composedly for the evening. A continual chat, with iut< mnittent tittering, is kept up the whole evening, and from time to lime sundry glances shot at some gay Lothario in the House below. Coffco is served up to them by an ungainly policeman, and the most eloquent periods of the speakers below are sometimes unfortunately illustrated by (the rattling of) plates! The other day the gallery was suddenly put into a great flutter and commotion by the entrance of a Maori lady, the wife of one of th* Natives below. A duenna called her children close to her side, and sat in a corner indignant at the intrusion, while the now visitor, with the nil admirari manner of a duchess, looked on unconcerned. The young ladies next whom she sat colored to the temples, and the whole scene would have formed a pretty subject for an attitudinising painter. The blushes of the young ladies t the alarm of the old, the irrepressible giggling of the girls, and the nonchalance of the native lady, who seemed “to the manner born,” afforded us of the Strangers’ Gallery an agreeable study. Aproprs of the Wellington ladies, and relying on your keeping my name a profound secret—especially from a certain lady in Dunedin—l willingly con-i fess that maqy of the fair occupants of the gallery are eminently beautiful, and their, countenances bespeak intelligence and sensibility.