THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Evening Star, Issue 3000, 30 September 1872, Page 4

THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

We continue Mr Ormond’s speech “PAI'L 1M!V” AM) UTS DOINGS. I might almost have reviewed, with the speech of flic honorable memb t for the Hutt, that of liis facto - urn. his Provincial Secretary, the member for Wairarapa (Mr Bunny), but t think he deserves a little separate attention, and therefore F will pass on from t he Superint l ndent t > the honorable member for Wairarapa. That honorable gentleman began by saying that he would give reasons for changing his opinions. I. do not know that the honorable gentleman need have troubled himself about that, for lie has changed his opinions very readily. Within the three or four y ars he has been not only on both rides, hut has also —what is not very usual—been “ whipping” on both sid.es. I think, if we had thought propel', he micht have been “ whipping” for us now ; but we thought it very much better not to have such a “ whip.” We knew that the honorable gentleman did ns more damage than good in the House, and he will do damage to the honorable member for Timaru before he has done with him. The honorable member went on to complain about the Manawatu Tramway : he complained that wc made the tramway on one side of the road instead of in the middle. He said wc were so ignorant as to make that mistake. Well, Ido not know what professional experience the honorable member has had : probably not greater than I have had myself. I found, on referring to the professional advisers of the Government on these matters, that tramways are always made on one side of a road, particularly when that tramway is going to have a locomotive running on it. That is one of the absurd charges which have been brought against the Government, which I think may thus be dismissed. Again, the honorable member regretted that the Brogdi n contracts were not open to public tender. If the honorable gentleman had held such an opinion last year, an objection of this nature might have come well from him. Last year he thought that small contracts were utterly ruinous to the country, but he then believed that the Masterton Kailway would be contracted for at once for its entire length, with the Messrs Brogden. The honorable gentleman, in his speech, said he had urged on the Government to use the local authorities : That is quite true : the Government was urged to allow the Provincial authorities of Wellington to survey and take entire charge of the railway to which I have Just alluded. More than that, the Wellington Provincial Government asked for the general conduct of the public works in the Province —that they should have the management of the roads ; in fact, to have the management of everything—that the General Government should delegate its functions to them, and that they should administer the public works in this Province. Whatever may be said in future of that system, in places where nperinteadents may bo suppoiters of the pub he works policy, and where they may he at distances away from the centre of government, that plea cannot be urged in Wellington, where the whole staff of the Colonial Government is resident, where that staff is infinitely better than the Province can pretend to have, and very much more capable of conducting the public works than any staff the Province has to carry out such works. The honorable member, a few months ago, went to the West Coast, and returned with a most direful account of how the public works were carried on in the Manawatu district. The Superintendent of Wellington followed, not very long afterwards, on a visit to the same locality, and lie came hack very much delighted with what he had seen. He said the Government had done a great deal towards opening up the district, I "and that Mr Stewart was an excellent officer. That gentleman was in charge of those particular works, and was fotmeily an officer of (lie Provincial Government of Wellington. He was (he best engineer the Province had. and has been for .some time in the employ of the General Govcrnmeul, in charge of the public works in the Manawatu district, w ere he resides. [ have here a little memorandum, which shows the idea of the honorable member for Wairarapa as to tin advantages the General Government would derive by delegating its powers totally and wholly to the Provincial Governments; it is both amusing and instructive. In one of those visits which the honorable gentleman was in the habit of making to the Government buildings, he called upon my honorable colleague, tbc Premier, and was pressing upon him (he desirability of handing over all these works to the Province. The following, 1 am informed by my honorable colleague the Premier, are almost the words he used : “Don’t you see that if yon hand over to ns the execution of the public works, it is far the best thing for you, Suppose we do the works extravagantly, and make all kinds of blunders, what is that to you?—the Provinces will be charged with it, and you will lie quite safe. When wc come to the Assembly, we shall be bound to support you. Don’t you sec, it will he a (irst-rato political move for you.”

