EXTRACTS FROM 'HANSARD.'

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume IV, Issue 243, 31 October 1873, Page 3

EXTRACTS FROM 'HANSARD.'

Several Wellington correspondents during the past session drew attention to the unseemly wrangling of the members for Dunstan and Wakatipu. We extract one such scene, in which Dunstan certainly was Vicious. On the debate on the ' second reading of the first of the " seven little pigs"—the Hawke'sßay Loan Empowering Bill—Mr. Pyke said:— There was no mail in the House who: regretted the action which had induced the

Ministry to adopt the course tliey were now pursuing in reference.to. tlie question before the House more- tlian lie did. It was not a change of front; upon the first repulse the Go veminent had 1 o wered their coloi's, and had assented to the most abject terras of subHe (Mr. Pyke) .was not prepared to submit to such a couxsp.; what .was proi posed to be done now was'altogether unrea- ' sonable. He would be proud to follow a .leader, who would lead his men; but he was not prejjared to follow a.leader who would set the example of retreating to the rear on the first check. He did not hesitate to say that there had been a total abnegation ot principle on the part of the, Cxovernmeiit in tliis matter. The Government had Swallowed the 'leek most completely. They had not taken that bold stand which they ought to have taken, and in which the Rouse would have supported them. . If they had taken a firm and dignified stand, and said that they would allow the questira. to remain over and bring it before the Assembly next session, and insisted upon the principle which was to govern the taxation of the. country, namely, the rating of property to carry on the necessary public works; if they had done that, there was no doubt the liouse would have supported them. The Premier brought down this cry himself. It was h e and no o fch er who raised the great question of taxation of property, Then he became alarmed at the great cry he had raised, and ' " Back recoiled—he knew not why— Even at the sound himself had made. " He ventured to remind the honorable gentleman of the old Scotch legend, of the man who descended into a magic cavern, wherein stood!, a hundred horses all-: ready caparisoned, and by the side of each horse there lay a sleeping .knight, fully harnessed for the fray. At the entrance of the vault there were suspended a sword and a horn. The stranger, fearful of the sword, seized the horn and. blew a loud blast thereon. Whereupon the •• horses, neighed' in .• their stalls, the knights awoke from their, trance, the intruder was ignoininiously destroyed; and a voice was heard issuing from the dim recesses of the cave,— " Woe to the coward, that e'er he. was born Who drew not the sword- ere he blasted the

horn." That denunciation applied to the present Government, and lie (Mr. Pyke) ventured to say that the first step ■towards the ultimate downfall of the Ministry ;had been taken. It would have been better if the Premier had drawn the sword before blowing the horn. They had a Bill brought down to do justice to the country, but the Government had abandoned it altogether. They had now the husk without the. kernel; the principle of the Bill was gone, .and. they .were now. asked to eat the husk.. . The position taken up by the various Superintendents. reminded him of the nursery rhyme;' '"lt- was useless to oppose these Bills whilst- every Superintendental Jack Horner was waiting to " put in his thumb, and to 'pull out a plum, and say What a good boy am !!'•' ' The position in which, the .Souse was placed was pitiable. To have a House without an Opposition was a calamity; but there was a stiil worse calamity—there was 110 Government. The Government.had fallen to pieces by their own weight.<• He would not take upon himself to oppose these Bills; but, in the meantime, he must record his protest against the action taken in this matter, lest at some future time this great sin might be laid at his door.

Mr. T. L. Shepherd said that if he had ever listened to>.a speech delivered from the stump, it was the speech just made by the honorable member for Wakatipu. There was a great deal of soiind and fury, a great deal about Scotch anecdotes, and the blowing of horns; but he ventured to say that the honorablermember did not blow a horn, but a penny whistle. It would be a great satisfaction to him and to the House if the honorable member would cease bio wing his penny whistle in. the way he did. After a few days' probation, the honorable member now took upon himself to lecture the Premier, who was acknowledged to be one of the most able statesmen in New' Zealand, and one who had the support of the House and the country. The honorable member, with his boasted Victorian experience, ventured to tell the Premier that he was falling to pieces-—that his Government was falling to pieces. The honorable member. came with his scissors and netfdle and thread, like one of the three tailors of Tooley-street, ready to put on a patch if applied to; but his services were not required, to liia evident chagrin. -