NOTES FROM SPECIAL REPORTERS AT WELLINGTON.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 236, 12 September 1873, Page 3

NOTES FROM SPECIAL REPORTERS AT WELLINGTON.

A correspondent last week sent us the following telegram from Wellington : There has been, considerable amusement and interest manifested here during last week about the Gold fields Bill. Shepherd was absent, billiard playing, when •the Bill came on for second reading last week. He was considered to be the putative father of the measure, and his absence was considered to afford a reason to get the Bill thrown out. Last week Yogel brought up the Bill for recommittal, and Shepherd said it had been sat upon by the House for three weeks,- and that C-old-fields' members were envious of his acquiring too much eclat from its passing : and that he hoped the House would reconsider the matter and recommit the Bill. The pomposity and cool assurance of the member for the Dunstan, when declaiming on the evil fortune of his begotten Bill were as amusing as indescribable. —' Wakatip Mail.'

Mr. O'lTeill's motion in Committee on the Education Bill that the Speaker do leave the chair caused considerable discussion, principally turning on whether members should take advantage of a thin House to throw out the Bill. —-Mr. T. L. Shepherd, whose G-oldmining Bill has been thrown out in his absence, spoke strongly against, and talked of an alteration of the law.—The Premier supported him, but several other members took the oppositeside, and said members should be in their places. After some personalities the motion was lost. —Telegrams.

I need not describe to Hawke's Bay readers that, portly and familiar figure, that grave, impressive manner, or endeavor to analyse the characteristic of mens solicla —encased moreover in cor-pore solicla —which Horace, attributes to his model statesman. Don't let my readers fling down the paper in disgust. Great as is my regard for Mr. M"'Lean's character, political and personal, I am not going in for such cheap adulation as would be involved in describing him as a model statesman in anything but aspect and manner. In regard to these, it is impossible to become too enthusiastic. liad his title been " Minister of .Justice," he •Would have looked the part to perfection before any assemblage, no matter how I august. On a point such as this, the ap-1 proval of the gallery opposite ours, from which the indigenous and exotic lOveli-. ness ahd fashion of Wellington, during the session, looks down on the arena below, is to my mind more valuable, by far, than the approval of any other, and, so far as my knowledge of their views enables me to form an opinion, Mr. M'L.ean has the veidict of the ladies very warmly indeed in his favor. " Such a good man he looks." "To look at him one could •not believe that he would do anything unkind or ungenerous." I. think I have heard such sentences from lips that could be sarcastic enough about his colleagues. Or if I have not heard precisely these, I have heard sentiments bearing a sufficiently close similarity to them for all practicalpurposes. 'His manner is, no doubt, in part, the outcome of his nature, and is in part acquired in the ■ exceptionally favorable circumstances for its acquirement, furnished by his unique career. A large portion" of his life, as we are aware, has been spent in the society of men whose debates o.nd wranglings he has been in the habit of'regarding with lofty and slightly contemptuous condescention, to argue with whom, the length of losing his temper, would appear to him the very acme of absurdity. Such a training might be an indifferent one for a man who had to climb to the top of the tree by means of his talents in debate, but for one who finds himself there owing to the manifestation of other qualities, it is excellent. When a hot-headed vehement Swanson, or a truculent Thersites of a Murray vents his ire on the powers that be, for real or imagined delinquencies, nothing operates so satisfactorily as an extinguisher, as the conciliatory explanation of the matter from the Native Minister, coupled perhaps with a few complimentary remarks on the apt suggestions which the honorable member so frequently makes, or the interest which he displays in all matters of the kind, on which, "he would take the opportunity of saying, the Government feel much gratiiied." The same remarks from Mr. Vogel would be taken for irritating irony, but from Mr. M'Lean, one would as soon look for irony in the discourses of his Lordship the Bishop of Waiapu, or the lugubrious lectures of the Ven. Archdeacon Stock.

