PARLIAMENTARY.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume II, Issue 139, 20 July 1880, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY.

(From our Own Correspondent.)

Wellixoton, July IS. The week just closed has been singularly prolific of Parliamentary vagary. It set out with a high-handed protest against the waste of time and energy by which the New Zealand Parliament in session has of late been so grossly abused, and ended with one of the most 1 lamentable exhibitions of that abuse which has yet been put on record. You are already cognizant of the fact that the Lower House sat for the first time this session on Monday afternoon and evening. Pursuant to notice, the Premier at that sitting moved that the order directing the Speaker “ to leave the chair at 12.30 a.m., be rescinded, and in support thereof urged that it would be utterly impossible to get through the work of the session within any thinglike a reasonable period of time unless the proposal was carried into effect. Now, just let us see for a moment what this, as a tacitadmission, amountsto. Committeework begins at about 10 a.m., and closes at say 12J10. The House sits at 2.30 and adjourns at 5.30 till 7.30, so that fourteen hours’ labor with two intervals, of two hours each, is not considered sufficient for a New Zealand Legislator. We conserve the interests of trade and commerce by restricting the workmen to the reasonable propositions of an eight-hour system, while the more important functions of legislation arc left exposed to all the neglect and abuse incidental to over-taxed energy and unremitting toil. One speaker put the point straight, the member for Parnell, Mr Moss—“ The character of our legislation,” he said, “ was degenerating,' and of late years compares most unfavorably with that of other colonies. The reason is clear to my mind. Advantage is taken of these protracted sittings,°when tli'e House is thin, and memLei's arc well nigh exhausted to pass votes and measures requiring the most careful sidcrationand the fullest possible digestion. To my own mind the proceeding reflects very little credit indeed upon the Government, and lays them open to the imputation that if they can only succeed in getting measures passed they are not by any means over scrupclous as to the means by which that object is attained. I am sorry to have to speak thus of a Ministry that has done wood service in promoting the peace, order, and good Government of the Colony. Still I am hound to say that in this instance they appear to have beenill-advisedindeed. After having thus “girded up its loins,” and professed itself so eager for the fray, one naturally enough looked out for the utmost fervency of spirit in the work of despatch, but, alas, the results have been quite the opposite. The transactions of the week have been one succession of wasteful extravagances so. far as time and energy have been concerned. First of all wo had a Government supporter in the person of Mr Whitaker, blocking a £4OO vote, upon which Government appears to have set its whole heart and soul. The Opposition, which was single-handed was carried on throughout the small hours of the morning, and so determinedly was the struggle maintained that Government with all its big majorities was literally forced to sue for a truce. Then again, a question arose as to the selection ad interim of a Chairman of Committees. The Speaker, Sir Maurice o‘Rorke, has been laid up for some days through indisposition; and the member for Wairau has been acting in his stead. The duties of Speaker, tacked on to those of

| Chairman of Committees were rather too much for one mail to perform, and Government, very considerately, proposed that Mr Seymour sho ild temporarily be relieved from the Committee work. Tlje Premier named that Mr Hurst, of Auckland City East should be appointed acting Chairman of Committees, whereupon a perfect storm of indignation broke out amongst a few Opposition leaders. Mr Hurst is a goodnatured, well-meaning man and has what is rather a rare thing in that Assembly, a gentlemanly address. Along with Reader Wood, Swanson, and Colbeck, he seceded from the ranks of the Opposition last session, thereby relieving the affairs of the country from a very awkward fix. Since then he has been singled out by the Opposition as a marked man. Some of the rougher members of the camp have from time to time hurled their coarse vituperations at him, trusting no doubt to his more gentlemanly instincts for immunity from retaliation. Be that as it may, the storm raged for the best part of a whole night, and although Government eventually carried the point Hurst very properly declined the honor conferred on him with such a very bad grace. The crowning point of the week’s obstructions, however, was reserved for the evening of Friday. The night’s performance opened with a debate on the second reading of the Maori Peace Preservation Bill. The object of this Bill is to empower Government to detain the Maori prisoners in custody and to liberate them from time to time without the necessity of bringing them to trial. It is, no doubt, an extreme measure, but then the circumstances are altogether peculiar, and it is with legislation as it is with pharmacy, the cure in its extremities must be proportionate to the disease. Sir George Grey was on this, ns he has been on many similar occasions, chief actor. In the course of an harangue directly opposed, as a matter of course, to the passage of the Bill, lie complained that the Premier was not giving that close attention to his remarks which the utterances of such a mighty oracle demanded. Hall, thus brought to book, I am in a position from personal observation to say most unfairly, was instantly all attention. Grey, however, was in one of bis fretful moods and bis wrath was not to be thus eas’ly appeased. “I will wait” said he, “ until the lion, the Premier can gRe me his undivided attention, as what I am about to say is specially designed for his warning and admonition.” In pursuance of that determination he stood stockstill for a solid hour, setting at defiance every effort to induce him either to go on, or else abandon the position. The acting Speaker ruled that Grey, having the floor of the House, could he compelled to do neither the one thing nor the other. The situation was a most extraordinary one—unprecedented, I believe, in Parliamentary practice. After a good many futile attempts to raise a side issue, the acting Speaker abandoned the chair, announcing that the House would resume again in a half-hour. It is only necessary for me to add that in these few remarks you have a tolerably full account of the business transacted during the past week, small and miserable as the catalogue may seem.

