PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Evening Star, Issue 3261, 2 August 1873, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

GSY .OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.)

Wellington. July 19, The Paterson goes to-morrow, so I send you my week’s collection of odds and ends, i he wire relieves me of half my work ; it gives your readers the framework of all that transpires in the session, leaving the outlines to be filled up by your reporter. The House will doubtless settle to business next week, provided that the Colonial Architect will in the meantime render it possible for members to hj ar each other speak. The reporters will then, perchance, glean what is said, a thing at present impossible. Sir J. 0. Wilson, K. 08., K.C.S., &c., yesterday, labored heavily to perpetrate a joke on this subject. It was a very feeble one, had it been given with spirit, about deaf children becoming dumb; and hinted at the possibility of members becoming mute to the country through the difficulty of hearing and being heard. The Independent says it ig impossible for an architect to tell how sound may travel in or fill a house good acoustic qualities without actual experiment. This is a piece of information that should be as widely known as the Knight’s joke, each equally important. The same journal this morning says ‘The result will be that in all probability members will find themselves constantly voting on the side they did not intend.” You can fancy the disgust of the member for Bruce to find himself in the same lobby as iVJacandrew, or the Wellington members -»otmg for the Government if they don’t get their L 210,000 subsidy. :t it. rumored that unless the acoustic qualities of the building are considerably improved, when the Estimates are being passed there will be a very great difficulty in hearing aught in reference to the Colonial Architect’s salary. Rumor, however, is often a lying jade. You will see by the order papers I send you that on the first business day Mr Murray asked Ministers the third and fourth questions on the list. This man must have been born asking questions, like Richard was with teeth. His voice is peevish, and his mode of eliciting information fretful. He is jerky in his manner, glancing momentarily from side to side ; and from the importance he attaches to any question he may take in hand, a stranger would be led to believe him the arbiter of important destinies. He is eminently skilful in the discovery of mares’ nests—many of which have been described in your columns —as was apparent on motion four on the appointment of the Printing Committee. The hen. gentleman had a grievance he wished to reveal—he wanted a paper printed last session—a most important one, and his wish was not acceeded to. It was apparent the Printing Committee was a political committee, having the power to determine what papers should lie printed for pub lie information. It should have men of common sense in it, and not printers. After Mr Luckie had given the member for Bruce the credit of having found a new idea in this political committeeship, Mr Steward explained to the House that the return asked for last year was one that it would be very troublesome and expensive to print; that all the information it contained was contained in other papers published last session, while the Speaker informed the lion, member that on him rested the onus of determining what papers should be printed (not authorised by the House), and the committee was appointed only for bis assistance. JSow, Mr Murray’s fretful and impatient views will take too much time for me to consider and describe in detail, but when he has any merit accruing to him I will acquaint your readers fully of the facts. I had no intention of saying anything about him, but on looking over the order papers bis name caught my eye. The member for Christchurch, who is supposed to have gone into the House on the working man’s ticket, brought forward'a case of what he considered a breach of privilege. it will be fresh in the minds of most people who care aught about political affairs, that the Messrs Brogden last session proposed certain terms to the Government under which they were willing to form a company in London for the purpose of undertaking “the major portion of the project d public works” in Now Zealand. After giving to the proposals “full consideration,” the Government stated their “ regret that they were not able to recommend them to the Legislature ” The representative of the firm, Mr John Henderson, C. E., seems, however, dissatisfied with the Government for declining the proposition, and has, by the publishing of a pamphlet on the subject, ( appealed from the Ministry to the country

