THE NEW MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

Globe, Volume XXI, Issue 1827, 30 December 1879, Page 3

THE NEW MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

[FEOJI THB PEESB COBBESPONDBNT.'] [Concluded.] Wakatipu has changed its lymphatic, indulgent looking Manders for a nervous, sharp featured lawyer—Mr Finn—who comes to the fore iu any legal discussion, and objects to being confined to one speech on such occasions. But his learning has not extended to politics, and he doo3 not cut a very bright figure in that arena, nor does he appear ambitious to do bo. The junior Whitaker, who represents Waipa, is already nearly as bald headed aa his father. He would evidently be more in his element if he wore in Opposition, bb he ia not a member of the peace society. He is bright and witty, thought not often forcible. His voice is not good, and he talks so rapidly that it takeß very sharp oars to catch what he says. Ho is an ultra-radical in his views. There is no love lost between him and Sir George Grey j but, however much ho hates the sins he loves the sinner Sheehan, with whom he was a "choolfellow, and, in tho hottest fight, he will never hit him hard.

The member for Invercargill, Mr Bain, is both a thinker and a talker, but has avoided as much as possible speaking in the House. I should take him to bo by no means a strong partizan, and quite able to see faults and merits on either sido of the House, and a man whose good opinion would be valuable. In many respects he is a contrast and certainly a groat improvement on his predecessor. I think thero U r t j new member in the House who has puz,:led n'l who sit in judgment on him so much as tha hon. member for Ljttelton. Hi. keeps ins hat on, and whereever he can he his pipe in his mouth, and thero is a sort of knowing look about him that may or may not mean much. It is ovi dent that the selectors, or rather the rejs-ctors for Sir CK-orge Grey's Election Committee, did not rate him highly when neither parly struck him off their list as a dangerous opponent. But ho there showed a will of his own and a spirit above flattery and influence that no one had calculated on, ar.d in every vote he gives ho appoavs as much guided by principle, and as determined to keep out of anything unjustifiable, as any member of the House. He has spoken very little, and will evidently have sufficient respect for his fellow-members to know what ho is talking about before ho begins. Ono of his colleagues on that election committee was Mr Ireland, who succeeds Mr Bastings for Waikaia. If he has anything in him it is exceedingly difficult to discover it. Ho often rises in the House, and looks as if he were speaking, but as he sits very near the Speaker, he literally obeys the Standing Orders, and addresses the chair—and the chair only. Those who sit olose to him over-

hear a little of it, and they say that the rest • " the House does not lose much. His other European colleague who was left on that committee is Mr McCaughan. He looks more like an athlete than a legislator, and would evidently like to take a talking member under each arm, and lodge him in the lock-up for the remainder of the session. He has only spoken once, and I think that was in committee, so that he will compensate the colony in the oourse of time for the undue share of " Hansard" whioh his predecessor (Dr. Hodgkinson) monopolised. He roves about from seat to seat, and in three senses I think I may say that he has no abiding place in the House. Major Harris, who has supplanted Mr Hobbs for one of the Franklin seats, does not look at all like a military man, being short, with ample circumference, and has certainly not suffered any recent military hardships or privations. He has plenty of language, with a rather whining, though not voice, and his sympathies do not extend far South. He is most liable to rise to his feet during the small hours of the morning, when his friend Hamlin is snoring loudly at his left hand. The caußO is said to be that Hamlin has heard all his jokes ani does not care to hear them again. Mr McDonald, on whoße behalf so many telegrams were sent by the lato Government to the .East Coast, is not a retiring or a quiet man in a general way, but in the House ho deals more in ejaculations than speeoheß, and his remarks on the various speeches of other members are not often complimentary. Ho is by no means a slave to his senatorial duties.

Oi4 Sir George Grey's left hand sits tho P.G.G.W.G.T., Mr Speight, who is not by any means the " Learned Blacksmith," but is the " Talking engino driver." He looks about thirty-five years of age, with a pile beardless face, that often carries an expression that makes one feel disposed to pronounce his name without the e. Like his patron, he is a great and can discover a bad motive for every possible proposal or action. His words flow as if he had ewal-

lowed a dictionary, but his voice is unpleasant, and his_ manner insolent. He keeps himself very fairly informed of what is going on, and often jogs Sir G. Grey's very defective memory. He is by no means such a perpetual bore as some of his inferiors in ability and equals in education. _ On the other side of Sir George, as his right-hand friend, sits the celebrated John Lundoa. He looks a little over fifty, of dark complexion, with a very handsome forehead, and very unhandaoma mouth. He is a man of great natural ability, witty and shrewd, who tries to pass himself as an innocent simpleton. He will rise and speak incessantly, but no one but a native Irishman could understand half of what he says. So far as I can judge, his speeches are quite in the tittle-tattle strain, as I can hear a constant repetition of the words, "He says, and so says I." His general object seems to be to obstruct business at the order of his chief. There was a great laugh in the House when he informed the Speaker that he never corrected his speeches in "Hansard."

But the arch obstructor of business, sometimes by order and at other times by choice, is one of the new members for Hokitika, Mr Seddon, whose talk during bis first session will have cost the country twenty thousand pounds, without estimating the members' time at a high rate or the amount of business that he has made impossible. He is a goodtempered digger, and a fine specimen of the purely sanguine temperament. At one time it looked as if ho would mate all business impossible, and hare the whole House to himself, but at last he came to be satisfied with about six speeches a day, and took some evident trouble to give the House fewer h'e than he began with.

Next to him as a time waster comes the new member for Ohristchurch. I don't think ho often spoke to order, but no subject ever came up upon which he did not feel that he could enlighten the House. Native difficulties, legal opinions, intricate accounts, political economy, the defence of the oolony, the honor of the Ministry, the rights of the Crown, or higher education, were all equally familiar to him, and were all treated of in his speeches in an equally instructive way. It never aeemed to occur to him that, there were other members in the House who could read and write. His manner is very patronising, and as you hear him you naturally look about to see where the small boys are that he is talking to. If you add Turnbull'a name to these three last named new members, you will have the four members who take up more than half the time of the House without ever adding one atom to the knowledge, the interest, or the amusement of its members, or rondering the slightest service to the colony. They are the four men who have made it a weariness to sit in the House or the galleries, who have made it not an honor, but a disgrace to appear in " Hansard," who make a six months' Parliament necessary to do two months' work, who are reducing our Legislature from the highest to the lowest place in the Australian colonies, and who may fairly be charged with half the expenses of our Parliamentary government, * If I have left the four silent new members to the last you will see that it is not because I do not respeot them. On the contrary, after spending so much time in hearing idle talk as I have done, I wish their number was multiplied by twenty, and I cannot help taking my hat off to them as I meet them in the streets. They are Messrs Hirst, Willis, Whyte, and Mason representing Wallace, Bangitiki, Waikato, and The Hutt. I have no doubt that they are all wise men. Who else could have sat for three months in the midst of clamor and strife and come out of it without taking or giving a scratch ?