GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

Grey River Argus, Volume XI, Issue 973, 8 September 1871, Page 2

GENERAL ASSEMBLY.

[PEOM OTO SPECIAI COBBKSFONDKNT. J . / WELtiiNOTow, August 26. The political situation remains unchanged. Rumors are rife of varioas attempts made by Ministera to Middle Island -, member .. fp ythe^rtjiaks, and to a certain extent they are n«t witife^ » out>foundation. UUr<p^^y»ti>m>m» Mr Stafford has been definitely offered a seat in the Cabinet (as Minister of Public Works, I believe), and it is eqqaj^true that up to the present he has not accepted it. Stafford's course of actiomisfmost inscrutable at present. He takesnopne, except perhaps his most intimate political associates into his confidei.ee. He has made no attempt to form a party, or <eve|l to rally up those old members who have usually acted with him* and he is losing c support and confidence accordingly. The Ministry on the other hand are using conciliation in eyery. ; directio.p. They are particularly civil to the new members, and are gaining influence, but theuvposttion is still not. sufficiently strong to enable them to carry out their, \ measures' ■ with that firm hand which is essentially necessary. It is quite on the cards i that ;r the Hon. John Hall will join the Cabinet, 1 although just now he is only coquetting.*"' Should he do so he will be a great acqnf-; sition, and will give a large amount of consistency to the Government". 'It, »J understood that Mr Yogel has seen reason . to considerably modify his original view* with risgara to ihe Public Worta^ »p4irr ImmigratibnTolicy, arid that 'thejgoyenjj^ ment will carry* it' ouf'. wKn^anrtudwd^ regard to the reproductive character of the works to be proposed. The Colonial Trea- . t surer addressed the 'House for the first time since his return 'from* England on Thursday, and it> wsw^a^toarkable fact that he did not ret%iv#'from the House the least manifestation; of .welcome-- not «- even his own immediate suppcirters.Taisi^f 1 a cheer. He stated that heshQpJßd.tQ'bojr:/ able to deliver his financiail statement on r,3 that day fortnight, and' that in a day or, two His report upon h» mission to E^g- T .i land would be laid before the House; ;■ That same afternoon Mr Collins^ ift J a©- Ur cordance with a notice to that'- effect, asked the Government' if =: M*^ »Yogel V.'l mission to London, in immediate-advance of Dr Featherstone's going home as Agent-General, was necessary, andnndertaken with the consent of his colleagues f 1 what his embassy cost ;• and hpw the duties of hisv office, as Colonial Treasurer ihad been performed in his absence, ? Mr_r iCollins put the question in a'yery tuppint.;,^ and impertinent manner, and was several times stopped by the Speaker as travelling „ out of the Abounds s which were imposed' r upon mere questions, and Mr Fox gave one of those delightfuUy vag^eand^ r? general replies which meant Bothing. ; He said, " Yes"— that "the Government did . consider. Mr Yogeiy mission necessary^*: *fj that the cost would come ;before ,^the i House at the proper time ; and that-lhes ; duties of Mr Yogel during his absence i had been performed in^e^same manner . as the duties of Mr "F^iw^erbert, Mr Reader Wood, Mr,Sj^ffi^4g*nd other Ministers who , had visited England upon » - pivbHc^bniiness— -namely, by his colleagues. I I telegraphed you a Bummary v oi the ; , new Education BUI, which has not as yet ( been circulated. The measure not pass as it stands, and it is equaßycdrtain that a Deuon^ational system will jaqt^ « have the remotest chance of success. The" , Catholics are taking most active steps, to secure separate^ aid for their sciiools, anu may possibly succeed' to a cerfain extent. The new Bankruptcy Bill has be^n intrxh -j d,uced in the Upper House. K is^^'a^pqn^i,! derons measure, and has very Uttle;cjtup»e> 1 r of being camea thj^ session. The new * Gold Fields Bill is not yet printed, but.it _ has been referred- to the; Gold; J-jjfriktp jys . Committee, who will deal with it piece? . meal as it comes from the press. This Committee is a very strong; onej and will exercise a powerful inflT)tiQce*^on mining legislation... The questions; ppr£ r water; rlf | supply and Chinese immigration have been J i referred to it, so that it has plenty of work j to start with. From what I can learn, I think the plan of aid to water supply that will be adopted will be very closely approximating/that so well advocated in H your columns- viz., the ex tent) of onethird or one-half the cost, ; The effortt' •;i that several gold fields members are' making to effect a reduction of the duty gold, and of the cost-of 'miners' rights, will not prove successful. It is the general opinion that, the proper course, to be pursued is toprovide for 'fiiie just ' expenditure, of gold fields ; revenue opotffrn gold fields purposes, Mr John Whit^ - delivered one of his characteristic ipeeohes yesterday: upon tiie question of referrtfljt -. Hhe petition, of ihe miners of the Kafiierf - to the Gold Fields Committee,. ;fl6'spdlfe-^ s ,well, but altogether too -dembnstratively, as if he would Explode in a fit of passion about nothing-at atir'WFTSSu^fimT*™ resolutionflrhave Owen withdra*tffot-th*JJ^ : : present. Mr Harrison's stand on the -paper lor the 7th September^ ahdSre ex- T / citing great interest. They are favqrably* ■* ' noticed by the'local press, and witi havea * large amount of support in tiie House, $hb Government are unSeratobd to be in favor of them, and there is nqfemuch donbtof their being carried', piere is, however, this danger— that tiiey will be . amended in Oommittse, so as to a^ply to r the whole Coloay,inwhich case it is doubtful Ctif an Act of so large a character conld be passed thia;session. TheGoveiiimfent kre '■ '- going quite in the direction of abolishing Provincial Governments, and I should not . be'surprised if >they cfcme doW witii^a 1 * proposition to that effect. Mr Harrison •yesterday ' moved that a : copy of tlfe new form of lease used by the, ,C^nunissio|H|^-;*j \ dt Native Reserves at 'droymontii l>e "ttul " . upon the table, jtith the view of calling the attention of t&e Gpv^rnme^it 4nd ih^ ; , , House to some bbjectionable;fea^u^M in them. , _• . .-,',, ... r >.-._,. .'.^j".~: ;;-»f ■>'■;-: ys.lK' The Chinese' que^ Ver| serious one in Qtago. I saw to-day ?-■ a private.4uttftr irom tha Jatter^diitrio^ - wUchstetes that the miners jure bafiding * torathe? for ''ihe' purpose ot driving the ' -Heathen .Chinee " from the diggings, and telegrams Have beeh'wnt to the WSf-' ' ! dens; instructing themj to, zeport: upen^« condition of things, and to prevent overt abtii of violence. The Government are in a fix/ and do not know tfcaV to do.,.Jht the one hand 1 titey' are told 7 thafW Chinese are^a, benefit to the country ;iattd v on the other that they are a corse. ' Some- * thing Will have to be done to mccommb- ' '■> ■'- date matters, but it is difficult to find ottt; x hOYf. ':.'-: '■■:■ ■-■'■■■■■' -'^ "-'■ J .-« ■ "'f--^A , The. poUtical »itu»Mon remain^ M-

