PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2626, 18 July 1871, Page 2

PROVINCIAL COUNCIL.

Yesterday. A full house and full gallaries were au indication that a stormy debate was expected on the piece de. reti-danee. of the evening—the Land Bill. These expectations were not wholly unrealised, as during the progress of the piece, as Mr Barton delighted to call it, there were some clever “situations —to use theatrical parlance—which the author never dreamed of; and this nearly brought the House down—on the member who was r - sponsible for them. By way of overture, Dr Webster called Mr Speaker’s attention to a report which had appeared in the papers, to the effect that it was the Speaker’s intention to allow only 15s honorarium ; ami, amidst much laughter, asked Mr speaker if that weie true, as, on the strength of obtaining the extra us per diem, he had ordered a new top-coat; but immediately on reading the paragraph referred to, he had countermanded the order. The Speaker repeated his former ruling, that the Bill did not effect the resolution fixing 1.55, except that it prevented the piyraent of more than 10s to town membe-s ; and exempted the Speaker, the chairman of committees, and the members of the Executive The business of the evening was commenced by Mr Henderson, of whose speech the least said the better. He was followed by Dr. Webster, who moved the adjournment of the debate to enable him to have a full day to concoct a scries of resolutions, which he thought would give greater satisfaction than any of those already brought down. Messrs. Shand and Mollisnn opposed the adjournment, the latter stating that he was opposed to two or three of the Government resolutions, and Mr. shepherd contented himself by characterising the Government resolutions as a “ monurel ’ transcription of the Victorian land law, at the same time poin'iug out the insuperable objections the former contained, to their being acceptable to the goldfields communities, Mr Bart ui s speech of two hoars was a mass of allegorical pictures ; he never approached the subject of the debate except to show that the squatter party is his helc noir. or to abuse the “ rascal, villainous ” press of Dunedin. Ho then went on to describe the pantaloons of the House, and wound up by asking “ who was it that tumbled on the floor of the House?” and was fairly nonplussed when Mr. Cargill turne I and said “you, of course.” His denunciation? of the Hundreds Regulations Act as measures passed by the Assembly through fraud and rascality, brought up Mr Haughton, who, with excessive warmth of feeling, asserted that it was utterly inconsistent with the dignity of the Council for any member of the House to talk of any Act of the Assembly as a “ fraud and rascality;” and he deprecated the action of the Speaker in allowing such language to be used; and particularly that of the head of the Government, who, as a member of the superior Legislature, should have protested against it. The Speaker defended himself, stating that Ije had ruled the language to be improper, but had not been supported in his ruling by the House ; but Mr Haughton, still dissatisfied, repeated the attack ; and Mr Speaker, whose paitence appeared to have been tried to the utmost, at last threatened to take other action, if the hon. member for the Lakes did not demean himself more becomingly towards j;hc chair, Mr Barton followed with a lame apology, intended to remove the sting from his accusations, and wound up by criticising the actions of the Addullamites, characterising the two principal members as the “Dunstan Lion” and the “Mount Ida Lamb,” Mr Barton complains bitterly on all occasions of receiving such little favor at the bauds of the Press, that we will humor him by giving his name all possible prominence ; and for the benefit of our readers will append Mr Haughton’s critical observations ;—The hon. member for Dunedin had favored the House with a speech of two hours duration, which deserved some little notice. The hon. member seldom favored the House with his presence, but when he did come, he gave full notice previously in the columns of the Southern League that he was going to make a blaze. As to whether he had succeeded in making a blaze that night, he could appeal to those members who unfortunately had the infliction of hearing his speech. What did that spec hj amount to ? Sometimes it reached the verge of oratory, hut oftentimes fell to the depths of Billingsgate. He had taken upon himself to speak of the Assembly—he (Mr Haughton) took down his actual words—as “villainous plunderers”; had calumniated that body by saying its measures had been carried by “ fraud and rascality ” ; and that had been assented to by members of the Council

The Speaker : I call the lion, member to Order. He must not rcHcet upon members of the Council.

Mr Haughton would say what ho had to say. The Speaker : I must call the lion, member to order. It is against the rules of debate to repeat a statement which has been cpijtradicted by the hou. member making it. Mr Haughton was not reflecting upon members of the House. Ho repeated that he would say what he had to say. The Speaker : I shall not permit the lion, member to say anything reflecting on members of this House. The lion, member must not repeat his statement; if lie does, I must call him to the bar of the House. Mr Haughton would again express his surprise that Mr Speaker had allowed any member of the Council to speak of the Acts of the Assembly as having been carried by “ fraud and rascality. ’ The Speaker: 1 d'> not justify the hou. member in his remarks. I must appeal to members of the House to support me iu my position ; if they will not support me, it is time I should leave it. Mr Haughton repeated that the expressions were used, and until he rose no one called the member for Dunedin to order. The expressions were used, and they were very derogatory to the dignity of the Council. He repeated they were used again and again, and that until ho rose neither Mr Speaker nor any other member of the House of Hepresentatives rose to object to the hou. member saying that Acts were passed through the Assembly by fraud and rascality. Mr Speaker : The hon member will resume his seat ; he is in order in making the observations he now makes, Mr Haughton would still harp upon the