for its ratification. The pamphlet bears the mark of a skilled hand in its arrangement and manufacture ; and the Evening Post accused Mr E. J. Wakefield of being its author, calling him “the bred advocate” of the firm and contended his occupying such a position detracted from his public utility, and would place his actions in an equivocal light, Mr Wakefield appealed to the Douse to preserve him from such imputations being cast on his character, but the House heeded not his appeal. So the Post, emboldened by the immunity it had obtained, two evenings after, further castigated Mr Wakefield very severely. Tne member for Mount Ida lias taken the Naseby sludge channel under bis protection, I presume his constituents will be gratified by the knowledge of the fact. He wanted on Friday evening, at half-past five, to bring the subject before the House, but the Speaker considered that it had better be postponed. The Government have failed, somehow or other, in not putting the sludge channel on a proper footing. I have no idea what it means, but some plan or other exists, and the Government are going to put it right and satisfy Mr Mervyn. I believe it is not deep enough either, but no doubt the hon. member will get it deepened. On the question that Parliamentary papers and two copies of Hansard be forwarded to the various mining associations throughout the Colony, Mr Webster proposed that “all pastoral and mining associations, and indeed every description of association that could be mentioned, should be included while Mr Swanson suggested “that saw-mills and quartz associations” should be similarly favored. The motion was carried for the present session, the sneers notwithstanding. Perhaps Mr Swanson may not know what a mimiig§association is—has no conception of the influence these associations will have on political life, therefore he may be excused for his ill-timed jest; but should he ever have to contest an Otago Goldfields district for a seat, he would probably hold different opinions, Mr Webster has no excuse whatever, and his jest may yet be brought up in judgment against him. The Independent is rather hard on the member fur the Dunstan on some remarks he made on Mr Murray’s motion about purchasing land from natives in an irregular manner. The Superintendent of Wellington complimented the member for Bruce for having brought forward such an important matter, and he deserves great credit for having done so; but whan Mr Shepherd said was also right, that the matter ought to have been settled long ago, without the Interference or prompting of Southern members. He said that he was pleased that the hon. gentleman (Mr Fitzhcrbert) now held such correct views on the subject, but regretted that he had not advocated them during the past two years ; and then arose the difficulty Australian men experience knowing accurately what was done in the Colony prior to their advent. Mr Fitzherbert re'erred to his action in 1862 Now, eleven years in New Zealand history at our rate of living, since Reed opened Gabriel’s means much ; there was no Hansard in those days; the New Zealand Company’s people and the old identities had things nearly all their own way, andthey still hunger after the power ami prestige that has passed away into abler hands. The member for the Dunstan considered 1862 the Dark Ages of the Colony, ere gold, Vogel, or railways had come into vogue, I do not know whether because a man is a politician he is bound to know all that others have done and said from infancy upwards. Mr Hallenstein’s resignation is considered certainly ill-timed, displaying both a recklessness of public interests, and an excessive regard either for his own interest or convenience Why did he not resign his seat in the recess. The district will now be unrepresented for a month. He wooed and won the votes of bis constituents, because be lived among them, and his interests were supposed to be identical with their own ; he was elected because his m ans and position would place him above office-seeking—be-cause ho would want nothing but the good of tiie district. His political life has been short, and by no means brilliant. He did not shine as a legislator above average goldlields twinkling, and there is no reason to doubt but t!:at the constituency and country will get unequally well by some more stable man occupying the position of the chosen of WaUatip. He appears never to have known his future course of action since his election. There may be circumstances connected with his resignation with which we are as yet unacquainted, but the above is the reflex of general opinion. The Tablet of the 12th instant makes an amende on the subject of immigration as follows “ Some time ago, we stated that although search had been made in the Dublin papers for an advertisement in reference to emigration to this Colony, none could be found. It now appears that, in the Nation of the 29th March, 1873, there is an advertisement on the subject; and that intending emigrants were to apply to Mr Mason, 22, Eden Quay, Dublin. There is in the same paper another advertisement as follows ‘ Emigration to New Zealand. Wanted, Local Agents in the different Counties of Ireland.’ It gives us much pleasure, even at the end of two years after the commencement of the scheme, to be able to make this announcement; and we hope the Irish Emigration to New Zealand will be honestly administered. Hitherto we have had great reason for complaint, and we still fear means may be found to defeat the good intentions and instrucions of the Minister in Wellington who has charge of the Immigration Department. None, however, will be more rejoiced than ourselves to find that we have been mistaken.” I believe it is not full enough to meet the facts of the case. In D2, pp. 18 and 19, Par. P. 1873, will be found a list of forty-six local emigration agents appointed in Ireland, and seventeen newspapers, in which New Zealand as an emigration field is advertised, 'the same paper is also, perhaps, unfair in its reference to the Nicol Fleming. Since Nov, 1, 1871, to June 21,. of this year, 7,585 souls have been introduced to the Colony as immigrants ; and of this number, Ireland has contributed 1,181 (see D 4, p. 4); and of the 6,516 souls despatched by the Agent-General, 842 are of the same nationality (see D 2, p. 42). The Tablet will, I hear, no doubt make a more full amende than it yet has ; or give positive contradiction as to the correctness of these official returns.