HOW THE' NEW TARIFF WAS PASSED IN COMMITTEE.

Grey River Argus, Issue 122, 23 October 1866, Page 3

HOW THE' NEW TARIFF WAS PASSED IN COMMITTEE.

The following passage from tho letter of the Wellington porresponclout of the "Daily Times, "-lets iv a little bohind tlic Parliamentary cxirtain : — ' \ The tarilf schedule came on for consideration. ?vt seven o'clock on Friday evening, and notwithstanding that the whole, or between two or three hundred items, had to be considered, nearly three hours were occupied a3 to whether the Standing Orders shoi' l:l be suspended. Ale and beer, which .was the first item, having been i>assed in silence, the House pulled up at the next, " almonds per lb Id.'' It Avas proposed to make a difference between shelled and unshellDd, but Mr Carolton nded that the Committee could diminish but not increase the rates. There was a good deal of confusion, and several members were speaking at once, when Mr Speaker attempted to point out how to escape, froni the difficulty in which the House was placed, Not being able to make himself heard, Mr Ward, who was sitting close by, pried out "Order, chair," in a very peculiar voice, which, for the moment, amidst the confusion and the long talk about nuts, I really mistook for .. " oranges, ging'beer ;" and until midnight, when 1 left the. House, it seemed. more like being at the afterpiece in a theatre, than anywhere else. Mr Speaker having explained. tho ■ Par' iameutary practice in Committee of Ways and Means, Committee on a Bill, and Committee of the avliolo, informed the House that in the hurry of the previous night they had shut themselves out from increasing any items, and could only diminish, unless they suspended the Standing Orders. Mr Whitaker thereupon moved—" That the Standing Orders be suspended for the purpose of increasing or diminishing the items named in the schedule. " Mr Carleton objected that as they had the power already to diminish, Mr Whitaker's motion should be for increasing only ; a trap which Mr Whitaker was too old a bird to fall into. Eventually after considerable opposition from Mr / Bell and Mr Ward, the Standing Orders were suspended, and at ten o'clock the Committee returned to "almonds" again. Mr Wood, who is the Merry-Andrew of the House, saw his way to make things clear more than once; his last brilliant idea being the insertion of the word il shelled," leaving unshehed to be charged as nuts; which latter item was found to be charged lower down at equally the same rate. After nearly three-quarters of an hour's talk, "almonds, shelled," were charged threepence per lb. 1 am quite sure that there is no one of yoiir readers who will not express surprise that such a question should have required so much discussipn, but the Committee was at times a very saturnalia, numbers of members attempting to speak at the same tune; certainly one member exhibiting a previous devotion to the hot and strong of Bellamy's • — some exciting laughter at their lamentable ignorance of what' they were talking about, and some poking fun and cracking jokes. Mr Haughton came out strong in the latter line. "Under what head shall we class dog-carts?" said Mr Hall; on which Mr Haughton rej>li% ** If I were the importer I should enter them, as carts ; if any one else imported them, 1 should call them carnages"— the. duty on the former being, proposed by the Government to be very much smaller than the latter, "I don't believe the members care two^ pence what they vote," declared Mr Henderson, who -was- taking an active part, on which Mr- George Graham said that, being looked at, lie; supposed he was ones of them— his subsequent incoherent remarks being drowned amidst, loud cries of "Question, -question." »Mr Haughton, with a merry twinkle; professed to sympathiso Avith him, and moved that Mr Henderson's words he taken down; and Buckstone never threw an Adelplu audience into such convulsions of laughter as Mr George Graham did when he innocently followed Mr Haughton's oue. A stand Avas made by Mr Haughton on butter, . proposing to increase it from a halfpenny to a penny. The House felt the division to be a relief, and no sooner Avas it called foy than most of the members sprang up, and' an universal Babel succeeded, The penny duty Avaa carried by 25 to 22. On sheepwash tobacco Sir David Monro took the opportunity of giving the House a long lecture on the three-eighths, and even he forgot, for the moment, where ho was, He commenced his;ispeech fancying he was in-tlie chair, "UsMp.l of the House being in Committee, unK the chairmanship of Mr Carleton, gggiled the Hpuso to order, m^ Ids .j^M&onqrous tone, apologismg^^hMafcetfA^egs tlie.