The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1886. Parliament

Feilding Star, Volume VII, Issue 139, 4 May 1886, Page 2

The Feilding Star. TUESDAY, MAY 4, 1886. Parliament

* ,-, Thx "Gathering" has been sounded, and members of Parliament will, for the next week or ten days, be answering to the call from all -parts of the colony. The session now about to commence will be one of the most interesting that has seen held for some years. There are no very vital public matters or burning questions to be settled. The interest will lie in the new kaleidoscopic views of parties which will be presented. The question which many of the members will find most difficult to solve will be, "Under which king, Besonian?" The loyal few who have stuck to Major '. Atkinson "in evil report and in good report" will hare no difficulty in this ; but many of the Southern members — who clung to the skirts of the garments of Sir Julius Vogel only while they looked to him to drag them from the abyss of depression which threatened to engulph their several electorates, by the expenditure of public money in the construction of the East and West Geast Railway— will find it much harder now the subject is settled without the intervention of Parliament, further than making the necessary land grants, to find a raison d'etre for loyalty Jto their nominal leaden ' In view of an early general election, together with the redistribution of seats, individual members will strive hard to die on the winning side so that they may meet their constituents, new or old,, with a palatable story of the doughty deeds they did for them individuaUyV and for the colony as a whole. Many of them know — too well for their peace of mind— that their places in Parliament will know them again no more; and they must retire into private life again, which their experiences gained as public men will have fitted them to adorn with greater splendour than when they left its seclusion. Perhaps this is looking too far ahead, but we are merely forecasting what will enter the minds of many/' members when they join in the first fray of the session. The once

popular but inefficient caucus will no ! longer prove a refuge for the wavering or the timid, inasmuch as the ecca&ion for it will have passed. The rumours we have heard from time to time of the " strained relationships" that have obtained for some time between Sir Julius Vogel and the Hon Mr Stout, will either be confirmed or flatly contradicted. The alliance which may be attempted to be created between j Mr Osmond and Mr Stout, by certain judicious friends who have discovered • so many point* of resemblance in their political opinions, will probably end in — smoke. When the session ends we believe the Ministers now in office Will still hold the reins of power, and in the election which will afterwards ensue, they will return to the House with many new followers added to their ranks.