A CASE OF PRIVILEGE. ?

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1279, 4 September 1872, Page 2

A CASE OF PRIVILEGE. ?

J t The 1 following paragraph/ which" it is ' c quite unnecessary- 1 to characterise, ape peared in the Wellington Evening Post, , of August £2: — "'■'"' '■■■■'■•■'• ■ : Members of the Cabinet f are straining 1 every nerve to secure? the wavering votes } against the coming division. Noinstru- *■ ment is tqojmeanafo* .them to use j Go--1 rernmtmt officials are freely enlisted in the cause, and no w the ladies have brought * their powerful artillery to the aid qf the * sinking Cabinet,; , Theistory of the lovely Georgina, Duchess of Devonshire, who 1 condescended to kiss a butcher in order to ! obtain a vote— which secured the Westminster elec"tioii4-hus been i burlesqued in Wellington. No matter at what sacrifice of dignity, votes must be obtained; and the mem.ber3 soft the. soffcer-syxiwho are attached, as a -sort of light brigade, to the . Ministry, have been equal to. the occasion. They have at any rate succeeded in making one convert. . Au invitation to Government House, and the enticing wiles of one of Mr Vogel's most skilful and attractive female lieutenants, have combinedly turned the head of that, "political jackass " Mr T. L. Shepherd. He has been inoculated with the virus of Vogelism, and has suddenly become an out-and-out supporter of the Government. Lovely woman has stooped to folly to. some purpose, though" the operation must have been uncommonly nauseous. The Duchess had a much more pleasant task. The Independent of the 24th, referring to the foregoing, says :— . A case ci privilege cropned up in tho House yes >.rda,,-, as soon i.s the Sp< •• V * took the eh ,ir, that oiight nut to be pasat over, though.^ was.' the wish of th

House that the remarks which it called forth should not defile "Hansard." Tho subject was a disgusting paragraph which had appearel in the Post of the previous evening, and when MrEeynolds called attention to it and was about to read it, loud cries of "Ho, no," prevented him. It will be sufficient to say, however, that all sides of the House , joined in a genoral and unqualified condemnation of the paragraph in question, one hon. member suggesting that the Journal in which it appeared should be excluded from the House altogether, -while Mr Stafford said he had read the paragraph with extreme disgust ; and the Premier said he looked upon the Evening Post as the most scurrilous publication in the Colon >, aud that there was but one barrier between such scurrility and bowie-knives and revolvers — namely, the contempt of right-minded men. Ho might also say that on the previous evening he found two members of the staff of that journal, not only within the precincts of the House, but in a Government office, and he took upon himself, after reading that paragraph, the right of ordering them off the premises immediately — a statement which was loudly applauded.