ECCENTRICITIES FROM “HANSARD.”

Globe, Volume VIII, Issue 1073, 5 December 1877, Page 3

ECCENTRICITIES FROM “HANSARD.”

WAIKOTTAITI —ITS IGNOHANCL. The Hon. Captain Fraser, in moving (he second reading of the Waikouaiti Athenaeum Bill, thought ho need not dilate upon the advantages of athonaums, as that subject had been dwelt upon ad nauseam. He would only say that he knew of no place which required instruction, particularly political ins'ruction, eiore thy i! Wy.ikouciiti» ITS -3AI.t T 3BIXY. The Hon, Captain Fraser, apeairing in support oi a Harbor Board for Waikouaiti said he had been connected with Waikouaiti since he first came to the colony. He believed that he was its first representative, md he asked the Hon. tire Speaker to appoint the first Resident Magistrate there, the climate was so salubrious that at the age of eighty-one years that gentleman was still acting as Resident Magistrate. Hon. gentlemen in the Council did not know anything about Waikouaiti. It would some day be the Brighton of Otago. The air was most salubrious. There was a gentleman living there

upwards of eighty years of age who had recently been made a father. It was a place t( which many people might go who wished to renew their vitality. SIR GEORGE OBEY IN GRIEF. Sir G. Grey—Sir, one month 1 have been in office, and during that month a Fury ha; pursued me, in the shape of the hon. membei for Egmont. He has given me no rest. He has occupied by reproaches every moment ol my time. He has been doing nothing but clamouring for return to office again. 1L has embittered my existence here, springing to his feet at every moment with a vote ol want of confidence, or inducing the representative of Wellington City to propose vote of censure ; and then, quarrelling with him for trying to put himself at the head oi the Opposition, so that, perchance, he might be sent for by the Governor, and thus prevent the hon. member for Egmont from again enjoying his monthly pay, he compelled the hon. member for Wellington City to withdraw the notice of his motion. Such are the difficulties that I have had to contend against during all this month. Mr McLean—Sir, if 1 were to use the same pitiful voice and take out my handkerchief and weep, it is possible that I also might get some sympathy from hon. members. It only required the hon. gentleman to take out his handkerchief and wipe his eyes to complete the scene. But I venture to make t his remark: that if any other hon. member had been guilty of using such language as the hon. gentleman has used he would have been hooted down. Amongst other rambling statements, the hon. gentleman said the object of the late Government was to keep in office, and to carry out schemes for the benefit, of their friends rather than for the advancement of the public good. It is very easy to make such wild statements, but why did not the lion, gentleman particularise instances in support of that statement ? He could not do so, for the reason that no such cases existed. 1 dare him or any other hon. member to point to one single instance where we have benefited our friends to the sacrifice of public interests, or to point to any cases where the late Government perpetrated any injustice, either directly or indirectly, by which the public interest suffered. He said that we were in possession of large sums of money which were squandered to benefit our friends. The very contrary is the fact. THE MINISTRY MADE HAN'T. Sir G. Grey —I believe the House feels that the present system of finance is unsound, and that it is necessary that a great change should take place in New Zealand—that a policy shall be established which shall be the policy of the people and not of a class. I and my colleagues are determined to strive to establish such a policy, and to base it upon such a sound system of representation that it will be the fault of the people themselves rf it is ever disturbed after we have once established it. If we succeed in doing that, I, for myself, shall be prepared to pass away from this world; and I know that my colleagues, on their part, will be prepared to retire from public life, and to rest contented that they have conferred a vast boon upon the inhabitants of Hew Zealand. Mr McLean—The Premier lias endeavoured to throw dust in the eyes of the people of Hew Zealand by the use of high-down language which I could never venture to imitate. Ido not profess to have a fine (low of language, neither have I that facility for gulling the public which the Premier possesses; but I venture to say that all the gulling he has indulged in will not satisfy the public of Otago and Canterbury that he is justified in robbing them of that which is their right. He says all he cares for now is to put the finances of the co untry on a good footing; but I am sure that, if Hew Zealand has to wait until that hon. gentleman puts the finances on a firm footing, it will have to wait for a long time indeed. I may say for myself that I would not at all mind that hon. gentleman having the control of the affairs of Hew Zealand for a year, for then, I believe, he would show his utter incapacity in his old days to govern the country. It does not do for a Eip Van Winkle to come forward for the purpose of taking charge of the affairs of a colony inhabited as this is by a very energetic and enterprising people. The man who undertakes that duty must not have lain dormant for a number of years and hidden himself on an island far away from the people. Such a man must not think that he can come out and take up the same position that he Held before he retired to his island home. Things have greatly changed since the hon. gentleman went into retirement, and he could not assume the position he once held. It is not easy for a man who is absent only for a year to come back and pick up the thread of affairs. He said he was going to extricate the country from its embarrassment, and to free the people. I have no doubt that be can relieve the country of its embarrassment by perpetrating a robbery on the Middle Island, an operation not needed and quite uncalled for. I utterly repudiate the idea that there was any embarrassment; but, even were it so, what has that to do with freeing! the people ? I do not know a freer people than the people of Hew Zealand ; and of this I am sure ; that, for every poor, unfortunate man in Hew Zealand, you will find ten in any of the neighbouring colonies.