PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1754, 3 October 1879, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

[Bt Teeegbaph.] WELLINGTON, October 2. The fiist scene in the new Parliament came off this afternoon. Before the Order of the Day was called on, Mr Hall rose to call the attention of the House to a statement made in a public newspaper by a person calling himself J. 0. Brown, which he characterised as an unblushing and unmitigated falsehood, and produced the evidence of Messrs Ormond and Miller, and called upon Mr Gisborne reluctantly to testify that there was not a word of truth in the rash assertions of his too zealous whip. The person called J. 0. Brown could not keep himself concealed or restrained, but assumed the most frantic attitudes, and called the leader of the Opposition a “ Johnny all sorts”—an expression which the Speaker called on him instantly to withdraw, and which ho accordingly had to withdraw with the best grace he could. His position was not an enviable one, and although he is by no moans a sensitive man, he will probably not figure in the “ New Zealander ” in the same capacity for some time to come. This little piece of excitement over, Mr Fisher made the longest speech he was ever known to make, consisting of a crow over his late election. He then descended to the the smallest possible details in the Colonial life of himself and the leader of the Opposition, in which ho showed his teeth very plainly, but entirely failed to bite. Mr Murray made a very good speech to an almost empty House, in which he slew the slain and made charges that would have been terrible if the Government were not so used to them. Mr Bowen was so fortunate this afternoon as to get from the Minister of Works an admission of the liability of the Government re the damage done by the railway bridge and groin to the protective works erected by the borough of Eaiapoi. Mr Wright was very fortunate, in a very good attempt, to get a goods shed at Dromore. Mr Stevens did little more than show how little the Government cither knew or cared about Christchurch affairs by his question regarding the operators and other officers in the telegraph department and the title to the Sydenham Cattle Market Reserve.

Mr Saunders got the Premier to promise that the Government would introduce a Bribery Bill this session. Mr Barron made his maiden speech, and goes in to take the place of the funny man of the House. There is no longer any doubt about the result of the division. The inability of the Government to refute one of the many grave charges that have been brought against them has confirmed all waverings, and forty-five is the smallest number likely to be recorded against the Government. Xno Opposition wish to divide, but the Government want to get up Mr Lundon, whom they have not yet dared to put in his Beat, and want him to vote, before anything can be said of his antecedents or the circumstances by which he has reached the house.