ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 286, 29 August 1874, Page 2

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT

We wish to give Mr. Shepherd—whom we* have often laughed at, and often hope yet to have an opportunity of laughing at—credit for being the only member in the Colonial Parliament who has made the least effort to draw attention to the difficulties the Goldfields are in, and'.have been in for nearly twelve months, from the - aggressive' action taken by those who claim a right toTvhat the lawyers tell them "to call riparian rights—the real meaning [or rights pertaining to which they know no more of than Jonah did of • the anatomical structure of the whale which, entombed him, .while living. At the, same time, Mr. Shepherd could have done his constituents more good if he had refrained in the first instance from being so aggressive as to force others indifferent to the real question to snub him, quite regardless that the Goldfields should bleed. Indeed there is no great affection for. Goldfields. at present"either in Wellington or Dunedin; so little, indeed, that representatives, to do any good, req lire to push their wishes with tact and, above all, an avoiding'of offence to others. - Still, Mr. T. L. Shepherd deserves credit for his effort —his only, for the mild question Mr. Steward put to the House, to satisfy his Waitaki constituents, hardly deserves the name of an effort. "We find him, too, opposing unflinchingly, the Goldfields Rivers Pollution Bill. One-eighth of the zeal that the latter member uses annually re the Deceased Wife's Sister Bill would have, from'his old position as a Government supporter and a Government Whip, "long ago drawn the Premier's attention' to the matter. Our heart quite waz-ms to the member for the Dunstan; sorry should we be if he were indeed left out in at another election —in spite of cut from a Q.O. named Merewether 'lftsout the Manchester bagman. | Mr. Mervyn Supported the Government proposals by his vote,;and did not, as some eight others, refuse to He also took an interest in the passing of tfie\mend&&f licensing Act, having been a member. of „*£? District licensing Board last year—a which, we observe, he has now resigned. He has also, we notice, persuaded the House to order a return to be laid on the table, showing the cost upon the Goldfields revenue of each Province of each Warden's Court in the Colony, and the amount of revenue derived from each Court, for a period of three years ' ending 30th June, 1874-with what object it , were hard to say without more light. I Mr. Reid has .contrived, with the Government assistance, to get the Land Bill through all its stages,, and it now goes back again to their Lordships.' As the obnoxious deferred payments are kept out, it will, if time allows, probably pass. | Dissolution or no dissolution; is still an uncertain point. The feeling of the House and, we think, also of the country is so. strong that the present Parliament might just as well be allowed to complete the work. Mr. Vogol— ostensibly, at any rate—r is not inclined to decide himself. We hear of a caucus called by him, largely attended, at which Mr. Stafford strongly urged' a spe- , ciai session in six weeks, to give effect to the resolutions; but the majority, while thinking that there was nothing like striking the iron when it was hot, thought it impolitic," because it would interfere with shearing au j other pursuits. Members do not appear to be very anxious to pay a visit "to their ™ , co,n-

stituents. N"o doubt' "the-" semi threat of a dissolution influenced the division list on.the abolition question. We say se'nri, because when that soporific member, of Clutha, querulously complained of'tlie terrible weight the idea was to him, and paused awaiting the Premier's denial of a statement that the Governor had consented to a dissolution, he and the House—all alike anxious —got no reply; indeed, Mr. Speaker was about to call for a division before members would proceed, hoping to catch a statement from the Premier, who was far too wary to be caught in such a trap. The Opposition held an excited caucus meeting, when, no doubt, each breast was filled with ardor so great as to make its owner believe he, like Curtius of old, would rush into the gulf of .oblivion, if only his country might be spared. At this meeting it was very foolishly—that is, from an Opposition point of view—agreed that Fitzherbert should move: "That,- in the" opinion of the House, it is inadvisable for the Government to carry the resolutions into effect until the country has first had aii opportunity of expressing its : opinion thereon." Of course those who wavered before, who confined themselves to the precincts of the House, doubly hesitated now—rather, did not hesitate to vote.against such a rash tempting of Providence—the result on Monday of the division being forty-five for no dissolution against nineteen' for; : it. The division list will.be interesting'when to hand. Of course this does not say that "the country may not be appealed to. The Dunedin ' Star,' in a leading article referring to the Government majority, writes: "This very conclusive result renders hesitation impos sible, and makes scarcely necessary an appeal to the country on the subject, although we wink it possible, on the question of so "great a change in the form of Government of' the Northern Island; it will be deemed politic to take the opinion of the constituencies." This however will not.be known until the Governor comes down, probably on-Friday, and sends members to their homes withthe'usual complimentary ' congratulations.