ECCENTRICITIES FROM HANSARD.

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1051, 9 November 1877, Page 3

ECCENTRICITIES FROM HANSARD.

ME DONALD EEID ON DINNEES. Mr Reid—The hon. member for Totara liad referred to a speech made bj Sir Julius Yogel at Wanganui. With all due deference to the sayings of Sir Julius Yogel, after those sayings this House had considered the question fully, and there had been a very long discussion on the subject in Committee of Supply. Surely tho decision of this House was oi ! greater weight than the sayings of Sir Julius Yogel in an after-dinner election speech. ME. STOUT SHUFFLING. Mr Stout —What do we find to-night. To gratify pure party spite against the hon. member for Franklin Mr Speaker —Tho hon, member is not justified in using such language. Mr Stout —You hare not allowed me to finish my sentence. I say, to gratify pure party spite Mr Speaker —It is not necessary to finish the sentence, as the words used are not proper. Mr Stout —I submit that I have a right to finish my sentence, and I claim the privilege of doing so. T will finish my sentence. What I say is this : to gratify pure party spite, I have seen many votes given in this House; and I repeat it. Is there anything disorderly in that ? An Hon. Member—Yes. ME, SWANSON SYMPATHETIC, Mr Swanson —The provision in clause 14 of the Destitute Persons Bill seemed to him to be a most extraordinary one, and he would call the attention of the Government to it, as he intended to object to it in committee. The bearing of tho clause as it stood would be this: some poor girl would have an illegitimate child, and the father, a wealthy fellow, who did not want to have any more bother about it, would pay £IOO to get rid of the trouble. The father or mother of the girl would probably dissipate the £IOO in less than twelve months, and then forsooth the estate of tho young man is not liable for any further cost. The father could drive about in his carriage, and yet could not be compelled to contribute one farthing. If the State thought it desirable that such a provision should exist, let the £IOO be paid into the Public Treasury, so that an annuity might be purchased for the child as long as it was under the age of fourteen. He apprehended that the money was not to be spent, either by the mother or the relations of tho mother, on a “ spree.” It was intended to go towards the maintenance of the infant, and he hoped the Government would take care that that object was kept in view. He thought, also, that the Relieving Officer, or the Public Prosecutor, should conduct the cases of unfortunate girls who were compelled to take the fathers of their illegitimate children to Court. It was unfair that these poor girls should be bullied and browbeaten by tho lawyers employed to defend the case. It was pitiable to see these girls trembling and ashamed to look anybody in the face : that trial was hard enough, without expecting them to conduct their own case.

ME MOOBHOUSB MAGNANIMOUS. Mr Moorhouse (in the debate on Mr Lusk’s ease) —The hon. member for Dunedin City (Mr Stout) says that the majority, who hold similar views on this question to those entertained by myself, are actuated by party feeling—that this is party action. Well, sir, I thing, if it is parliamentary to say so, that that is an exceedingly insolent delivery of opinion, I cannot call it opinion. It is just as much opinion, in my view of the case, as the opinion of a counsel retained by an attorney to defend a malefactor before a common jury in a remote rural district. The honorable member evidently forgot that ho was not addressing a common jury—that he was not counsel for the defence, but that he was a legislator, having imposed upon him the careful duty of saving this House from, outside imputations of irregularities and improprieties. I am a professional man, after a fashion, Ido not arrogate to myself that eminence, that right to lecture other lawyers and other honorable members in this House, which is taken upon himself by the honorable member for Dunedin City. I have got a tolerably modest measure, I hope, of my own capability either to advise or lecture. But of this I am perfectly certain, that my own vote is given upon my honor, upon a careful reading of the evidence which the Committee have Drought to the consideration of the House, and upon which this motion is based. The honorable member for Dunedin City may rest assured that, if I am charged with any delinquency, after the powerful speech ho ‘made for tne defence just now, 1 shall certainly retain him, at any espouse, wherever ho is to be found. 6PAEK6 07 CBTVAUSY. The Hon. Mr Miller, in moving the sscord reading of the Weitahuna Town Bill, sard its object waa simply to change the name of tne town from “Havelock” to “Waitahuna." Jhei© three BayeJwltf IB Jfa*'

and that had caused considerable confusion in the Postal Department. The Hon. Captain Fraser was astonished that his honorable friend should propose to obliterate the glorious name of Havelock, the heroic and Christian soldier, the daring British warrior who resisted thousands and tens of thousands of armed rebels on behalf of his country. The honorable gentleman proposed to change the name of tire township from “Havelock” to “ Waitahuna,” which meant “ shallow water it would be more correct if he said shallow brains. How could the Post Office affairs be carried on if they changed the name from Havelock to Waitahuna ? There were 500 Crown grants in the town of Havelock which would be upset if the name were changed. This town of Havelock was the first to which that name had been given. He believed it was given by the Hon. the Speaker many years ago, when he had the honor to bo Superintendent of Otago. There was quite a chain of such names in the country. There wore Outrara, Havelock, Lawrence, Clyde, and Cromwell. Those names were sign-posts, which would show to future generations where they had come from. Those were the glorious names which his honorable friend wished to erase. If the honorable gentleman had any'poetry in his composition, he would remind him of those lines, — Lives of great men all remind ns We can make our lives sublime, And, departing, leave behind us Footprints on the sands of time. This was the name which the hon. gentleman wished to hand down to posterity. He was quite sure that no hon. member of this Council would do such a foul wrong as to erase the glorious name of Havelock from the land. Ho would call upon every British soldier in the Council, and every gentleman who had a spark of chivalry in his bosom, to support him in the amendment he would now move, That this Bill be read a second time that day six months. The Hon. Colonel Brett was surprised at his hon. friend taking charge of such an offensive Bill —one that disgraced a British name by substituting such an obscure name for it, the obscure name of a Maori creature for that of a noble, chivalrous, and gallant commander—a name which posterity would reverence for hundreds and hundreds of years—the name of a commander who was as gallant as Marlborough or Wellington. He had the honor of serving nnder General Havelock’s command in the Indian Mutiny. That General risked his life at the relief of Lucknow, and avenged hundreds of European women and children, who were cruelly massacred in India. The hon. gentleman ought to bo ashamed of himself for endeavoring to substitute such a paltry name for that of Havelock. Ho would support the amendment of his hon. and gallant friend, that the Bill bo read a second time that day six months, or six hundred thousand years hence. The amendment of the military member was carried.