PARLIAMENTARY.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1606, 28 August 1874, Page 338

PARLIAMENTARY.

(PROM OUE OWN CORRESPONDENT.) Wellington, 24th August. The feud between Mr Vogel and Mr ■Fitzherbert daily increases in bitterness, and if some emollient be not applied something like a political vendetta may be the result. The first few slashing encounters were very much relished by the galleries, and not altogether displeasing to the House it was a relief from the dull monotony which had prevailed. Now the galleries are nightly filled with the expectation of a scene, while the House is just as much in dread of an exhibition. Latterly Mr Fitzherbert has had rather the worst of these little passages of arms, not so much perhaps from the superiority of the Premier's weapons, though keen and powerful enough for any armor in the House, but because the charges and inuendoes of Mr Fitzherbert against Mr Vogel have been of such a nature as to call for Mr Fox's intervention, who was never famous for throwing oil upon troubled waters. Having been Mr Vogel's chief during the time Wellington was in her sorest pecuniary straits, and knowing all he did to rescue her from her financial embarrassment better than most people, Mr Fox was indignant at the charges of persecution and vindictiveness, and showed the intensity of his feelings by practising a little, vivisection upon the already incontinently angry Super. With ludicrous mimicking, he likened the Superintendent to a whining old mendicant —not sturdy beggar this time—who, with dog at heels and dish in hand kept up the doleful and piteous cry of " Pity the sorrows of a poor old man, and poor persecuted Wellington." Mr Fox then graphically pictured the deep depression of tne Province—when Dr Featherston was afraid to walk down the beach, when the police were unpaid, the sacred trusts of the Province appropriated, the gaols, the hospitals, and all other provincial institutions sunk into the most wretched inefficiency; and then sketched the various acts of assistance for which the Province was indebted to the Colonial Government; and finally wound up an impassioned harangue by challenging the hon. member for the Hutt to enumerate a single instance of persecution—unless he meant to call the resistance to the Manawatu land claim persecution. There was no response. In the course of the discussion it transpired that the 28-day Ministry of Messrs Stafford and Gillies had come to an understanding that the seat of Government was to be removed to Auckland after the next session. It also appeared that Mr Vogel risked a split in his party by making it a sine qua non that Wellington must remain the seat of Government, and when he appealed to the Canterbury members to say if many of them had not turned the cold shoulder to him in consequence, they replied with " hear, hear." With the one exception, the Wellington members have nothing to say against the Premier, and are amongst the most punctilious observers of Parliamentary decorum in the House. Fortunately for its peace neither Sir Donald M'Lean nor Mr Richardson appear to have an enemy in it, and to do them justice they carefully avoid making any ; and as each is considered inaccessible in his respective position they enjoy a peace and quietness that is far from the lot of their chief. Mr Reynolds, with all. his harmless pomposity, is allowed to pursue the even tenor of his way without either having to give or take. The whole of last week was given to the abolition debate, which came to a conclusion in as unexpected a manner as it seems to have originated ; and if a wayward temper had anything to do with its inception, a feeling not very remote from that led to its abrupt termination. The hangers-on of the Opposition had announced that Mr Fitzherbert intended to speak a day or two before, and there is no doubt he was brimming over with ill-contained wrath; but for some unaccountable reason he would nurse it and keep it warm until his opportunity slipped by. It appears now that he had made up his mind not to precede Mr Stafford, and as he declined to speak to the resolution, perhaps because he was not in the House during the debate, Mr Fitzherbert was sold. The debate had been adjourned at 5.80 by Sir Cracroft Wilson, but upon the House resuming, he gave a jocular excuse for not speaking, the division bell was rung, the glass inverted, and Mr Fitzherbert walked into the Chamber just in time to record his vote ; and no doubt the majority of the Government would have been smaller but that several who intended to vote against the resolution were laggards. People begin to think Mr M'Glashan is a better "whip " than he looks, for he had all his forces ready. The telegraph will have informed you of Mr Fitzherbert's notice of motion. If he intends to re-open the debate, the noticeof motion is a mistake—if merely to unburthen himself of his pent-up rancor, highly injudicious. For this session at least the Opposition has thrown up the sponge, and all that Mr Fitzherbert can do is mere beating the wind, unless ho makes an unseemly exhibition of himself, which is not at all improbable in his present mood. Before this reaches you the wires will verify or contradict these anticipations. I am much afraid that the telegraph skims the cream now-a«days and leaves little for the correspondent but the " flat, stale, and unprofitable" duty of filling up that of which your readers have already had the skeleton. The Ward-Chapman Committee have attempted to carry more than they could lift. It has been a committee of committees, Having cost the Colony a

cool thousand or so already, and waded into deep and dirty water,- they have ingloriously backed out and recommended the appointment of a Royal Commission. Portion of the evidence is of such an equivocal character that they dare not print it, and therefore the whole of it is likely to be suppressed, except to the eyes of the, Royal Commission, who in the course of their investigations will put the Colony to the cost of another few thousandsnothing, you will say, in these days of millions; but ten thousand times more han the worth of anything likely to be derived from this enormous coil of red tape. I hope this is not a breach of privilege; and for fear of the worst will say no more about it. The Forest Bill was very favorably received in the Upper House, except by Mr "Waterhouse, Mr Mantell, and Mr Menzies, who may be said to monopolise the acerbitic element of the Chamber amongst them, though they can display as much shrewdness as any other gentlemen in it, when not in captious vein. Added to both these qualities, Mr Mantell has the rare one of finding fun in everything. It must be a funereal subject indeed that he cannot knock a joke out of; but though he fires off more or less whenever he opens his mouth, the grave and reverend seigneurs do not always "see the joke." The Licensing Bill has been gingerly handled in the Upper House, whose leanings and antipathies regarding the liquor traffic are of a mild character; but on the whole, I think upon its re.turn to the Lower House it will be found to have been improved in several points which would bear amending. After all the Bill would be a very sunny one for the " bungs," as publicans are facetiously termed in this irreverent, city. The Naval Training School also found favor in their eyes, and will no doubt be none the worse for their scrutiny. The Lords, with all their pragmatical tendency, can be very lynx-eyed in detectingj absurdities; and when none of the prejudices of their class are threatened, can bring to bear upon any measure submitted to them more legislative acumen than they are usually credited with. Our Municipal Couucil have got into a bad way. Their sittings now are as good as a show. They are presided over by the Mayor, who is the greatest oddity in the Council. He has been a member of the Council from the first, but having reached—or rather having been thrust into—the position of Mayor, he seems to look upon himself as a sort of Grand Llama, above and beyond all active participation in the conduct of Municipal affairs, and the natural result is that business is left to care for itself, Councillors become irate, and their meetings become amusing spectacles. [by electric telegraph. I 27th August. The Upper House has thrown out the Auckland Improvement Act Amendment Bill, considering it a private measure.