—Mr." Fox read what an . unknown wrote, .what the ' Spectator' printed, what a publican stated to somebody else, which ' Hansard' has recorded, we have read, and now hand on to our readers- at ninth hand—so much for. a lawyer's evidence, in debates—that, "If, on an election day, I have twenty voters in my bar," I can always secure twenty votes by giving them twenty pints of fourppnny. I have done it." Oh, ye free and independent! what a revelation! Mr.: Fox was far too bitter as representing aggrieved Good Templarism to care about laws of evidence—bitter enough to be delighted to have a chance to jump on. Mr. Wakefield, who stated that he _had attended some public meeting in reference to the licensing question, and got the following home-thrust for his pains: Mr. Fox said,_ "It was : ofteri the case that, at teetotal meetings, some person was occasionally introduced as a shocking example. Perhaps the honorable member (Mr. Wakefield) went to the meeting, not he presumed, as a'shocking example, but as one who felt aggrieved because he could not get his beer on Sunday." Mr. Vogel did not-escape the cold water champion's lash: His idea was simply stated this, " Let those drink now who never drank before, And those who always drank shall drink the more." —Mr. M'Glashan took up the cudgels on behalf of our Otago railways, pressing the Government to undertake surveys for a line of railway through the part of the Otago Province commencing at a point on the Great Northern line near Palmerston, and extending to Queenstown, Lake Wakatip. He said the Minister for Public Works, in his statement, made no reference to such a line. The line would tap two or three million acres of very superior land, which was'now occupied by a few persons who depastured sheep, aDd who, like Abraham and Lot of old-time', had divided the country among them. . The -land was well adapted for agriculture,. and' there were several Gold'fields in that part of the country which the railway would open up. The escort for the month ending 9th July amounted to 10,676 ounces, and of that 8,060 ounces were sent from the districts to which the central trunk line would run—the regaining 2,616 ounces being contributed by Tuapeka and Switzers in equal proportions. In the district there was not a single stick of .timber, and one might ride 150 miles without seeing a tree, although the country was admirably adapted for settlement. Mr. Richardson was not.very favorable, stating that the Government considered it a Provincial work; nevertheless, we have to thank Mr. M'Glashan for the effort. • .The feeling iu favor of such a'railway is evidently growing. The Premier believes in women's rights, and also in women's power. Everyone knew, he said, that at elections there was a certain amount of canvassing; and everyone knew that primarily the universe was governed by women. The man who performed the public act of voting was, in. private, very largely , controlled by his household associations; and , he thought it was the case generally that in most elections votes were not given in a haphazard or impulsive 'manner. | Among a lot of formal Bills which passed, there is one deserving notice uid particularly, satisfactory, to ourselves—the Harbor Works Bill. This Act is almost specially introduced to nullify the insane and foolish proposals the' Provincial Government, bending to' Dunedin pressure, in the last session of the Council, introduced and'carried. Mr. Vogel stated -that "He might mention that, when the last measure came up for the approval of the establishment of harbor works in Dunedin, the Government .expressly agreed not,to .recommend its disallowance upon the understanding that this' Harbor Works Bill would not be opposed." - The object of the Bill is, to make it necessary, before any person, local Government v or Board can interfere in any way with harbors or navigable streams, he or they shall first obtain the approval of- the Colonial Government for the work proposed. This will put a stop to the' immense loss of money incurred by theorists, -who are never so pleased as when dabbling with public expense. • Bye-the-bye, our Otago -Harbor Board has got the length already of receiving applications for a permanent engineer salary, 1,000 guineas—although it was promised over and over again, by the promoters of the