PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1800, 27 November 1879, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

[By Tesbgbaph.]

WELLINGTON, November 26.

Sir George Grey made himself scarce in the House yesterday, leaving his nephew, Mr George, to lead the Opposition. What he wants in ability he makes up in energy and daring, and kept the estimates back for some hours, but in the small hours of the morning they went through fast, and seven pages were got through without alteration.

There is a general influenza amongst the members, and every one connected with the House, so that few members stay through the night. In reply to a question from Mr Pyke this afternoon, which, for obvious reasons, it was most unwise to ask, the Government stated that Dr. Buller was receiving ten guineas a day for his services. As soon as this came out, with much apparent reluctance, Mr Seddon, who has the largest lungs and the smallest reflective faculties in the House, exclaimed," Now, where's all the extravagance ?" He evidently did not know that this bit of extravagance was a legacy to the present Government from his great friend Mr Sheehan,

As a proof of the reckless stato of mind to which the'late Premier is reduced, and what he will do to keep the digger representatives about him, he actually voted this afteinoon tor a motion of Mr Finn's—" That in the present life and death struggle to save our credit as a colony, and with a prospect of the heaviest taxation that a people ever submitted to, we should place £100,003 on the estimates to encourage gold mining industries." He still seems to think nothing too wild or extravagant to secure a vote, but it is daily more evident that he will never lead this Houie again.