THE AMENITIES OF THE VICTORIAN ASSEMBLY.

Evening Star, Issue 4081, 25 March 1876, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE AMENITIES OF THE VICTORIAN ASSEMBLY.

A contributor to the * Melbourne Telegraph’ says:—lf any backwoods savage had happened to be “doing” Australia the other day, and had dropped into the House to see how his white brother comported himself in the great palaver, he would doubtless have felt anything but assured of the advantage of civilisation over the savage state. How he would have stared at hearing the “ great chiefs” in council applying such terms to one another as “ mean skunk,” “ d d sweep,” “unmitigated liar,” “pup,” and other names equally expressive and elegant, accompanied by imputations of drunkenness and playing fast and loose with money not their own. One hon. member said he looked upon the “ wishy washy vaporing” of another “as the emanation of some miserable squirt of imbecility.” The hon. member whose oratory had been thus cruelly spoken of was not long in detecting a strong facial resemblance between his critic and a gorilla, to the immense delight of all around. Nor were these legislative amenities confined to words. Blows have been struck, and frequent invitations given by one member to another to step outside and have it out, when he assured him he would give him as nice a pair of black eyes as ever he had in his life. It must be confessed that would be by far the more manly and dignified way of settling their disputes, instead of scolding one another like a number of drunken fishwives.