ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 285, 21 August 1874, Page 2

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT

Mr. Mervyn has suggested that-surveys should be made in the Clyde district, to ascertain the best route for the main line; the present; lines, being along the seaboard, he said, opened up very little country. Unless the reporter has not done Mount Tda's member justice, he managed, with great adroitness, "to frame his suggestion to please" the district he represents, while not offending Teviot—"in the Clyde district." We forgive Mr. Mervyn many shortcomings*'for the genius displayed in this matter. He could not altogether ignore the strong representations made to him through the Naseby Pros'gress Committee, to urge the construction of \a, line of railway from Palmerston-through the Mount Ida district to Clyde; so he gets out of the difficulty by suggesting what the Provincial Government has already undertaken to do—effect a survey of, not only a railway in the Clyde district,, but .also .through the Mount Ida district.- .' Hansard' certainly has not to suffer on behalf of our member, as vols. 7 and 8 to hand do not bear any trace of his presence House—except, indeed, in one division I l£st outofthree.—At the present time many honorable members prefer silence while matters are so indicative of a pleasant interview, with constituents. Mr. Vogel, when being worried by the erratic proceedings of his quondam colleague, Mr. o'E.orke, and provoked by the Opposition, who seemed inclined to try and put the Premier down—no very easy matter—said: "If it was any.satisfaction to the members who thought it very unwise or injudicious to do so, it should be at once remitted to the various constituencies." It is pretty certain that the present Parliament wili not meet again. The resolutions as to the abolition of the Northern; Provinces will be certainly c: a ried by a harrow majority, and they wi^ ; bind the Government to bring down a Bill next session to carry out the practical decapitation. This, however, is not to be done—so says the • ■' New Zealand Times '—untilthe country's voice, as well as that of the present Parliament, has been obtained, hence it will be necessary to elect a new Parliament during the recess.- A correspondent of the * Bruce ; Herald,' . whose effusions—morbid and foolish enough—we shall refer to again, yet who should know something of probable ; facVstates:'"lt is a pity that a dissolution should.take place at .present.", The debate on the Government resolutions will probably conclude on Friday, and after that very speedily an end of the session will be arrived at.—Their Lordships in the Upper House were not to be trampled on by the Government Constitution Bill—not even plausibly introduced by Dr. Pollen. . The Bill proposed that, when any irreconcileable difficulty should arise between the two Chambers, it : shouhfc.be discussed'and settled in a common meeting of both Houses. The Governor is to say whether any particular measure which shall be submitted is of such a character as to demand the special remedy, and even, if he thinks fit, he is to have power to veto its joint consideration by the two Houses. Really a reasonable enough measure—far more reasonable than driving a Government into the position of having to swamp the Upper House with new creations to carry a necessary measure—yet their lordships would hear nothing of it—hardly discus it—agree in nothing but the proposition laid down, by way of soft sawder, by the Colonial Secretary —for human nature, the doctor evidently thinks, is to be found underthe waistcoat buttons of Legislative Councillors. The.proposition agreed to is that the Council, as at present constituted, is an excellent one; one, too, which compares favorably with any other portion of her; Majesty's dominions. Who can doubt it ? Who ever did doubt it ? If not perfect before, perfections copestone cannot be far off when the present Minister for the Customs takes his place in the higher sphere—without:office. The Bill was rejected by twenty-three votes to five.