THE NON-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1698, 30 July 1879, Page 3

THE NON-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

[pEOM TUB " PEBSS” COBEEfiPONDENT.] WELLINGTON, July 28. The long debate on the reply to the address is now virtually over, and no more words are likely to be spent upon it until the vote of the House to-morrow tells the Grey Government that it has heen weighed in the balance and found wanting. The speeches of the proposer and seconder of the address require no notice. They were not pretentious, and neither of them was the speech of men in whom the colony is over likely to take much interest. In proposing the amendment, the leader of the Opposition made a speech that was, in

every sense of the word, a characteristic speech ; giving almost an exaggerated picture of all Sir William Fox’s great power and great weakness; of all his wonderful wit and fluency ; of all his want of caution, and want of policy. Fortunately his case was too strong to require much caution or policy either, and alter he had flung charges broadcast at the Government, with a rapidity and a jocularity that made them sound like a well written novel, he could afford to rouse their ut most ire against himself by holding them up to public ridicule. Those who have ever heard Sir William Fox make or e of his best speeches must know that he can never bo reported. He speaks even more to the eye than to the ear; so that a pause, a look, a shake of the head, a shrug of the shoulders, or a rapid dash or wave of the hand is often made to put an exquisite finish upon what would otherwise be a very defective sentence. The only part of his speech in which he was serious and solemn, and made words without actions do all their work, was when he referred to the effect of the Native Minister’s example on the Maoris. It was a fine sight to see the white haired old man, who for nearly forty years* had|lived in the strong light of public life in New Zealand, standing there with hands so clean, with a public, private, social, and domestic character so unblemished that he could dare to defy retaliation from one of the ablest and wittiest men in New Zealand.

When he sat down Sir George Grey’s usually pale skin had almost assumed the color of mahogany, and coming out of his seat on to tho floor of the House, and to within a few yards of his accuser, he shook his raised fist and addressed his angry words, not to the Speaker, but to Sir William Fox. It was soon evident that ho was too much excited to speak at all, and that ho would make no defence. After indulging in half an hour’s abuse of Mr Fox, the Canterbury runholders, and Sir Michael Hicke-Beaoh, who seemed to be all strangely mixed up in his mind, and being called to order by the Speaker, he seemed to grow conscious of his own state of mind, and casting a significant look at tho clock, the judicious speaker instantly suggested that the House should adjourn for half-an-hour, which was hailed as a relief by all parties. When the House resumed, be spoke with a little more calmness, aud|went into his usual topics—about the hatred he had drawn on himself in his endeavors to servo the great human family, and how much New Zealand was indebted to him. But he never once seemed to remember that there was any Government to defend, or that an attack on his Government could possibly be actuated by any motive but that of personal hatred to him. After half-an-hour of this irrelevant talk he sat down, leaving a strong feeling on both sides of the House that the Government’s best card had been thrown away. Of course Mr Eolleston could not resist tho temptation of following the Premier, warmed as he was by his allusions to the Canterbury land laws, and so long as the heat lasted he spoke admirably, and with a rapidity that must have made tho reporters wonder what had come to a speaker who usually gives them such ample time to record all he says. He, however, cooled as he went on, and cooling does not improve him. Still the Canterbury runholders may rest assured that they did not lose much in the encounter.

Mr Moss followed with his clear voice, and easy flowing words. There is_ generally nothing in his speeches, but on this occasion he delighted his party by a sentence he had rummaged up from one of Mr Fox’s old speeches in which he is reported to have said that on some occasion he had had to “ swallow hia principles as a man would swallow a pill.” This seemed to be quite a nugget for the party, and was more than once referred to afterwards. Mr Barff spoke next; he speaks so loudly that most of the members go outside of the House to hear him.

It was now arranged that in order not to prolong the debate unnecessarily no one on the Government side should be answered except tho Ministers, and Mr Wakefield was told off to answer Mr Sheehan, and Mr Saunders to answer Mr Gisborne, but after a funny speech from Dr. Wallis, Mr Gisborne came b.ofore Mr Sheehan. He followed tho example of his leader, and came down into the floor of the House, as if anxious to distinguish a Minister from any common member. He had a most formidable looking roll of notes, and on the open floor of tho House his grotesque manner was so laughable that it kept everyone in a good humor during a very dry speech. I don’t know how to describe his manner, but it seems to consist in alternately balancing himself on his heels and bis toes, and in tho process he sometimes throws his head and shoulders so dangerously far back that everyone feels inclined to jump up to pick him up, under the impression that ha must fall over. I don’t know whether it is the consequence of being a Minister, or only the consequence of speaking on the floor of the House, but he certainly never threw himself so far back before. Whilst performing these evolutions, he gives utterance to tho most commonplace sentences as if they were the breathing of an oracle, but always has two or three well-rounded sentences to finish with. He is not really a bad speaker if he had any tact, or any sense of the ridiculous, but he has neither. When he _ came to the Maori ploughing he said: “ What did the Government do under these circumstances ?” “ Hear, hear,” said tho Opposition, when the hon. member repeated again, “ What did the Government do under these circumstances?” and the “ Hear,hears” were repeated with loud laughter.

Mr Saunders had little to do to answer him, and had to indulge in a rap at Dr. Wailis and the Premier. He did not waste a w’ord or a minute, but made the most of his half-hour in contrasting the promises with the performances of the Government, to prove that no promises, however plausible, and no policy, however promising, could, after that, entitle them to the confidence of the Houss.

