PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Globe, Volume XXIII, Issue 2287, 1 August 1881, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Last night tho big fight terminated, just as was expected, in a majority of four for the Government. And as it seems to form a period by itself, I am going to send you a letter this morning continuing my description of that debate rather than wait for the finish up of tho week.. Upon the whole it has been a "good tempered debate, and although one member certainly descended to lower depths of Jribaldry than has aver been reached in the House before, he stood quite alone, and bis example was simply regarded as a warning. On Tuesday afternoon the Opposition took the opportunity of the House being in committee to utilise for a second time the forty-parson talking power of Mr Moss, who kept going until the dinner adjournment. At 7.30 Mr Montgomery rose and addressed the House for three-quarters of an hour. He kept to his subject and wasted no time. He laid before the House his own idea of what local government should be. He said that the present Government had proved good administrators, but had shown themselves on all occasions unequal to legislation of any able or even useful character. He patted them on the back several times, and said in effect they were very good meaning men on tho whole, so far as their feeble light would carry them, but as there were no more Bills for them to pick up that had been prepared by their predecessors, it was then quite time for them to give way to more able men. This roused Mr Bowen, who oame down upon the member for Akaroa with a rush, expatiating on his consummate wisdom, and going on in the “ wisdom will die with you” strain for a short time. His contempt for colonial legislators in general, and of these opposite to him in particular, rang out quite as much in the tone of bis voice andjthe expressions of his face as it did in tho words that he used, and led him quickly to betray his utterly unorthodox opinions upon party Government, and even to dare to suggest that what was suitable for a great country like England was not necessarily suitable for a handful of people playing at legislation in New Zealand, and getting up no-confidence debates every year. This brought up Mr Montgomery’s right-hand neighbour, Mr Ballance, who kept a full House for an hour and twenty minutes. He speaks so well and so seldom that he is always well listened to. He was followed by Mr Pitt, who is also no groveller, but who spoke with more constraint than usual. He strenuously defended the Bill before the House, which he said would suit Nelson well. These four speeches bad all been businesslike speeches, and they seemed to have pulled up tho character of the deb its ; but after the supper adjournment, our old friend Andrews broke out into his old-habits, and kept the gas burning and the House empty until past midnight. It was not a subject to call out bis most useful qualities, and this new outbreak was disappointing to those who had begun to look on him as a reformed character. It showed that he was not proof against temptation, but was like the would-be teetotaller who, after passing a public house went back to “ treat resolution with a quart.” However, if Mr Andrews’ speech was a deep step down from the speeches which had preceded him, it was a much higher step above tho speech that was to carry on the debate on the following afternoon, when Mr Richard Reeves made a desperate effort to introduce the manners and customs and the choice vocabulary of the West Coast pot houses into our New Zealand Parliament, He gave the Colonial Treasurer a lesson that I hope he will not for. get, and showed him that he could not touch pitch without blacking his own fingers. In the evening Mr Shephard gave the House a sort of “ Summary for Europe ” speech, repeating what had been said before in less hum drmm style than his own. He probably did not know that ha was only repeating, as he has never learned to “ be more ready to hear than to give the sacrifice of fools,” and seldom appears in the House in the capacity of a listener. He was followed by the Mayor of Wellington in a fluent speech which would have been fascinating if the listeners could only have fancied it true. The language was so good, the words flowed so easily, and the manner was so perfect, that you could not help wishing that he would not try to make tho worse appear the better cause. Ho was followed by Mr Bryce, a man of exactly the opposite stamp, whose speech had no plot in it, who missed half that he meant to say, but who said nothing that was not true, and said it with all the direotnes* and bluntnees of truth.

On Friday afternoon, Dr. Wallis led off, and continued to create a diversion by speaklag against the amendment, and making tho House believe for a time that he was going to vote against it. The new member for Waitaki followed next, and evidently rose with a desperate determination that tho House should hear him at least. He had quite a volume of notes, which seemed to puzzle him very much, but by their aid he ultimately delivered himself, with much evident pain, of what was intended to be a bitter speech. He may be a Demosthenes in embryo, but if so, ha certainly ought at present to be practising on the sea shore at Oamarn. No so Mr Fyke, who followed him, and from whom words flow apace, and reach to every corner, though, upon the whole, ho was lees violent than usual. He expressed his gratitude to the House for having waited so long for him, and said that after so much kind attention he could not think of letting them go to the vote without a speech from him. Then followed the interminable Mr Seddon, who had some ideas, but, after stating them, hid them in a deluge of words which no one can muster patience enough to hear. The last speaker was Mr J, B. Fisher, who took a remarkably fatalistic view of the question, which, if applied generally, would make all human efforts useless. In urging Messrs Murray, Saunders and Weston to vote against measures that they disapproved without regard to the consequence or tho present or future Governments, he said, “If tho hon. member for the Thames bo destined to head a great party, which shall effect groat revolutions in this country, your votes will never set him aside or prevent the inevitable destiny of that great man and great party.” Mr Weston stood it all well, aud has had an early opportunity to prove that if ho was “ a man with a grievance,” he is a man who is not going to let personal grievances influence him in the discharge of his public duty. As members were ranging into the different lobbies, and Mr Swanson was going into the Ayes, Mr Lundon seized him and nearly dragged him to the ground, and as other members joined on both sides it looked as if the House was going to play a big game of “gathering nuts away” ; but the Speaker cut the game short with one of his moat peremptory demands for order. After tho division, ond the cheering which followed, Mr Lundon made a long rambling speech in Irish, which, being interpreted, seems to have meant that he and his “ seven” were now willing to assist the Government to force through the Bill in spite of their own supporters. MajorJAtkinson replied to the effect that the Government had not the slightest desire to exchange their present supporters for those that wore now so kindly offered them, but would keep the ill they have rather than fly to ills they do not know. Wellington, July 2#th,