— Mr. Waterhouse deserves well of Scotchmen. He thinks the reason, why the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill cannot get through,' even: under his pilotage, is that the Scotch element was very strong in the Council. Intellectually he believed Scotland to be the brains of the British Empire, and that that legislature was fortunate in which the Scotch element was strongly represented; but this was one of those questions on which the Scotch mind was perfectly rabid. Mr. Waterhouse did not say so, but he evidently implied that rabidnesswas prevalent in Scotch minds on many other matters. Then, too, he thought a minority of strong-minded women were leagued against it: "On every occasion that he had brought forward the measure he had been told by members of both Houses, 'My dear fellow, I am thoroughly in favor of, the Bill, but I have promised my wife to vote' against it.' " Dr. Menzies said, in the same debate, that, if the nationality to which the Hon. Mr. Waterhouse referred as being obstinate in its opposition to the Bill was opposed to measures which were of no better moral character than the one how-under consideration, he would feel proud that it. was one of its characteristics. The Hon" Mr. Ngatata believes in consistency. He had. voted for the Bill on a.previous occasion,.and would do r so now. ' That was the whole of his speech, and not a bad one by any means. —We. have heard of gum-suckers and also of gum-digging, but heretofore have not seen any prominence given to it as an industry. -Six. Sh'eehah, of Auckland says the Northern forests' have' suffered- from an industry not known south of Auckland, but of great importance—that of kauri gum digging. The gum diggers go through the forest, and can only pursue their avocation when the surface growth has" been burnt off. The undergrowth infrequently set,! fire to among the standing timber, and so long as they secure a sufficient supply of timber they do not care whether the fire finds its way to the forest trees, and perhaps they sometimes rather prefer that it should.—Mr. Wales made a very interesting speech; oh '••the same day.. * Among other things, he said, "Honorable members ar!" probably aware of the fact that timber cut before it has obtained a full growth is more subject to decay than maturely grown timber, and it will be admitted that the rapid progress which New Zealand is making just now—evidenced in the number of buildings being erected and the large railway works in course of construction—is bringing into use a quantity of timber which is much too young. . . . . Then, again, it is an indisputable fact that timber cut with the sap in it is not so durable as timber cut before the sap has commenced to rise in the tree. He thought the season for cutting timber ought to be fixed. The English oak arrives at maturity in from sixty to 100 years. The beech, ash, elm, and larch at the age of seventy, and the fir at from seventy to 100 years. This being the case, we cannot too soon begin planting on a large scale for the requirements of the f ature. He found that in France natural production was much relied upon. With our Colonial timber the case is different; its natural production is deficient. He challenged any member to go through any bush in the Colony and find young, growing trees, either of matai, tot'ara, or rimu."—We like to dwell <on Mr. Stafford's words to those who objected to the Forests Bill because of the Provinces being in danger: "Interference with the Provincial authorities, and that word Province, has. been thrown in the ears of honorable members as if a Province were some little God Almighty, with inherent vh> tues in itself for the advantage of the people of the country. I take leave to repeat what I have said more than once before, that" if

we heard less of the Provinces and more of the people of New Zealand, our legislation: would be more beneficial." And igain, " We are told that it will interfere with the Provincial Governments. I say it will be veryunfortunate for the Provincial Governments if, in a question which, on its own merits, will be of great advantage to the-people of New Zealand, they stand in the way of the measure being passed.—A Mr. "Westenhouse who has made some invention with regard to railway brakes, met the Hon. Captain Eraser" on the Atlantic some three months ago, and succeeded in impressing that vivacious gentleman, more so than the great Twalmy did' Dr. Johnson when, meeting at a country inn, he asked, "Don't you know who I am, sir? Why, the Great Twalmy who invented the patent box-iron." Captain Fraser pressed the matter most strongly on the Government and pictured a possible railway accident between Dunedin and the Chain Hill, in which the present brakes are supposed to give way and the whole train would rush into Dunedin with awful velocity and perhaps "with fatal results. This Mr. Westohhouse was a man, so said the Captain, of unknown wealth anda great philanthropist. Dr. Pollen had rea--son to think that notwithstanding the philanthropic motives of the gentleman who hadinvented this apparatus, he also, had an eye to business, and was inclined to make an ex;tra charge for the information and instruction he had afforded when travelling with the .honorable gentleman. He then quoted figures •to show that £3 10s. per locomotive and £1 10s. for each carriage was clapped on by the philanthropist in excess of what was offered through the English agent, Mr. Passmore. - Captain Fraser said he would have his eye on Mr. Passmore. He would be inEngland in a few months, and he would keep his eye on Mr. Passmore. If he found the cost of these things was to exceed the amount stated by his honorable friend, he was afraid the honorable gentleman would find him in the l Council again next session.