As mentioned in the earlier part of this paper, I observe thai Mr. M'Lean is taking ' a much more prominent part of late than ho did in former years in the conduct of the G-cvernment business, as regards matters not connected with his own department. A* few nights ago, I noticed him sit down to the table to preside over the Life Assurance Companies Bill, during its passage through commit-

tee. For some reason or other, which. I forget at present, the committal was postponed. The task, however, for the periormance of which IVlr. M'Lean was, to all appearance, primed, will give your readers an idea of the kind of business which now and then falls to his lot of late. When Mr. Vogel gets his title, and accepts the berth that is being kept warm for_ him in a large Jewish house at home -which stands in need of a partner who is at once a knight and a financier—l have seen the rumor in print, so no doubt it is true —who are we to have to succeed him as Premier ? I imagine there can be no •mistake about that. Has the anticipation, I wonder, anything to do with Mr. M'Lean's present efforts to become a man not of one department only but, to some extent, at any rate, of all.—' Hawke's Bay Herald.'

Mr. Fitzherberfc, at any rate, in replying to Mr. Fox, dwelt, in the first place, oil the objectionable character of the doctrine enunciated, that a publican, by the mere fact of his entering on that line of life, had placed himself in the position of one who deserved to be made the. object of public and official censure. He knew many publicans, who, in spite of the temptations With which their position was beset, were men of unquestioned probity and genuine excellence, men whom any community might well be proud to own among its citizens. For such men he had a very deep and sincere respect. They merited indeed a far larger measure of esteem than did men who had the easier task to perform of exercising virtues similar to theirs in circumstances of a more propitious character. He thought it was the duty of members to let it be seen that the suggestion of affixing a stigma on the pursuit of publicans was rejected with indignation by that House, which was virtually the highest tribunal in liew Zealand.

lie then went on to refer to another aspect of the subject, the question, namely of the proposed nomination of Justices by Superintendents. Dropping the indignantly eloquent line, he assumed the solemn and sardonic. Having spent a few minutes' in depreciating, by a variety of sarcasms and inn.en.does, the dignity supposed, possibly, by some persons, to attach to the position of Justice of the Peace in New Zealand, he spent a few more in dwelling on the marvellous fact, in which, nevertheless, he avowed his belief, that there were people to Thorn that position was actually an object of aspiration! But to be told that a Superintendent, a member of that much decried class —which, however, he took leave to say, comprised and always had comprised, the ablest men in the colony —was not fit to nominate a J.P. ! Why, he considered such a duty less onerous than would be that of selecting —should he say—the cooks and chambermaids for the various domestic Establishments throughout the country ! ' In all this,- of Course, there was no answer to Mr. Fox's, objection to the proposal, on the ground of its giving too large a preponderance of influence to - the provincial authorities, but, none the less on this account, regarded, merely as chaff, it was certainly chaffof a very amusing, as well as of a very telliug character,— 'Hawke's Bay Herald.'

The prospect, of an unusually sliort session of Parliament this year seems growing less and less, in spite of Monday sitting and no Opposition. We are in the sixth week, and yet the important measures requisite to give effect to the Financial Statement Lave not even been brought down by Ministers. One oi your Ota,go members had the audacity, the other day to ask when those measures were to be ■ introduced, and the Premier gave him- what was probably intended to be a snubbing when lie said that the only reply he could give was that they would be brought down shortly. And yet the question was one which certainly should not be considered as impertinent. ISTot only the House but the whole Colony lias an interest in the matter greater even than that of Ministers themselves. It may be a "question with the latter whether they will be able to retain their seats when the long looked for bills are presented, but with all else the question . has besides a personal a far wider interest. The large pi-ovinces are naturally jealous of the control of their landed estates, and rumor has more than once asserted that it will be jeopardised. Though it is p-erfectly certain that the good sense of Otago would prevent its doing, in extremities, what a resolution moved, in the Provincial Council indicated, thereis no doubt that the opposition to anything like appropriation of or in tor Terence with its land would raise a strong and most effective Opposition. 171 this it would be supported by Canterbury. The goings o.n behind the scenes clearly prove this, and therefore, though Ministers may feel it convenient to play a waiting