scheme, that before works were undertaken the fullest inquiry into'the natural phenomena of the harbor should ;be first instituted. • Have arrived, too, at a full-blown Secretary j salary £soo—the ' New Zealand Times' says i Mr. J. L. Gillies; if so we presume he will have to resign his Speakership and seats in • the Council and House of Representatives, as, according to the advertisement, the gentleman appointed is to give up all his time to the Harbor Board. | The Otago Reserves Bill has also been passed. Mr. Vogel stated that this session would be memorable as the session in which two long-standing difficulties had been got through—the Otago Reserves and the Otago University. Under the Reserves Bill reserves can be set aside by the Council, not to exceed ten acres, for schools colleges, and other educational purposes'" The Bill provides, too, - tha* the proceeds of all sales or leases, as the case may be, should be paid to the Receiver of Land Revenue, and be in the same position with regard to any institution as the lands were. That it' was said, gets rid of the objectionable feature of reserving a large quantity of land and taking it out of the operation of the ordinary land laws. | The Four Million Loan Bill also as we knew some time ago, went through easily. We will revert to the. particulars °of the amount borrowed at a future time Just now we wish to take a little note of poor Mr Thomson's confusion of ideas in regard to the same. He complained of the difficulty of getting information out of the great number of financial and statistical papers that are placed

in his hands. Complains also of the information carefully prepared for Mni! Does he hot know of such a useful article as a waste paper basket ? He then very unnecessarily told the -House he was not in a position to review the Public Works a ' let off!)—and ended by a growl about a Ministerial tank on the Tiuakori road. "Sir," said theindignantniember, speaking, be it remembered, to the policy or: impolicy" of. borrowing £4,000,000/ ' : £SOO would go a" "long way to build a .very good house that would suit any Minister of the Grown, unless he were able to build it out of his own -private means. Five :hundred pounds would build two very good school-houses, much more required than water-tanks." The first rule in the ragged schools in London is to clean the children, then teach them. Mr. Thomson believes differently—it may be different in his country, wherever it is—he evidently believes in education before cleanliness. | The Legislative Council, instigated by Colonel Brett, have carried a motion that it is desirable a Central Colonial Institution should be established, for the education of the young who are so unfortunate as to be'" blinrl_or deaf and dumb. The census taken in 1871 showed that the number of persons so afflicted in the Colony at that time was seventy-two. "Some few, to our knowledge, have been sent to Victoria for instruction. It is thus high time some steps were taken in - the direction indicated by Colonel Brett. Such an establishment com d be nearly made self-supporting, as the majority of cases appear to occur in families in good circumstances. | Water supply is an important matter to residents on the Canterbury Plains, and a Bill- has been introduced to allow of wholesale diversion for irrigation. Captain Eraser looked upon the Bill from a religioua view. A large number .-of the people of Canterbury were Baptists or Anabaptists, whose only hope of entering the gate of Heaven was through manhood baptism. Those unfortunate people in the part of the country, to which the Bill referred had been for a series of years entirely shut off. from the means of having their " dip." He expected to see in a very short time a handsome pond in front J of the gates of his-honorable friend (Colonel Brett), which would be used for the baptismal regeneration of multitudes. Colonel Brett had stated that he lived some thirtyfive milesaway from "the river, and had sunk a well 200 feet eight or nine years ago, at an expense of about £3OO, but he had not had a drop of water, and was therefore dependent upon the Waimakari, which was a mile and a half off, for any supply in addition to that obtained from the rainfall. | Cremation has been legalised; at least, anybody may demise his own body to the flames. The Bill does not say who is to compensate the undertaker. | The Ward-Chapman Committee have reported that the 'Times' received the telegrams from Mr. Macassey; also, that great irregularities at the Oamaru -post and telegraph offices have been disclosed; blame also Messrs. Holdsworth and Clayton, askincr, however,- that they be let off. Mr. Vogel intimated that he was at first opposed, to an inquiry being held, but now 1 there was such manifest perjury on one side or the other that further investigation was necessary. On Monday, resolutions were tabled asking the to immediately appoint a Commission} and the necessary legislation will be pressed on.