THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM OF OTAGO.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2594, 10 June 1871, Page 2

THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM OF OTAGO.

Commissioned by the editor of this journal to occupy a seat in the Strangers' Gallery of our.Provincial Council, and to undertake the laborious task of extracting from the proceedings matter which may serve to indicate the material of which the new Council is formed, I have daily and nightly attended the debates which have taken place during the last fortnight with that object in view. But I find the task is more difficult than 1 anticipated ; and that to chronicle all so as to enab.e the public to arrive at the correct conclusion would occupy more space • thancan he devoted to the purpose. So I will leave it the reporters of the Daily Times and the- Evening Star to supply the usually dull speeches of members whilst I shall endeavor to note what is humorous. After this brief preface, let me state that nothing in my line occurred until Tuesday cvcniti fr l when the honorarium question came on for consideration. For the first time since 1 have been in attendance upon the Council, a period of service extending over four years, there was a full House—not a seat being empty; and the public mustered in strong force Every one appeared to think there would he some fun, and none were disappointed. There was the fullest intimation | given of Mr Barton’s intention to “blaze j away on tho subject; and this in some j measure accounted for the full attendance. | A gloom was cast over the House when, ou ! the Speaker taking the chair, Mr Thomson l jumped up, and in most funereal tones apo- , Jogised for the temporary absence of tho learned member for the City. I firmly he- 1 lieve the debate, would have , collapsed had i not that hon. gentleman, by a st auge lansns i Ungiue, informed the Horn o that Mr Barton ! had “gone to blazes”—a statement that; elicited a genuine roar of laughter, a thing j Mr Thomson is seldom capable of excitin'*. j The change in the tone of the debate had ! a wondrous effect, and iuost so on the nieni* 1

ber for the who had a foretaste that it was to be a field night for him. That he was in one of his sacastically sportive moods was plain fro n the moment he took his seat. His face fairly beamed with smiles ; they played about his 'mouth, and were liberally dispensed, though not altogether free from a certain ominous curling of the upper lip, upon the occupants of the Treasury benches! As I have elsewhere read of one who resembles him much, when the dullest of his opponents were in possession of the House, “He eat deeply pondering upon the mutability of everything in general, raisin" his bead occasionally to smile beningly across the table. On these occasions bis happy rubicund visage shone out like that of the draymen of Messrs Barclay and Perkins rendered famous in song, as beai" “ Like the full moon just rose,’ though with a rather more fiery lustre."' The hon. member has one failing; he cannot listen long • he must be up to have “ a linger in the pie ’’ So rising, with a longing look at the Govern, meat benches, and with, a determination to crush the occupants of, them.into nothingness by irresistable Sarcasm, he delivered himself thiswise : “I can’t agree with eith. r of the proposals ; that of the Governnnnt •appears to be of that namby-pamby sort of half-measures we must expect from them; and this is, I suppose, only the first instalment. Th' 6 Government values their supporters at 15s. a day; I think the value of their support is oVer-estimated • 6s is nearer the marie. It is all very well for tie Provincial Solicitor - who talks as though he were a second Daniel came to judgment—to assume the .position of Jec. turer, and rave about wasting time. Will , ® kho csbal: that turned* out the late Government, thereby wasting a for:, nights time; who on trying, a. policy are obliged to drag out the tendons of the policy of the late Govenmjent, clothing it with as much life as they are capable of clothing it with—a policy that would have justified itself to the country, if it had been allowed to go forth, I shall be very glad indeed when the lion, member’s coiiduci in this Council will have justified him. in assuming the position of lecturer to the House, The ho ! member at the head of the Government has been obliged to take with him a number of poHtical Infants. Of course, I must expect \lr Cutten-who is a sort of Rip V Bn Winkle ;he went to sleep 14 years a <>o. and waking aip now expects to find things in the lame position they were before, this sort of thing exactly suits the hon. member at the head of the Government ; he can only ling one tune, and that is the “ Old H nIredth (pronounced whole llnndrhi). He

