Mr E.M. Smith.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 29 August 1891, Page 2

Mr E.M. Smith.

♦ - — - The New Plymouth 'Harbour Board Bill took up the greater part of the time of the House on Wednesday, and naturallyMr E. M. Smith the representative of New Plymouth had the most to say, "What he said and how he said it, is most amusingly reported under political notes in the New Zealand Times from which we make a few extracts." Mr E. M. Smith takes the whole burden of the matter on his shoulders. The Premier and others have , every goodwill, but they want a policy, by which they can give relief. . • He talks prisons, and prison labour ; he reviews land and land adminis* tration, he talks of bonds and bondholders. The upshot of fll}. this., is that the justice of the past and Ahk good faith ot the Colony require that the bondholders shall be protected by the Colony. . .... Somebody interjects something about ,t£e j sand. -A Mr Smith faces him with loiuj' I fierceness — going off towards him ai ; a tangent, without a pause in his eloquence. " I have been asking for a railway train to take you to the sand and rub your head in it," he shouts, flapping his arms like wings in front while the surf of. laughter leaps myi all round the House The subject fascinates him. This ii

v colonial work! Make the loan colonial! "Put it into the big pot and stir it up with the rest," he making .circular motion with v*~his hands, wJ^e, in his excitement, *k his eyes become like shining saucsvs in his head. I'he Hou3e finds the scene irre- , sistible, and gives itself up to unreserved delight. Leaving the bondholders, he goes back to the breakwater in search of his enemies, anl soon he his busy with Dr Newman. " The hon gentleman's little brain is not expansive enough to carry him outside of Wellington." As the House' laughs uproariously Mr Smith nods his head vigorously as if to intimate that he has done for one of the wretched crew of obstructionists. , . . . The interrupion makes ' the champion angry. He strikes an attitude, like Sancho Panza might have done in his celebrated, but unrecorded act of Ajax defying the lightning. "I'm not going to be shuffled off from my duty. I'm like the great Kractacus who was dragged to Rome, where he took care to defend his countrymen, the AngloSaxon, of which I am a descendent, and proud I am of it, and will always be found doing my duty. You're not agoing to shuffle me off," he concludes, shaking his head and rolling his eyes at the shaking, shouting, House. . . . "Let's go and have our tea comfortable, sir," proposes Mr Smith, "and come back and talk this thing over properly." . . . • Mr E. M. j Smith after dinner resolves himself into a museum of natural products, exclusively from the district of Taranalri. Citrons and sand and other things he holds up and enlarges upon. It appears that rightly managed they will pay not only such a trifling thing as the New Plymouth debt, bnt the debt of the whole Colony, with expedition as well as ease. Having made that clear, Mr Smith sits down with every visible sign of satisfaction.