changed* andJs likely to remain ho until after the Financial Statement has been made. As you will have heard, the Government, having felt that if they could possibly expect to get through the session without leaving their aeatsfon the Treasury Benches, they must strengthen their rankp, have been making efforts in that direction. Both Mr Stafford and the Hon. John Hall have received overtures, but the former firmly objected to go- into any Cabinet " unless he could choose his own colleagues," and the latter is apparently npt quite sure -how the cat is going to jump, and up to the present time has not consented. It isquite evident that without some internal. augmentation; of strength the Ministry cannot hold but. Day after day their position appears to be becoming weaker, and although no regular assault has been made against them, they have been exposed continually to an annoying running fire at long range, which, if it has not done much serious damage, has knocked them about a little. -Meanwhile, whilst he allows some of his rash and inexperieuced troops to find vent for their feelings in these 1 initiatory skirmishes, Mr Stafford is all aauvity and forbearance. Occasionally he administers a small rebuke to Ministers, but he has done nothing more in the*way of showing ! any disposition to fight than to give notice that on a certain day — a fortnight, -hence— he will move for a Select Committee to enquire into the whole administration of the Telegraph Department. This appears to have no particular ftigmficaiiceitb outsiders, but it is understood by the knowing ones, and by the Government, too, to mean nothing leas than ,a motion P$ ,np confidence. - Mr , Stafford's wicticls are probably somewhat as follows : — Should the Treasurer bring down a tolerably satisfactory Budget,, and thus secure 1 -"Hihe wUvfering^votls" of the young new members, the telegraph question will afford a capital opportunity for 'telting their position by Wf air trial of strength. Of conrse, no Ministry could possibly accede to a motion of enquiring into its management of one of its principal departments," and Mr* Stafford well knows that he will be resisted, and that the question wjlL be. treated . in the same manner as a- nb^cbnfid'ehce motion. The Telegraph isasadsource of trouble toMinisin afc'aggtlssiYe manner, which cannot be answered without Reaving albad impression, and as no debate can be allowed upon a "question," the querist has the best of it. -fTo say the least, -there ill something very fishy respecting the use which the Government has made of the telegraph for political purposes. They admit having endeavored to influence elections, and it is said,, with, what degree of truth I cannot tell, that' th^' friends of the Govenment have enjoyed large concessions in the 'employment of the wires. Tarn told that the late Government did the same,\ bu^jtheyiiM' the care riot to be found out. Another awkward transaction, especially, to th%«&rs of political neophytes; has come out, 'which has hit the Ministry very-hardindegdi:. . Some time in March last tnV Government obtained L 50,000 from the Comptroller for the purpose, of retiring certain Treasury bills held by the trustees of trust funds ; but as it happened not, to. >e, convenient to take, up these bills when '&ey became due,' the Government applied the L 50,000 to some other T purpbso; Now this sort of thing, althopgh t it. ia alleged to be a common practice fortHiif and former to draw money from one account, and pay it tO~ another; lobks and sounds badly, and of course the mo&t was^made of it by the gnatitf^hi^are erer brizzing^ about the ears of the Ministers. First of all, Mr Collins asked 'a 'Question " about this L 50,000, and afterwards moved that the answer should be TecoVded" in the "Jottrnals of the House. This motion was simply for tlsejporpaies , of NJiacußsidn, and f dome very unfriendly things were said on both sides. Some «*id it Was ] a transaction ih'e nature of which they were afraid to designate by the term it deserved ; othersJohn Hall, for instance— told the Government that^theyjOnght to, have volunteered the information to the House boldly and frankly, and it might have been forgiven. Mr M'GilJivrfty/, ■*a "a 'devdnf Scotch 1 " meenister," treated the House to some very questionable doctrines of morality in support of the Government, and, after a few dropping shots from both sides, the motion was withdrawn, and, of course, we (ball have it all over again when the financial Statement comes on for discuslion, v v i <? y i % r i v o are constantly asking, " How do parties stand ? Who are to be the ' Ins ' in the event of the present Ministry being turned out ?" Nobody knows ; bni there are rumors of a combination, which, if true, will not help to strengthen the Op]>csition. It is said that an Auckland and Otago Coalition, with Stafford at the head, is on the cards : that, of course, means Gillies or Header Wood, Donald; Reid, and perhaps some of his tail. At any rate, the prospect of such an arrangement is very distasteful to many who are opponents of the present Government,! and in my opinion would be "bad for the Colony. But we shall' see what we shall see ;— everything depends upon the financial proposals of the GovennnenJ;.:s'Mr Yogel has promised to deliver his statement on Friday, and meantime everyone 10 agog with speculations as to the probable contejitsjof jhia Budget." One passage in the Governor's speech, referring to the equalizing of the expenditure and revenue, is interpreted, to. mean that the Government cannot cohtintie the capitation allowance, and that in order to " equalise", it will be necessary to place all really ColonUl Departments under General Government control, and reduce Provincial Governments to the exercise of Municipal functions only. Should the Government have s the « boldness? ted come down with a scheme of thig kind they will enlist the sympathies of the anti-Provin-cialiits, and gain. ground. But I fear if they have the cWrage to do this, anil thai they will propose some half measure of a temporary character, and wreck themselves upon it, like others have done before them. If they go out and Stafford cjtnes in, he will be compelled equally with them to take up and settle this vexed question. The Colony iB ripe for it and expecting iV and, inspWdf th'&^pbsi-' 1 tion of those who live by it, Provincialism will soon be a thing of the pas^ The questions of the. reduction of the duty upon gold and Ihe price of miners' rights have had an airing during} the past week. Mr 0. OT&eiU; Vho ispae type of J^* J^Si oL^pte^eutafeye^hat^ likes to stand well with his, ponstitn-, ents withotrt i taktog thi ' tiiitim r/fo* think of ! thef vproßMMe ;eff|<jt ; if ) His' opinions' .'^rere; ' carriea out, . , proposed that the export? duty upon gold shpuldb©