subject; it was disgraceful and discreditable to the House to have allowed such expres sious. Perhaps he would be again called to order; if so he would resume his seat. Tbememher for Dunedin could only be got down to the House for five minutes ; and then unfortunately he came down to make a two hours’ speech. Where was he then ? Absent, of course. Was the head of the Government prepared to support the lino of argument used by the member for Dunedin ? Had that member yet taken up a position in the Council which justified him in calling his colleague for Dunedin —the representative of the largest constituency in Otago—a pantaloon, a seutinv'nt that had been applauded and grinned at by the Provincial Secretary (Mr Reid denied this.) Would the Provincial Secretary justify that? he hoped he would. He did not blame the member for Dunedin so much as he blamed the Government for encouraging him ; it was perfectly well known that Mr Barton was brought down to make what he was plea ed to call a blaze. No one in the house could enjoy a blaze better than he (Mr Haughtou), but he must object to such a blaze as they had had. There had been no argument; no single reason adduced in support of his views ; it was simply abuse, and railing, and importations of the harangues the lion, member had indulged in in the mar-ket-place of Melbourne, surrounded by old tar barrels, and which nearly subjected the deliverer to penal consequences. At these jeus (Vesprit of the member for Dunedin the Provincial Solicitor had laughed; and he (Mr Haughton) had laughed too, because he thought that learned gentleman was such a good judge of what should be laughed at. In the course of his speech, the lion, member had used the words seven time Carthago delenda est, and iu his impassioned manner had told the House that Carthago shall be delenda est. He did not believe the hon. member knew how to construe it. It was very plain the quotation was inconsistent with grammar. Then he had used four times, “Deleelah;” he (Mr Haughton) supposed he mean 1 ; Delilah. The lion, member had not even acquainted himself with the name of the lady iu question ; and it was a shame that her name should hi taken in vain. Then there was the illustration of the Philistines and the Lion, which he could not understand ; but perhaps the Provincial Treasurer would be able to explain it. There was auoth t expression which had been very frequently used—be had written it down no less than seven times—“ ground and lofty tumbling he had seen none of it; he thought, moreover, it was a mistake, as it implied occasionally “leaving your seat,” and that the Government carefully avoided. If so much classical lore were displayed on future occasions, it would fie necessary for some members to bring a key with them; and lor others to study at the University. It would be well if the hon member for Dunedin gave notice once a fortnight, so that members might he able to look up authorities, and bring down their classical dictionaries and the En lyclopcedia Brittij, fica; then possibly (he hon. member’s arguments might be understood. As it was, the gist of his argument could be compressed into the bite of a ilea, which would he mjderst od by the Provincial Solicitor. The hon. member had gravely informed them that be had discovered that Picton was the capital of M arlborough ; since he had' made such a great discovery in geography, he hoped he would discover some truths in logic and in facts before he left the House.

Mr Reid’s speech was very lengthy, and at times forcible. He opened by characterising Mr Hanghton’s speech as a disreputable tirade against the member for Dunedin, and wound up with a peroration, the concluding portion of which was that “ the resolutions of Mr Cargill are namby-pamby, contemptible resolutions; they shrink from the difficulty, and do not at all meet the difficulties which we propose to deal with in our resolutions. He brings them down to this Council, and asks it to adopt them, that they may be sort to Wellington, which 1 think to be one of the most foolish acts that could be performed by this Council. 1 do not think they will be carried by anything approaching a considerable minority.” The debate was continued till nearly two o’clock this morning, when the motion for adjournment and Mr Haughton’s amendment—That the Bill bo read that day six months—were negatived. The voting on the first motion was as f diows : Ayes. 15—Basstiau, Browne, G. F. C.; Cavgil] (teller), Daniel, Driver, Galbraith, Haughton (teller), Holmes, Mervyn, M‘Arthur), M'Giashau, Reynolds, Robertson, Seaton, and Webster. Noes, 20. —Allan, Armstrong, Bastings, Barr, Bathgate, Bradshaw, Brown, J. C.; Cantrell, Clarke, Cutten, Duncan (teller), Henderson, Hickey, Hutcheson, Lumsden, M'Kenzie, Reid (teller), Shand, Sumpter, and Thomson.

Pairs.—Ayes : M'Lean, Turnbull, Noes Barton, Green.

This Day. Mr R. B. Cargill moved the resolution of which he had given notice to reduce the cost of hoard of pupils residing .at the High School, exclusive of school fees, to L3O, instead of L.V2 10s. As reasons, he said that so high a charge tended to prevent the extended utility of the sqhqql, as fifty guineas was more than ipany parents could affprd to pay. He considered such a school should be self-supporting, and with this object in view he suggested raising the school fee from LS to LLO annually. Mr Reynolds did not think it was advisable at present to lay down a cast-iron rule reducing the charge at once to li'K). He suggested that the question should be remitted to the Government and Education Board, during the recess, to make enquiries, with a view to the reduction of the cost of. board to L3O annually. The Hon. Mr Holmes spoke to the motion. The Provincial Secretary agreed with much that had been said ; but there was some understanding with the Rector that fifty guineas should be allowed to be charged for boarders. It was fixed on the recommendation of several select committees. It was not compulsory on the part of the Rector to maintain boarders at that rate; and the question was whether the Government should take that department into their own hands. ft was intended, by placing children under the Rector's control, to give them a polish which was necessary to enable them to mix with their equals in after life. He read passages from former committees recommending fifty guineas to be fixed, exclusive of school fees. He thought no alteration should be made. He should be glad if the cost of board could be reduced to thirty pounds, but it ought not to he done at the

expence of an individual. After considerable discussion, the mover accepted Mr Reynolds’ amendment. Mr Haugh ton’s amendment, affirming the desirability of the school being made self-supporting, by increasing the fees and reducing the expenses of the educational staff, was negatived by 13 to 20. Mr Cargill’s motion, as amended, was therefore carried. (Left sitting.)