game, I am by no means ' sure thai; the cart reply was either judicious or statesmanlike.—-' Is ortli Ota'go Times.' There was considerable amusement over the; Otago Waste Lands Bill, «or rather Bills. How many of them there were before the House, certainly no one but one or two of the Otago members could tell us, and they would most assuredly tell us differently. The whole question has gone to the Waste Lands Committee to be fought out. It is safes to predict that they will have lively times'of it there. In these committees, Mr. Speaker's restraining presence being removed, —not to mention the. reporters —the game goes hot-and furious. Let anyone represent to himself the chorus of barks and growls from a famished menagerie when the keeper appears with the viands, and he will have formed s.ome conception of_ the scene periodically presented by a Waste Lands Committee with an Otago Waste Lands Bill before, it.— ' Hawke's Bay Herald.'

Mr. JBradshaw complained the other day of Mr. Shepherd having takenupon himself to dissolve the Goldfields Committee that morning, and take away the minute-book for private purposes. Mr. Shepherd said that he had not taken away the minute-book to show it to newspaper writers or correspondents, referring to what Mr. Meryyn said in the previous night's debate in reference to the division of the G-oldfields members published in the 'Star,' but for his own information, to see how often: members had. attended the Committee, for the purpose of using the information in the debate.;—' Star.'

11l tlie closing remarks of our article of last week, we saicj, " tlie country, may soon be called upon to elect another Assembly.' The well-informed Dunedin 'Guardian' considers Mr. Yog-el's speech, a bid over the head of parties to the constituencies. However, if Mr. Yogel can carry through his " modifications,'"'" that event may be considered removed for : a another twelve-months at least.—' Wakatip Mail.' ': . 7 .

Those who have been complaining of the dearth of labor will be able in a couple of days to obtain as much as they want. The Allahabad's-220 immigrants are now in the barracks awaiting engagements ; and the sooner they are engaged the better, for the Peter JDermy has 340 souls on board, who are: to be landed to-morrow.— ' Star.' 1 ■ ; :

The ' London Lancet' lately published a case of a man who for nine day followed his occupation' with a needle Used and imbedded in his heart. On the ninth day a surgical operation was performed and the needle" extracted. The patient recovered without exhibiting any unfavorable symptom.

Among the list of the t: late 'publications " in London mention is made of a work entitled", " The Education of Man ; a Suggestive Dissertation on the Soul—what it is. and how trained ; with an appendix —Have- Savages Souls?" We havereasoii to believe that the author is Mr. Henry Smythies.— £ Star.' We learn that the other day Dr. IVPlntyre successfully performed the operation of trepanning, on the son of Mr. Eowley, who, we are glad to state, still lives, and there may be a prospect held out of his ultimate recovery. If such should be the case, it seems more like a miracle than otherwise that he will have escaped death. 'South Canterbury Times/

We observe that, at a meeting of Mr. Wilson Gray's friends, held in Melbourne, for the purpose of considering the steps to be taken to have a portrait of Mr. Gray painted for presentation to some one of the public institutions of Yictoria, "as a fitting and lasting memorial of a man whose name occupies a conspicuous place in the history of this countrya Committee was appointed to find out if a good portrait of that gentleman could be painted in the Colony, and what would be its probable cost. — £ Star.'

•A Magisterial Opinion on Public Houses. —Mr. Parker, acting as Chairman of the Oamaru Quarterly Licensing Bench, a short time ago, expressed in truthful and noteworthy terms, his emphatic condemnation of the multiplication of public houses. His Worship, in substance, stated, that such multiplication did not conduce to the production of a superior article in drink, and the trios fc successful publican was not necessarily the man who sold the best drink, but he who was .the most successful adulterator. His Worship alluded to the immoral effects of the trade, and especiHly to the evils of the low shanties, which he said should be swept away. He alluded to the water closets attached to the public houses, and. the attention of the police to them. J2e said that such was the condition of these closets, that their condition alone would be sufficient to disqualify a majority of publicans from being license, holders. —' North Otago.Times.'