Wellington Notes.

Feilding Star, Volume XVIII, Issue 50, 27 August 1896, Page 2

Wellington Notes.

(From oar own correspondent.) MAKING HISTOBY. The New Zealand Parliament is engaged making history with a vengeance at present. The proceedings of the present session have had the acorn and contempt of onr neighbours in Australia, and even that champion of Socialism, the Sydney Bulletin, has given up seeing virtue in the proceedings of the Liberal Government and has turned round and roundly denounced " Digger Dick " and his friend Ward in very vigorous Anglo-Saxon. But as the session lengthens out the burlesque of legislation becomes broader and more offensive to common sense. Taking one day with another, perhaps last Friday's proceedings indicated more than any other how our Parliament has fallen from its former high estate. The afternoon began with the Mclntosh incident. It was a humiliating enough business for a member to have enjoyed himself to such an extent as to have been sent home in charge of a Government messenger, and it would only have been decent is Ministers to have allowed the incident to stop there. But they are so determined to carry out the assertion made by Mr Seddon that same day, ** That he never forgets his friends," thai they determined that their ever faithful follower from Wallace should be no loser by his indiscretion 1 .and pitiful exhibition of himself in the streets of Wellington. So they tabled a resolution that leave of absence be granted for the rest of the session on account of ill health. To nnderstand the purport of the last five words, Standing Order 433 says : "Ho member shall absent himself from the service of the House for more than one week at a time without leave ; and any member infringing this order shall be held guilty- of contempt." And contempt means a fine not exceeding £50 or being com imtted for 1 4 days. The offending member had been sent home and, in ordinary course, would have very properly forfeited his £20 per month. But, having faithfully voted for Ministers, it was desirable in their eyes that the colony should still pay the honorarium after the member's career of usefulness, or otherwise, as a legislator had ceased. So Mr Seddon with that aptitude he has for finding excuses for outrageous misapplication of the public revenues, provided himself with medical certificates from a couple of friendly doctors, who variously described the complaint as " bronchitis " and " mental worry;" It would be an easy matter for a doctor to certify that any or all of a man's organs were out of repair under such circumstances and with that in view Mr G. J. Smith moved to strike out the " ill-health " part of the motion. This, if successful, would have deprived the representative of Wallace of his £20 per month, so Government made a party question of it, and Ministers Seddon, MeKenzie, Hall-Jones, and Mr Frank Lawry all waxed eloquent on the virtue of charity. In the end a division was taken and Ministers of course had their way, such votaries of temperance as Messrs Carnell, Hall, and Hall-Jones voting for the retention of the " iU-bealth " clause. This little interlude took up over an hour and a half and as Parliamentary sittings last about £60 per hour Mr Macintosh's mental worry stands in at £100, plus the £20 per month so long as Parliament is in session. A visitor from the States was near me when this important debate ended and he remarked : " Stranger, I guess this all-fired country must have more dollars than you know what to do with." Had he attended the even* ing sitting he would have heard the Premier and Treasurer introducing a Bill to borrow a million of money and owning up to the paralysing fact that unless the Bill were passed that the colony could not pay its Civil Servants or its co operative workers at the end of the month. This admission was the natural consequence of five years blowing and boasting of carrying on public works out of revenue and of having a " net surplus of £215,558 n on March 31st last. Our Electro* Finance, Professor Richard John, with nil his seized sinking funds and sly borrowing, has touched bed rock at last and is face to face with such a withered up exchequer as the colony never had before. His speech on introducing what he calls his " Aids to Revenue Bill " showed that even he was at a loss for excuses for the Bill, and acknowledged that some of the loan would have to be raised forthwith to meet pressing claims. But the desire to have the spending of it without Parliamentary control was there in very bold print. There are eleven railways mentioned which are to have a quarter of a million divided among them, and new locomotives, raili, sleepers and other material to be provided for completed lines. Regarding tbis last item there is an uneasy feeling among members who take the trouble to study returns that our railways have been' made to look prosperous at the cost of proper maintenance and that it will require a large sum for repairs and renewals. At any rate no proper account bus been furnished for the past two years. Apart from this, even if tbe whole quarter of a million were spent in unopened lines, it would have no appreciable effect. It would require at least five millions to complete them or to carry them to a revenue earning point and it is noticeable that tbe Midland railway ia included in the schedule.