THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Lyttelton Times, Volume VII, Issue 439, 17 January 1857, Page 5

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

We cut out the following amusing satire from " General Assembly" No. IX, in the Wellington Independent of December 17.

In order to understand the cause of the rejection of such measures as the District Courts' Act and Purity of Elections' Act, another of the innocents which fell before the Herods of the Legislative Council, it is necessary to glance cursorily at the peculiar mental characteristics of the gentlemen who .compose that body. We all know, from past experience, what sort of a legislator a nominee is likely to prove. Hobson's choice was proverbially a bad beast:—the freaks of the Fitzroy fellows found no favour in our eyes :—and the eminently successful part that Grey's force have taken in public life since the introduction of free institutions^ clearly proves the high estimation in which their legislative capacities were held by the community at large. The rule of former years holds gcol with respect to a large part of the Council: — and there appears to "be something in the savour of nomineeism which at times warps the judgment of the wisest amongst them. But Mr. Bartley, the speaker, is a gentleman whose presence would do honor to r.r.j assembly. Mr. Yyliitrtker is a shrewd Attorney, though not of the highest, order of mind, or most enlarged education; Mr. Tancred though crotchety, and

of a brain through which you may seethe light in many places, is a man of undoiibted talent. Dr. Richardson is clever, very efficient and business like, and Mr. Gilfillan, an amiable young merchant from the Land of Cakes, is intelligent and generally on the side of progress. All these gentlemen are qualified to fill with credit to themselves and advantage to the public, seats in the House of Representatives. On the other side, however1, sit Mistresses Seymour, Richmond, Kenny, Gibbs and Salmon—carefully preserved specimens of genuine nomineeisrn. They are apparently just commencing their training for freedom, —to use the cant of the Colonial office : —and they certainly submit to it, with all the querilousness peculiar to female old age. They are fully aware that their duty con-"' sists in checking hasty legislation : but as> their, - legislative intellects are not yet sufficiently : developed to enable them to discriminate between i measures of haste and measures of utility, they 'consider that duty best fulfilled by voting against everything that they cannot comprehend —in short almost everything that comes before them. Thus, looking at the Legislative Council in a vehicular light, we observe the real workers pulling forward in the ratio of five, and the gibbers hanging back in tl c same r »tio, while not unfrequently one of the woik.-rs unhooks the traces and hitches himself on behind. The speed attained is consequently not remarkble but the slowness is. And if by any chance the sweet seductions of society keep ore of the progress p: rt/ from his seat for a single afternoon, a summary stop is put to whatever .Bills happen to be under the consideration of the Council, Thus it fared with the District Courts' Bill, thrown out on the third reading : —and thus fell the Purity of Elections' Act, a most useful measure of which we shall have more to say by and bye. Reasons for these proceedings it was vain to expect. As one of the party justly observed, they were not obliged, by t \e Constitution Act, to give reasons. Besides, there exists a popular and well-grounded, belief, that the peculiar formation of the br-'n of a genuine unadulterated nominee of the eld ehool renders her both incapable of reasoning herself, and impervious to the reasoning of others. Some persons also imagine that the process of nomination has a softening effect on the cerebral structure:—but we incline to the belief that both of these peculiarities are connate. A charming illustration of these facts may be found in the following familiar phrase of one of those legislatresses to whom we a]lude: —" I can't argue, I ain't literary, and that: but I've made up my mind, and if my vote was to sink NewZealand under the sea, I'd give it," We believe that this was the same hon. member who s ibsequently stated that the Scrip Bill " gave her the creeps." Once and once only, did the Opposition of the Legislative Council make an attempt at original legislation: and on thatunique 'occasion, the Honorable Sir Osborne Gibbs, with the solemnity benefiting the subject, introduced the celebrated " Bill for preventing in a summary manner the Trespassing of Pigs !" Great was the joy of Sir Qsborne's " potent, grave, and reverend" colleagues. One stated her intention of" going in for goats" : — another declared her determination to " drop into" a cow that had been a shade too assiduous in its intentions to her asparagus : —nor was it until informed that the effect of the Bill would be to legalize " fiat burglary, as ever was committed," that these sapient Dogberries desisted, most reluctantly, from their almost solitary and altogether original effort at legislation. It is to such a court of appeal of legislative Gamps and Harrisses, that we owe the delay —for it can prove no more —of two of the most useful measures brought forward during the session.