This is a specimen of the style of inlluenee and pressure endeavoured to he put upon us hy the Superintendent of Wellington and his Provincial Secretary. This is the idea the honorable gentleman has of what the position uf a Colonial Government should he, and the nay in which ho would have the Government carry out its responsibility to the (Jo'ony. Mr Stafi-oiu) : Was it a private conversation 't

Mr Fox : J never had any private conversations with the honorable gentleman; the eon • ration took place in my own room, on public business. Mr On Moni) : Our communications with the honorable member, when he visited the Government buildings, were entirely on business matters. The honorable gentleman, by bis frequent visits to the public olliccs, as the I ton. the Colonial Secretary said, earned for himself the sobriquet of “ Paul Pry.” The honorable gentleman told the House that he kept a record of the time the public ollicors came to their work, and so on. 1 think it is a ’ ity the honorable gentleman has not something better to do. The honorable member blamed particularly the Under Secretaries for the Colony, who, it appears, have inemred las displeasure. It is quite natural ihat there should he some hostility between the honorable member for C airarapa and the permanent otiicers of the country, owing to tbe object of his frequent visits to the Government buildings during tbe recess, iiis visits are almost always about linance : in other words, he comes to see what he can get. 'I he arduous duty of the permanent officers has been to foil the honorable gentleman ; and therefore it is quite natural he should have a feeling

of hostility against them, and that he should, from his point of view, speak of the officers of the Treasury as he did. I really think that if the officers of the Treasury are able to keep him at a distance, they will be doing what they arc bound to do. Honorable members will recollect the accounts given by the Otago papers of the feeling in that community when the notorious burglar, Plummer—lately escaped from gaol—was at large : they represented that the people were all looking after their tills. So the Under Secretaries of iho Treasury had perpetually to look after the Colonial till, and guard it against the authorities of the Province of % Wellington, For the information of the honorable member for Timaru, I will give an idea of the pleasing behaviour of the honorable member for Wairarapa on his visit - to the Government buildings on occasions—and they arc numerous—when he has bad to retire without getting what be expected, lie has been in the habit of exclaiming, in those mild, gentle tones we are so accustomed to from him, “We put them in and we’ll put them out,” which, of course, was lu aru from one end of the buildings to the other. Mr Stafford ; He never put you in. Air Ormond : L suppose be thinks he did. I think the honorable member fur Timaru remembers that, last year, he himself spoke of that honorable gentleman in very singular terms, and I think he said the honorable gentleman did keep us in. Mr Stafford : Yes, he did keep you in. Mr Ormond : What a glorious position the honorable member for Wairarapa will be in if the honorable member for Timaru succeeds in putting us out of office, and the honorable member for the iiutt becomes Treasurer ! He will then have his own chief in office, and have almost in his own hands the key of the chest. 1 will leave the Colony to judge what the result will be. Ido not hesitate to say that the pressure put upon the Government of the Colony, during the time I have had my experience in the Government, by the Superintendent and Provincial Secretary of Wellington, has been most objectionable. I say, further, that it is only because we have refused to submit to their demands that we now see them in opposition to us and supporting the honorable member for Timaru. If the honorable member succeeds in getting upon these benches, knowing, as we do the position of the parties in this. House, he must know that he can only sit here by their will and under their control, and that they will have their pound of flesh out of the Colony as their payment. We might have had their support o.i those terms ; but should we have to go o it of office, we would sooner do so than accede to them. The conduct of those ho .orable gentlemen last session urged on that resolution which required that the session of the Assembly should be held at Dunediu, and we, know very well that the feeliifg is even stronger b>. the House now than it was last session. I say that if Wellington ceases to be the seat of Government, or if the Parliament of the country is removed from Wellington, she will have to thank those honorable gentlemen and their intrigues for causing it. lam very sorry that the honorable member for Wairarapa is not iu his place while 1 am speaking of these matters. (To he continued.)