PARLIAMENTARY INCIDENTS.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1021, 3 October 1877, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY INCIDENTS.

THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE. THE GOVERNMENT'S MAJORITY. Wellington, October 2, 8 p.m. To the great relief of everyone the debate finished last night with a majority of nine for the Government. Mr Kennedy voted, though, in the face of his alleged disqualification, it was not expected that he would do so. Had Mr Joyce been present the Government would have had a majority of ten. The only speech worthy of remark last night was Mr Ballance's. He seems to have a hatred for Mr Whitaker, against whom he spoke strongly while criticising the Government policy. Towards the end of the debate the Opposition members went a good deal into the general policy of the Government, thus practically making it a general no-confidence debute. The Government will probably push the business through quickly, but the Opposition show no signs of improvement, for Sir George Grey wasted all this afternoon on the subject of members' speeches having been misreported. It has been a subject of congratulation that the managers of the late debate did not ask Sir George Grey or Mr Rees to speak. The latter was hardly able to contain himself about it. While disqualification has been so much talked of, it is said that Mr Button has been guilty of the same breach of the Standing Orders as Mr Lusk in having been paid last session for carrying a Bill through the House. I hear that the Solicitor-General has given his opinion against the disqualification of Mr Kennedy and Mr Larnach, on the ground of the fault in the Act to which. I referred last night. The second reading of the Education Bill in the Legislative Council is meeting with much opposition. The Lands Bill and the Mines Bill, in committee, will probably occupy all the evening. As I write, Dr. Hodgkinson is making a long prosy speech on the former.