Our Wellington Letter

Feilding Star, Volume XII, Issue 32, 30 August 1890, Page 3

Our Wellington Letter

(from our own correspondent.) Wellington, August 28. Though the present session of Parliament has earned a name for itself on aceonnt of the bitterness of feeling which has been exhibited between various mem fcers on either side of the House, there is one member who vies with Mr " Sydenham ".Taylor for the position of " funny man " in the House. That honorable gentleman is Mr Jobn Eerr, who considerably enlivens the proceedings by his endeavors to find out " what the members are getting at." His little joke a few sessions ago about the importation of chamois into New Zealand is still green in the minds of many, and this session Mr Eerr has not been backward in providing members generally with a little harmless necessary fun. A few evenings ago he expressed his opinion that Ministers were only doing a certain thing for a " hox," but his efforts to amuse his fellow members reached the climax yesterday, when he objected to tbe words "a writ of subpoena ad testificandum, or a writ of subpoena duces tecum " appearing in the Arbitration Bill. He did not believe in these old fashioned ideas, and he wanted the plain English so that he might explain it to his constituents. Mr O'Connor had informed him that " duces tecum " meant " deuce take 'em," but he had his doubts ou the subject. However, on being assured' that tbere was no kind of profanity in the words used he somewhat reluctantly allowed the phrase to pass. If Mr Kerr continues his " wit," Mr Taylor will have to play second fiddle. An old gentleman, yes, a gentleman, made a request to the Benevolent Society this week for enough money to carry him to the country, where he might earn his living by gathering fungus. It came out in the discussion that ensued tbat the. old man, who is 74 years of age, puts himself under the care of the Society during the cold pitiless winter months, but at the first sign of fine weather he does not trouble charity all the summer. This should serve as an example worthy of all imitation to some " old soldiers " that we have known, for in nine cases out of ten " where there's a will there's a way." " Order three months provisions " is the advice of the husband to ids better half in the ;e troublesome times. That is good advice to those who can advance the " necessary " for that period, and I was very forcibly struck with the terrible possibilities which this great strike may occasion as I strolled down Queen's Wharf today just as the Manawatu was leaving for her destination with a crew of *' blacklegs," and as I looked into the determined faces of those wbo had struck to help their brothers across the water, some of them with only the clothes they stood in, which were anything but warm. As they stood quietly by and allowed the " blacklegs " to pass on unmolested or unnoticed, excepting by a few words of advice, there was a look in the Unionists faces that clearly Showed that if some arrangement is not quickly arrived at there will be serious trouble, even to bloodshed. As a rule, seamen, firemen and wharf laborers are not the kind of men who have been favored enough by fortune to enable them to lay in a store for a rainy day, and when starvation stares them and theirs in tbe face it is then that the animal appears in the man, and matters become serious. May this dark cloud that is overhanging this* bright New Zealand soon disappear and show the silver lining beyond.