This brought up the faithful henchman, Rees, whoso fearful voice soon thinned the previously well-filled benches, whilst ho went over all his old stories about the Premier’s virtues and Sir Wi'liam Fox’s vices. Here the new member for the Hutt uttered a few soft and low words which, after the ring of Mr Bees’ harsh roar, sounded like a robin’s winter song. The newest addition to the Ministry now stood up, and tho exclamation of “Poor Thomson” ran round the House. There is a simple honesty about the new Minister that every one likes, and a feeling that it was a cruel thing to put him where he is. I see the reporters have made a very fair speech for him, but his own was exceedingly poor even for him. He most injudiciously commenced by saying that it was no question of policy or of administration, but of greed for the occupation of the Government benches, and again and again insisted on returning to this charge as if quite unconscious that no one but himself would have been so enamored of those benches as to |accept a seat on them at tho time, and with the qualifications that had tempted him, and under a Premier who had employed a messenger to clear the room of an offending colleague. He was followed by Dr. Hodgkinson, who like the Premier manages to make one set of ideas do duty on all occasions.

On Wednesday evening, ■with crowded galleries and great expectation* from all sides of the House, Mr Sheehan rose to defend himself and the Government. He i* generally a very pleasant witty speaker, and can be a cruel one, and it was thought that now if ever he might be cruel. But ho is a lawyer, and he was fully conscious that he had a very bad case to defend, so that he never ventured out of the safe mysteries of the Native Office. He was, too, almost as selfish as his chief as to anything ho said about any member of the Government but himself, and seemed to forget that he had ever been acting as Minister of Justice, and was directly responsible forsome of the vilest appointments ever made by a Government. As he sat down at 10 p.m. every one felt that if he could say nothing for the Government there was no one else who could, and that the debate might as well end. However, everyone knew that there would be some fun in listening to Mr Wakefield, and they were certainly not disappointed. He rose to speak at 10.35, and spoke without hesitation or break till 1 20 a.m. Mr Sheehan had really given him nothing to reply to, so that he spoke for two hours before ha offered any reply to the Minister he was deputed to answer. It was a wonderful intellectual effort, as racy as a fairy tale, and some parts of it were as unreal, but, real or unreal, he carried his audience with him, even when he said that the people of Canterbury had become afraid to go on the railway crossings least they should be run over by a Minister in an express train. If his case had been a weaker one, or it he had been a weaker man, he would no doubt have been more careful, and at that time of night he might, with much advantage to his cause, have been shorter, The merciless way in which ho held

up the “ omniscient Fisher " was too much like a cat worrying a mouse.

On the following day the Opposition were half disgusted to find that only a shepherd boy had been appointed to meet their great Goliath in this mortal combat. Only his homely neighbour Turnbull to meet the learned literary Wakefield. However, unlike David, he chose not the “ smooth stones out of the brook,” but the roughest he could find and hurled them with an energy that no one had expected from him, and although the giant did not “ fall with his face to the earth,” the stones certainly found one or two weak places in his armour. Like most of his party, Mr Turnbull assailed not the cause but its champion, not the arguments, but the motives, and each rough stone that he hurled was lustily cheered, as the lookers-on always cheer each spring that a game bantam makes at a gigantic Malay. Mr Turnbull was followed by the Minister for Public Works, who drew a hearty cheer by his first sentence, when he truly said, “ I have never yet, sir, learned the art of saying nothing to this House in as many words as possible.” Short and unpretending as was Mr Macandrew’s speech, it was by far the best of the Ministerial speeches, and the only one that did his party any good. He had, of course, no difficulty to show that all Mr Wakefield’s pictures were not strictly drawn from nature. He could easily show that his department had not been idle, and he took care not to show on which part of the colony their energies had bean mainly centred. Unlike all the other Ministerial speeches he did not sit down without defending his chief, his colleagues, and his officers. The new member for Nelson replied in a very good maiden effort, which he rather spoiled towards the end by a cut and dried eulogy of English Conservative Government, which sounded as if it had been used before and was not appreciated by the House. By some unaccountable oversight the Opposition had appointed no one to reply to the speech of the Post-master-General, so that he was only followed by a Maori on the same side. Mr Bryce gave the Government some very quiet but irresistible thrusts, but in a voice too weak to be well heard. Mr Hobbs made some terrible accusations, which no Government could afford to leave unanswered. He said it would be a compliment to speak of the present Native department as a “ whited sepulchre,” as although it was “full of dead men’s bones and all manner of uncleanness,” it was not even clean or white on the outside. Mr Hursthouse made one of his best speeches, which, like Mr Barff’s, are always a little too audible.

After this the debate degenerated into a discreditable exhibition of talking against time to prevent a division that week. In this work Mr De Lautour adopted a device that did him credit. Instead of following the usual practice and filling “ Hansard ” with nonsense that might make his friends despise him, he furnished himself with a wilderness of notes, in which he pretended to be hunting for something all the time, only uttering a highly finished sentence every now and then. Mr Feldwick also has a natural qualification for speaking against time, as when he has got half-way through a sentence, some natural instinct seems to compel him to go back and begin it again. Unfortunately Mr Barton did something more than waste the time and degrade the debates of the House. He availed himself of his parliamentary privileges to avenge himself on his old enemies by bringing charges against the Judges that made his hearers’ hair stand on end. As if to show how unfit he was for his present liberty, he gravely told the House that the apparent majority which tho Government had last year was only made up by members lent to them from the Opposition, with instructions to assist them in doing anything that would bring disgrace on them, and to prevent them from doing anything that would have brought them credit, but mainly to bring on them the eternal odium of refusing his Judicial Inquiries Bill, which refusal the Opposition would not have dared to take upon themselves. After this we may expect to hear that when Mr Barton reaches America, the great Republic will at once proceed to elect some vile man as President, in order that Mr Barton may be prevented from attaining that position at the Bar to which his ability and judicious conduct entitle him.

Throughout tho debate the new Speaker had sevaral opportunities of showing his great tact and impartial firmness, and both sides of tho House are evidently pleated with the change.