—Mr. Shepherd's Bill has been rendered useless by an amendment introduced by Mr. Vogel, that no rivers or streams are to be proclaimed as outlets unless the Governor is first satisfied no -A . private rights exist at all on or in connection with such river. Of course this being granted, there is no necessity for such a Bill. The difficulty is not clearly seen, and cannot be met by a Bill introduced, if successful only so by the inattention of the Government. * Mr. Shepherd deserves well of the Goldfields for his effort, fruitless though it will: be.— . We append here the following wild, bitter, extra-political telegrams, printed in. the 'Bruce Herald' as from a correspondent. A fashion seems to be setting in—one cowardly in the extreme—for those engaged actively hv politics to send telegrams of the most virulent nature to papers they happen to have a .connection with, breathing sentiments they dare not. utter, in the House they hold a seat in. It would hot be difficult, if judging by the superscription and image, to identify the, in this case, "another correspondent," and render a fitting due unto Caesar: " The Government announced when theHouse m t, that the Californian Service had broken down. A. few days before they an- . nounced the remission of Webb's penalties, and now another failure, and we may suppose another remission. . What money is annually wasted in wild unstudied," mere gambling speculation, and yet the same leapin the dark system seems to have such facination that the majority of the House lies under the spell. The Olago Waste Lands Act Amendment Act, remedying some difficulty" experienced in the Act of 18/2, specially connected with an extension of the system of deferred payment, was thrown out Jast week the Upper House, which had : not , even the courtesy, to give it a second reading. Thiswas done by the exertions of the Hon. Boberb Campbell,. of Maercwhenua notoriety. The Bill was thrown out by one Maori, not fit to* understand the queslion. He had been carefully shepherded, and was brought in under the personal superintendence of Mr. Holmes, ; Miller; and other runholders. The rejection' of the Bill was opposed by Messrs. Menzies, Paterson, Fraser, and Waterhouse, who- • Btrongly supported the Bill.—Mr. Vogel isworking hand and glove with the runholders. —The Colonial Secretary voted for the second reading, but made a strong speech against the deferred payments, which were held up as ar bugbear to bring influence upon people to oppose everything calculated to give them a voice in the affairs of the Colony.—This afternoon Mr. Yogel's resolutions, abolishing the Provinces, were moved. They simply mean that the north cannot be worse than at present, "Audited represented north will be more than a match for a divided Bouth in the Assembly. The Provinces of the south mußfc follow. Thefour millions will float them till then, having obtained the destruction of the Provinces, and the borrowing powers exhausted, moneymust be had, and though the land funds are promised.at present to be localised when Mr. Vogel wants money our lands will be Bold for what they will fetch. The tenure of present Jeas'es will shortly expire, when Otago would have an enormously increased revenue from' re-letting. Mr. Vogel sees this; runholders , and capitalists see that our clever reckless Premier has driven the state coach very near to the edge of the precipice, and continue toencourage, him to drive the country still on Ur vain.' They will pickup the spoil, and he, having made unto himself friends by means of the mammon of unrighteousness, will find pastures new on some of the Pacific Islands. Such is the plain scroll of the future. Thislast move of Mr. Vogel's is the gambler's last throvr of the dice—win or lose, the crisis must result. It is a pity that a dissolution should take place at present, as this year would more fully disclose our perilous position. Eight millions are gone, and what have we got. Half a million of people loaded with a J public debt of nineteen millions, ten millions ' of ih&c contracted in four years. Again, I ask, how long can this last ? It cannot con-: tinue, and then; what is to be done with our huge General .Government establishment ? Mr. O'Eorke is disgusted with Mr. Vogel's recklessness, and has resigned, although Mr. * Vogel is certain almost to,carry his resolutions. Mr. O'Eorke 'made a>eiy--telling'speech in his own defence in leaving the Governmentbench."