PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1750, 29 September 1879, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

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WELLINGTON, September 27. Nothing of importance has transpired today. The Ministerial organs here are urging the effects of a more moderate degree of misrepresentation as to their strength, as their late accounts had produced universal divisions. This evening the “ Chronicle ” only claims forty-two votes for the Government, and proceeds to save the Government by asserting that four of the Opposition will walk out and not vote. As I told you some days since the Opposition have forty-three safe votes. Two more they have every reason to expect, and one member is so naturally impartial that he promises each party his vote on alternate days. There will, however, be many days’ debate before the division, and there is evidently a difficulty in managing the “ middle party,” which seems to consist of all intending Ministers, who expect the two Kilkenny cats to fight till they have nothing but their tails left, for which they would be quite prepared to find heads. Members are all of course greatly annoyed at being left here quite idle for a week to suit some unknown party move of the Government before they will go on with the debate. The loss of time and the cost to the colony is something enormous; but waste of public money has never affected the present Government. It is generally supposed that the object of the delay is to get everything put off until the runholders are obliged to leave for shearing. But there are only five runholders in the new House.

Mr Saunders has promised to give, at least, two weeks between the first and second reading of his Local Option Bill, so that it may bo circulated, affording both Good Templars and Licensed Victuallers every opportunity to suggest amendments. Groat dissatisfaction is expressed by many Auckland members that no allusion is made in the Governor’s speech to public works in Auckland. Some older politicians incline to the opinion that Sir George Grey values Auckland support too cheaply, and relies too much on the profuse professions of thick and thin support given by fifteen or sixteen Auckland members on the hustings. Many Auckland members already repent their hasty pledges of unconditional support, and would be glad to find any plausible excuse for turning round. It is also thought by the most experienced and calmer heads that the loud threats of block voting made in Auckland will defeat their object by driving Southern members into a defensive alliance, the result of which would be that Taranaki, Napier, and Wellington would vote with the Canterbury and Otago party, and Auckland would be thrown on the generosity of the very party which she has been trying to defeat. Some leading Auckland members also begin to realise, though reluctantly, that the Ministry is in a minority in the House, and that their defeat is inevitable, and they would welcome any excuse which would enable them to make friends with the incoming party. The feeling is growing stronger that Sir George Grey has had more chances than any ordinary man to demonstrate his ability to lead the House, and that he cannot continue much longer to resist a majority in Parliament by subterfuges and devices ; that his last card was played when he obtained a dissolution, and that when he is defeated on Mr Hall’s no confidence motion, he ought no longer to obstruct the legislation of the country, but .to stand aside. People are becoming tired of subordinating the interests of the colony to the personal vanity and ambition of a single individual. When Sir G. Grey has been again defeated, the majority of his present following will bo disposed to resign themselves to the inevitable and allow the business of the country to proceed. Every day brings to light fresh scandals. It is known that members of various Liberal Associations throughout the colony were permitted to send and receive franked telegrams at the public expense to further the election of Ministerial candidates, and a searching inquiry will he moved for (by Mr Levin. The Native expenditure has exceeded the vote by £20,000, and the vote for the Hinemoa has been exceeded by many hundreds, besides various other extravagancies and cases of gross maladministration.

One voucher for expenses at tho Waitara meeting amounted to £BOO, and this also the audit office queried, and called for subvouohers, when it was found that the greater part of the expenditure was for champagne and spirits. Many North Island members are disgusted with these things and with the whole Native administration and expenditure, and it is certain that a reckoning day cannot be much longer postponed. Auckland members are being deluged with telegrams from residents in the Ohinemuri and other disturbed districts, where industry is absolutely paralysed by the mismanagement of Native affairs.

Telegrams are also constantly sent from Qrahamstown urging Sir Q. Grey to elect to elect to sit either for Christchurch or the Thames, as the latter is being partly disfranchised. It is believed Sir O. Grey hesitates and declines for two reasons. First, he is afraid of being ousted for Christchurch seat; and secondly, pressure is being brought to bear on the intending candidates for the Thames to retire, in favor of a pronounced Greyite, whose election could be secured. If the Ministry see any chance of accomplishing this they will endeavor to protract the no-confidence debate until the Thames member arrives, whatever waste of time and expense may be inflicted on the country. Mr John Lundon has not yet arrived. He is still at Hokianga, and is said to be sick. Here again another of those cunning ruses in which Sir G. Grey is so fertile is suspected. It is believed that Ministers know that Mr Lundon would bo unseated for his wholesale corruption of tho electoral roll, if he took his seat at this juncture, and that their object is to keep him back and produce him in the nick of time to record his vote on the noconfidence motion when his voting cannot be prevented. Much speculation is indulged in as to Sir George Grey’s object in avoiding discussion on tho address in reply on Friday, when it was on the order paper, and it has leaked out that his colleagues did not approve of his shirking tho fight instead of meeting Mr Hall’s challenge in a dignified, statesmanlike manner. The timidity displayed by the Government is rightly construed into a confession of their weakness and evidence of their desire to get time to influence votes. Some cling to the desperate hope that some members, reckoned among the Opposition, may be induced to walk out on the division, and refrain from voting. ' At present the Opposition stand to win by a small majority, which is daily increasing and consolidating. The most sanguine friends of the Ministry only count forty-two votes, including Messrs Ballance, Bunny, London, Montgomery, Pyke, and all the Maoris, which is perfectly absurd. It is stated that four lawyers out five consulted by Mr Richardson regarding Sir G. Grey’s election, gave their opinion that Sir Q. Grey cannot sit for Christchurch,