KELLY INCIDENTS,

AX EXTRAORDINARY APPARITION 1 . The satement of Constable Arthur with regard to the encounter shows the effect which the appearance of Ned Kelly and his extraordinary conduct had upon the police. After describing the finding of Ned’s rifle covered with blood and a skull cap on the ground near the hotel, the Constable says: — “I moved to a log within SO yards of a house, into which I commenced to fire. Sergeant Kelly left me there, and a bullet from the hut tore up the ground underneath my stomach. I consequently deterned Jto go to another part of the log. It was very cold, and I filled my pipe to have a smoke. Just at daylight I was in the act of lighting my pipe, and heard Ned Kelly coming behind me. His extraordinary appearance so startled me that I let the pipe drop out of my mouth, and gazed at the strange objectfor a minnte.'not knowing but that it was a madman who had conceived the idea of storming the hotel with a nail-can on his head. I then said to him, ‘Go back you J fool, you will get shot.’ The figure replied, ‘I could shoot you sonny,’ and at that moment fired his revolver at me, but missed. He evi leutly was crippled, and did not take proper aim. We were theli only between 20 to 20 yards apart. I levelled my Martini rifle, asd fired at bis helmet, thinking I would knock it off. It only staggered him slightly. An opening in the helmet looked iike a huge mouth, and I fired at that, and hit him again. He stil came on. I fired a third shot at his body, and heard it scud off him. I was completely astonished, and could not understand what the object I was firing at was. The men around me appeared astonished, too. Someone said, ‘Ho is a madman !’ Dowset. the railway guard, said, ‘He is the devil !’ Sergeant Kelly exclaimed, ‘ Look out, boys, be is the bunyip !’ At once I sought shelter, and tried to get round at the hack. I did so becausb I found it was no use firing at his front. Before I could succeed in doing so, Sergeant Steele ran up from behind and shot him. When I shot at him first, Sergeant Steele thought I had made a mistake, and called to me to stop firing. After he had been captuied Ned Kelly shook his fist at me and swore.”

now THE SPECIAL WAS STOPPED

The man who stopped the train turns out to be Mr Thomas Curnow, the local schoolmaster. Mr and Mrs Curnow were stock up at about 11 o’clock on Sunday morning by Ned Kelly and Byrne at the railway gates, as they were driving towards Greta Their horse and buggy were put up at .Tones’ hotel, and they themselves were lodged in the station-master’s house. When hailing them up Kelly said, “I am sorry, but I must detain you.” They were detained until about 10 o’clock at night, when Kelly and Byrne took them to the hotel, requested them to get into their buggy, and then accompanied them to the police-station, where Kelly told them to go home and get into bed, and to remain quiet, otherwise he would shoot Mr Curnow. How Mr Curnow heard of the rails having been pulled up has not yet been explained, and it ssemed strange, seeing that he had been set at liberty before the deed was done. He, however, did come by the information, and took the risk of earning the hatred of the Kelly gang by doing it in the interests of humanity. His home stands quite close to the railway line, and he was therefore able to hear the pilot engine approaching. Upon hearing it approaching he immediately ran out with a red handkerchief, which lie held up, with a lighted match behind it. By this action the°special train was secured, and the locale of the gang discovered.