reduced to one shilling an ounce, and miner's rights to ten shillings. He absolutely advanced; no arguments, except the easy^. one usually adopted, and both mbtioriß were referred to^the Gpld fields Committee. The new oold Fields Act iB not yet in "the hands of members, but it is promised this week. Mr Harrison's resolutions come on on Thursday, and the occasion is regarded with some interest, as t the debate is sure to open up a very large question. He is said to be able to reckon on a large amount of, support, and that , the Government will not oppose them: Unfortunately, in one sense, because;they anticipate the Separation resolutions of Mi* Macandrew, which were postponed ten days ago, come on for. discussion on Tuesday, and if they are not again postponed, will, of course, help or mar'Mr Harrison's, as they may be approved or: otherwise. The; Education Bill is the chief topic of conversation just now. The second read- < ing was moved by Mr Fox in a very fin© speegh, and the member for Grey yalley re-opened, the ball on .Tuesday; The main, features of the Bill—Government" control and inspection — are generally approved ; but there will be a good deal of fighting over the details, The constitution of the Board--i.c. by election by Provincial Councils, is strongly objected to, and no doubt will be altered. Withitegard to Westland, the Bill makes the County Council the Board for the County ! Could anything be more ridiculous? The Catholics are mustering their forces in order to obtain a fuller share of the benefits of the Act than is •provided by the Bill, although they admit that a spirit of fairness is exhibited by the provisions for "aided schools." Bishop Moran is here, and f • veral mettings of the Catholics have been held as to the course to adopt. My opinion is that their wishes will be met in a liberal spirit, and that "give and take" will be the motto of the House, although I do not expect tney wsl get all they want. The compulsory clause I do not think willbe adopted, on account of the difficulties in the way of enforcing it It would be far better to leave it alone than pass a law tha]b would practically be a dead letter.