cannot believe ift any other modedf settli g the country ; if yon will givehim Hundreds anywhere he likes, he will withdraw the a'lowanec of 15s and make it 305,” Ihave heaid ’O® 6 hearty laughter in the Council ; but no such general merriment as what followed Mr Haughton’s bon mot. Mrßarton was a hu r e disappointment—perhaps he would aga°n say “ the contemptible evening organ is trying to make a laughing st?ck! of him his bluing speech being an enlargment of the allegory of the cat and the canary; a disquisition of the deriva ion of the word honorarium, concluding with a tribute of admint on of the sentiments of the Hoi Dillon Bell on this subject. Mr Duncan w: s essentially clever in showing that one con'd not take 20s out of an empty chest • wliil, t there was a chance of obtaining 15s—a prei hlem that I am going to solve when the Un ■ versity Professo; s arrived. AVhat struck n e most was that the spechtUlii of the debate was the necessity for retrenchment. This necessity was admitted on all hands. And gentle reader let me explain to yon how th: : s lias been acted upon. Previously, each men t her representing a constituency not with n two miles of Dunedin, the Government, &c , excepted, received JLI aday. There were o4 such members; and the average length of a session has ben <54 days, so that the hone. - arium amounted to over LIBOO. - Now every member is allowed 15s a day. There are 47 members, and assuming that the session will be as long as previous ones—at-present it bids fair to be longer— the honorarium will tot up to a little over LIBOO. Retrenchment with a vengeance. Hut as the lion. Mr M‘Lean observed, it is not to beexpected that retrenchment will begin at home, those who heard last night’s debate on the land resolutions must have gone away like myself, with a good idea of What an Otago “ free fight” in the Assembly :'s lilce. In the eivrly pai t of the evening nothing but personalities were indulged in. Mr. Reynolds called Mr.. Reid Aa political traitor ” ; and* Mr. Bathgate told his colleague for the City, he was another. The wretched past ” wai raked up. and an acrimonious discussion took place jntregard to it. M mbers of the Assembly found amusement in contradicting each, other.; statements the reverse of .truth, were made notably by Mr. Bathgate, and applauded to the echo by his clodocratic followers, whose actual knowledge of the circumstances was nil. It was, positively amusing: to bear Mr Bathgate’s theatrical denunciations of the squatters. “Let them beware ” said he, “if they do not meet- :us now in a fair spirit; henceforth our laws shall bo like those of the Medea and Persians, and they will not- get such a good offer another time. In the Assembly we shall insist Upon a revision of'the contract, and they will not get off on such profitable terms as -they .now enjoy.” Richly did he deserve, the. castigation he received at the hands of the Hon. Mr M’Lean, whose sentiments, judging by the Applause with which, they were greeted, were shared by qo inconsiderable section of the Council. After an allusion to the party, which he styled the “political Abyssiuiana” of Otago, who had enticed capitalists into the, Province to suck them dry of their substaifce, and ' then turn them out in the cold to perish, the lion, gentleman referred to Mr Bathgate in these terms“ Let the lion, member try, if he dare, to carry out in the Assembly the threats he has made this evening. Let me t 11 him lie will not be listened to there if he does ; that there ho will be in! good company, and will probably learn maimers for the first time in his life. It is very fine for him to talk of the privileges of this Council —privileges which no oiie knows of except himself, because they never existed, and I hope never will exist, if they are to override the General Assembly.” In less vigorous language llio Hph. administered a caution to the" Provincial Solicitor : “A very short experience,” observed he, “of the Assembly will teach the hon. member that by such means as he has used to-night the object he desires to accomplish will be defeated.” But enough of Mr Bathgate, who was silent for the remainder of the ev hiog. I had almost omitted to -state that Dr Webstsr distinguished -himself in the early part of the evening. Opening the rok oi a

story-teller, he proceeded to explain the reasons that had induced him to leave the privacy of his home for the whirl of politics. "By your Hundred Acts of 1869 I was induced to purchase a few thousand acres of property in a Hundred, thinking I should have grazing rights proportionate to the. acreage I owned. But in one short year this important clause was done away ; and I was obliged to get my friends to come forward to purchase sufficient sheep to enable me to live. By George, sir lam an unfortunate example of. the delusion caused by you and others by the e confounded Hundreds Act.” All through his “discourse,” as he termed it, the hon. member adopted a purely original method of addressing the Chairman of Committees, which was provocative of much laughtci. i cannot just now recall any other features of the week’s debates. .