PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1255, 7 August 1872, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

[from the nelson colonist.] Wellington, July 29. My last notes ended in gossip, and I begin these in the same way, although as. yet there is little gossip current. -The latest story— and how much of a story it is, I leave the reader to guess — is that if the Opposition could succeed, in turning nut the Ministry, they would ' establish Sir David Monro as Premier and representative of the Ministry in the Upper -House; with Mr Stafford as Colonial - Secretary ; Mr Fitzherbert as Treasurer ; Mr Gillies as— (well his: 'position was not defined) -perhaps as Native Minister, in the absence of ' Mr M'Lean ; and Mr ! Curtis in the Customs, or somewhere else, that is, supposing either Mr .Gillies or Mr Fitzherbert would give up the cot uncomfortable and peaceable positions they occupy as Superintendents of Auckland and Wellington respectively, for the unI certainty of Ministerial office. But all this is mere gossip, possibly the result of some loose after-dinner talk, which percolates and precipitates tp the lobbies for gobemouches and scribblers to chatter about. "i : The Buller Land Purchase Committee have held a sitting, at which it was decided that notification ba sent to ..all members of the Provincial Council of Nelson, _ " that the Committee had been appointed * to enquire into certain allegations against Eugene J. O'Conor, connected with; the Westport land purchase; and that it is willing to hear them, or any of them, either personally or by counsel in reference to such allegations." These notices have been duly posted; but, in consequence of steamers breaking down, they" will only leave to-day, so that the meeting of the Committee, which was adjourned till to-morrow, will be further adjourned. . ; " ; '- ■ Some little alarm, or its semblance, has been got up because of the condition of the roofs of both Houses', and the danger of their falling down to the discomfiture of the members. The Speaker said that, the roof was safe, unless a violent earthquake or a severe gale should occur. Last week the Legislative Council had great upright beams placed up the walls of the chamber, with cross beams and ties under the ceiling, and iron girders ; and this week the House of Representa-.. fives is undergoing a like improvement, and various jests respecting the specific gravity, or otherwise of heads, are now at a discount. ..■'■■ Mr Parker, of Motueka, moved for a return of the people who had been ; vaccinated by the public vaccinator, under the Act of 1871, pointing out that as regards the Province of Nelson, the Act had been a dead letter. It was explained by the Colonial Secretary that no provision for payment of public vaccinators had been made last year, but that lately, when small-pox broke out, tfie Ministers had - taken the responsibility of providing that such officers should perform gratuitous vaccination, Government giving them some remuneration for their services. The return was ordered.

There was a slight breeze in the House the other evening, in the, matter .of the Life Assurance Bill ; Mr Yogel having assailed the Australian Mutual, without naming it/ but everyone knew what he meant. His attack was grounded on some telegrams which, he said, the Manager had paid GreviUe's agent in Wellington to circulate among the papers, reporting the annual meeting of the com* pany as an extraordinary success, when at the time the report of the Directors was opposed, and had tp be submitted to a committee, and when really for that year no extraordinary success was shown. Some compliments were passed from side to side, and as several members of the Australian Mutual Board of Directors. in New Zealand are also members of the Assembly, the work was a little warm. No doubt, Mr Yogel made out his case ; but it was not worth while to raise all the disturbance about it,- and the feeling in the House was against the personal bearing of the discussion. This bill is for. the purpose of providing that every Life Assurance Company of foreign origin, or starting in the Colony and doing business, shall lodge L 20,000 worth of securities in the hands of the Public Trustee as security for the assured; and it also provides what is an important feature, that policies of assurance shall be unattachable by the creditors of the insured, after they have been in existence for a certain time, viz., to the extent of L2OO for two years, LSOO for three years, and LI 000 for five years. I think these are the periods, but I write from memory, and have not a bill by me at the moment. The principle is there, however, and a good one it v. Reference will be made in your other columns to the subject of the Government proposal to sever the West Coast Gold Fields from Nelson Province, a project which, I believe, will be withstood to the last by all the Nelson members, with one exception. There appears to be no real good grounds for the proposal, and every available opportunity that can be made or seized to stopMhe measure will be taken advantage of. . Its success would be destruction to Nelson as a Province, and equal damage to the West Coast. " Mr Arthur Collins has tabled a motion, and will probably carry it, to reduce the duty on gold from- 2s 6d to 2s an ounce. This means that the diggers will, on the average, save individually something like 4id or 5d per week, a portion of which, if not all, will go the banks, while in Nelson Province it means* something like L 3500 or L4OOO a-year withdrawn from, roads and other necessary works on the gold fields, so that the miner, to whom all this "claptrap," as Mr Macandrew termed it, and " bunkum," as Mr Gillies designated t, is being addressed, may well save' me from injudicious friends. : The .beauty of it is that some members are strongly averse to the proposal, and areyetto irose for it to please "bunkum!" 4 i On the second day of the session, Mr O'Conor made a "personal explanation* respecting the fact of his having obtained more- honorarium than he was strictly' entitled to ; and that he had been reported in a, newspaper -to have 'told his con» stituents that the Speaker •« had forced upon him more honorarium than he was entitled to." And tie proceeded to say that " what he really stated was that far from seeking more than he was entitled to, he had on two different occasions referred to Mr Speaker, in the usual way, in order that he might decide the amount to which he was' entitled, previously to signing the vouchers. It is a curious fact that the report of his having said that the full honorarium had been 1 ' forced on him" by the Speaker appeared

in the Westjport Times, a paper at that time owned and managed by O'Conor himself. The Speaker was curiouslysilent when this explanation was made ; and as it was known that the full amount of honorarium was received by Mr O'Conor, although he was absent for several weeks at tbe beginning of the session, some people are desirous of knowing what amount the vouchers originally showed, whether they were, referred by Mr O'Conor to the little or too much. If they first showed lets than the sum received by him, and he referred them to the Speaker, and ultimately obtained the full amount receivable, then they must have been referred back, in order to be increased ; and not to be diminished as the " explanation" would lead one to believe, so that it would appear that Mr O'Conor had been seeking more than the vouchers the first set forth he was entitled to.