PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Evening Star, Issue 3265, 7 August 1873, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

{BY OUR SPECIAL REPORTER.)

Wellington, August 1. The Hon. the Speaker has fallen foul of the Post and the Press generally, His industry must be equal to his ability; he intends to surpervise all our correspondence and see that we distort not facts aud color not opinions of gentlemen under his control. He reminded ua that we occupied a place in the gallery by privilege of the House, remembering possibly that ho holds his Speakership on the same terms. The Post reported the Minister of Justice as having said that he had fathered Bills he had never read. All the people in the gallery so understood him, but it appears they were mistaken. So the Hon. Speaker desired the attendance of the Post reporter at 5.30 p.m. After the conclusion of the evening sitting he stated business would prevent his attendance —and in doing so ho acted foolishly—when he was informed that his ticket to the reporters’ gallery would be suspended. It appears, however, the hon. gentleman thought better of it, as at 7 30 the armed constable who acts as doorkeeper informed hiip that he might enter, A. number of aristocrats, as well as housebreakers, an instinctive dislike of every person connected with the Fourth Estate, froip the poqr dpvil who deals in ink, to thp gentleman who manufactures the leading thunder. But one would have imagined a Speaker of a miniature L'nghsh parliament would have known better than to break a lance with the Press. He should have remembered the motto of the Bruce Herald. All New Zealand who read papers will have an opportunity of hearing of this matter to-morrow morning, so I intend to dilate a little. The editor of the Post took the onus of what was said to be misreported in his paper on hia own shoulders, as he should have done, and informed the Speaker, with well-deserved, scant courtesy, that though he may lecture the members of the House when they prove refractory he must refrain from so doing to any of his staff, ihe Speaker, as the Yankees say, ‘‘cut up rough” at this “ retort courteous," and laid the subject fully before the House : his dignity was hurt, his authority had been ignored, he had placed himself in a false position, he was like a wilful woman who had got into a bog ; and he then threw him seif; on the' sympathies of his hearers to tell him what to do, to pave Ills* self-respect and 1 sop the his wounded feelingp, Sq thqs, for * your readers, tbo premier told him that

people who fell out with the Press generally jot the worst of the dispute, and the Press in any discussion would get the best of the House. Mr Gillies said reporters’ inaccuracy should be condoned, as they had a difficulty m hearing. The hon. Mr Stafford said such small inaccuracies should not be noticed ; Mr Luckie informed him that the best way would have been to have sent a note to the proprietor, requesting correction of the error —that the question ought not to have been brought before them ; Major Atkinson told him reporters were respou-ible to the public, not the House— Hanmrd spoke for them they were referred to newspaper reports—their own reporters they relied on, and not those in the Press gallery. The member for the Dunstan then said he congratulated the Post on its gentlemanly tone—that it appeared its columns would be less ribald than last session; but failed to see any difference between misquoted reports and distorted views expressed in political leaders. (1 give opinions expressed, it will be remembered, not verbatim utterances.) Now the hoc. gentleman who presides over the House felt as though he were coming to grief on the matter, and wished the subject to end ; but one or two other members spoke on the subject ; and Mr Swanson advised the House and the Speaker not to bark before they could bite. Now, 1 have no per soual feeling on the matter at at all, but this Ido feel should be publicly known. I am your known and accredited correspondent ] lere —(I may share the same fate as the Post reporter.) I have ray ticket for admission to the gallery as your representative like other representatives of other papers. I get my pigeon hole, and all that kind of thing j but if I appear in the House, as twice romiu fed of last evening, the sooner such privilegefalls into desuetude the better. We have no right to be excluded from aught that concerns the public weal, by the irritability of any new pledged Minister or Knight. It is my business to write facts. The Speaker was desired to read the letter sent him. He read a portion of it only ; and said he hoped he should never he placed in a similar position. It may be presumed he referred, by the “ positiou,” to his Speakership. He prohibits us seeing the House in its devotional humor in the morning—we have to wait till prayers are offered ; and this evening he stationed a policeman at the door to prevent us entering our gallery until his august highness had taken the chair. When John Thomas Smith went Home and solicited knighthood, he was told he stunk of rum ; there may be a stench from new patents of nobility, but comparisons are odious I feel I have failed to do this subject justice, but I have this con solation, every paper in New Zealand will help to show that though we may be slaves of the lamp we are not slaves of self-imagined authority. The House decided we should be free from any interference in the future, unless some gross and wilful perversion of facts took place. There is no doubt about the fact that Julius Vogel (I disdain using his appendages: you would not think of Pitt or Bismarck as having anything but the on ■ uarae), of all the men who came here in the Australian Exodus, is the one man of mark yet turned up. He is a Naul among his brethren. To use a cricketing phrase, he “is good all round, ■’ or a hedgehog rolled up armed at all points. He is a double firs: Colonial mado. It is rich to hear some of your clodocrats question and advise him. He mu't aho have some good nature, or much patience; who else could listen to the “reason of fools?” I remember a story being told of a lady in the times of the Stuarts asking an obtuse Scotchman at the ( hurt how it was that all his countrymen who appeared in England were highly culti vatrd and gentlemanly men His reply was that a watch was kept on the Borders, and only those up to par were allowed to go from home. Sue replied, “ I suppose your lordship was smuggled then.” Now, the Independent and other papers are never tired of telling us Otago is not New Zealand (and I believe this fact is pretty well known in the •ninth when there are small war bills to be paid), but L believe this under-rating and sneering that so often takes place at our ex pense results < ften from the men who get smuggled into the House of Kepresentatives, Now, the member for Bruce, who has a whining voice, and should have gone into the Stylites or Dervish business, instructed the Premier on the -übsidy Agreement Ratification Bill. Well, the Premier listened to him. 'I here is no wealthier, fairer, more prosperous portion of New Zealand tiian the district of Bruce. Why then should its people indulge in political contraband representatives ? He wanted to know how New Zealand would be able to pay the subsidy when her goldfields failed. I have not yet had the pleasure of seeing the Hon. Mr Stafford in a passion, but he speaks, as he looks, like a gentleman. All this comes to those who know how to wait. The Superintendent of Auckland appears to lead the Opposition at present; and he does one thing, carp. It appeared to-night as though the Opposition were anxious to tease the Premier on the Telegraph Bill, but he told the House plainly, or implied, that he feared neither the vote of the House nor the country to endorse his deeds. There was quite a lively time over this Telegraph Bill: sharp-shooting took place ; but the neatest thing of all was the subdued scathing sarcasm of the Premier castigating the selfsufficient member for the Avon. The whole thing will show in Hansard, but it told. It must rankle intolerably in a member of the sanifre ami to receive lessons in etiquette from oue of “the other side. When we came over to mortify Old Identity, if a waif happened to stray into the “ patrician 1 ’ settlement, the occupants thereof were like Bendigo Mac—wanted to turn the poor beggar round, and see if he were branded ‘•Convict, with care.” There is a lot of this kind of thing in outlying settlements, like Wellington, still places that we have not yet overrun ; but, like the Maoris, it is fast being stamped out, t don’t know what news you get by wire, but the Government do not intend to give effect to the resolution of the Goldfields Committee of 1871, to increase the vote for water supply te half a million.