ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume V, Issue 287, 4 September 1874, Page 3

ESSENCE OF PARLIAMENT.

No less a sum than £596,000 is this year Voted by Parliament, with the approval of the Government, to help impecunious Provinces to struggle on for another year. This .money is'found by the help of every unit in tho Colony—by the miner, in the increased price he has.to pay for his tools and working dross; and by his wife, for the increase in tho price of her gloves and'bonnets, caused by the resort last year to ad valorem duties —a scheme introduced with success as a i means of raising more money without exactly visibly creating a now tax. The Colonial ■taxpayer finds £596,000 to keep alive the Provinces—to actually help in tho fleecing of the Colonial revenue, to a great extent, for the private gain of a few speculative individuals, Of this sum, by a fluke, £GO,OOO cornea to Otago, to make up for the loss at present of her chance of realising on the Bluff' railway. When the Bill to advance ,the money wis introduced into the Logisla- . •.tivo.Oquncil, Mr. Watorhouse was facetious at'Otago's expense: What! Otago already; so ; .sooh; also taking a part in the scramble eleemosynary aid! Others looked . upon "the "introduction of the Bill as the •dertth-knell of Otago Provincialism, choosing to ignore tho fact that it was the Council's own act that Otago was not in a different position to that of a beggar.-—Mr. J. L Gil-

lies, on behalf of Provincialism, headed a last

tilt at the Premier;" a downright Gillies tilt , —-that is, of course, a pergonal one. The Premier halt said that, of the money raised ■>,- for "Public Works and Immigration, a million 0. and a half had gone in aid to Provinces—or, rather, had" been extorted from the General Government by the rival pressure brought to bear to the Colonial Public Works. - Acting 'upon this, ■ Mr. Gillies moved that a • return "be laid upon the*table showing the . distribution of tho million and a half. Mr. ; Rolleston and Mr, Donald Eeid backed up ■ this c attack in tho same virulent personal style, which roused the old Cashmere lion, Sir Cracroft Wilson, who uttered a few manly words, denouncing, in vehement terms, the practice of the Housu rating the Premier and tho Ministry_for doing'that which the House forced them to do, . Np Government that did not to some extent accommodate the House in that way could exist a Week against the pressure which would come upon them from all quarters, He asked them to recollect when Judge 1-iichmond, the clearestheaded man politically in the Colony, voluntarily resigned office sooner than bribe support hy- giving some members £3OO a-year. Before the House attempted to read lessons on purity to' the Government they should first act with'purity and justice, and set a good example. Although opposed to the present policy at first, he would help to carry out what the House and the country chose J to sanction, and if it was to be a failure he hoped'it would not fail through'unjustifiable obstructions. Ho wanted it*to stand or fall ■ ..upon.its merits.——We need not repeat the tale of the Legislative Council's dealing with the Eailway Bill referred to in our leading article. Ihe Council, we presume fearing to -push 'matters too far, did not object to tho : grant of £60,000 as a sort of compensation. • . )S Chey appear,to be quite willing to let Colonial, money be doled out as alms, while on ' ■;.,. every opportunity they prevent and retard measures which would make the Southern • ; Provinces independent of their .nauseous ■ charity—nauseous,' at any rate, to Captain Eraser, who indignantly refused, for his part, t'o accept of it. No doubt Mr. Macandrew will- console himself with the'tangible siller, and Mr. Turnbull will chime in with the 'Guardian,' and blame, the Council for ; so rashly going into large contracts'for branch railways before securing the money. In ' moving for,a return re Volunteers'and Volunteermg, Captain Fraser said: "It had been, stated .that the Volunteers served their, country without recompense. That was a" mistake. No honorable gentleman in that - House who was master of the Darwinian theory ,po ald be ignorant of the fact that all male'birds delighted to flaunt their brilliant '/plumage before the,eyes of their females. Surofar, when, a Volunteer b.icfelecl on his • sword and. helmet and strutted before his ■ - .•.'(""sweetheart !or his wife-in.tho full blaze of his uniform, the expressions of admiration of his martial bearing. Were sufficient recompense _ : for half an hour's drill'on a fine Imoonlighf ;',>.. "night." He, said of the Volunteera-of Wel- " : lington and the' Middle Island that -the movement was' a contemptible shani. "'";> Thpy were of no more' use to the country.tha'n.'tho ", / toys in a child's playlbox, He, was not al..'..•luding to those few "efficient Volunteers on", frontier. .Ho -would lik6 to seo .the ,re,at of the Volunteers modelled .upon 'Major Jackson's Waikato troop of cavalry, whip, in" a-few hours'notice,' could be,in the saddle and ready for action. ' The country was spending £26,000 a-year in keeping up this sham, and the Government were responsible for it. ' Colonel Brett, after highly praising the Inspector, Major Gordon, abused the appointment. He would like to see a junior officer come to command him when on, duty. He would have him imprisoned in a very short timei. ,- That was a spirit which they ' should try to -imbue-'their Volunteers with, and which 'existed- in'the' breast of every true " '. , military man. He (Colonel Brett) had tried to makethe'se lieutenant-colonels understand this, and'ha'd said to them, " If, Major Gordon comes' to'command, you put him in.the guard,'and"send, him off under a file of men to the Defence Minister, who ought to be ashamed of himself to outrage the feelings of a body of gentlemen who have kindly given their services to thecountry. -In referring tp the bare principles or indications which Mr. Vogel' said the Government thought should be fbllowed in a substitution for N«wProvincialism—that is, so far as allocation of revenue for localities— we get a glimpse of a dawn with regard to the shameful robbing of Goldfields revenue which has been goingon by the Provinces for little else than to build up the central towns and find subsidies for Eoad Boards in a few favored agricultural districts. There should bo a class, he said, representing purely local Provincial revenues, such as that from licenses, fees, &c., and which amounted to £33,000 for the whole island in 1873. This should be . placed at the disposal of Municipalities and District 'Boards of the districts in which it arises. There Bhould be a class representing Goldfields revenue, which shonld be made

specially and strictly applicable to Goldfields purposes. The land revenue should be classed by itself, as should also tho revenue received directly from the Colony. Mr. Ueid could not conceive of an expenditure of Goldfields Tovenue upon Goldfields purposes. Things , are managed far better than that in Provincial Otago. It appears to us, however, a dawn of .better things for the Goldfiolds has broken at last, if they, through their representatives and Associations know how to take advantage of it. Returning again to the subjeot, Mr. Vogel said: As to the Goldfields question, I have said that the revenue of the*Goldfields should be localised. I am aware of the fact that a groat deal of discontent exists more or less throughout the Goldfields,. with their management by the provinces; but I do not express an opinion whether or not that discontent is justified. I have no right to say that it is well founded; - but I do say that it is very desirable the "time should come when a member of the General Government should look thoroughly into the whole question. It is not a question which can be dealt with ministerially by , hasty snatches; nor can the affairs of the

Goldfields be settled by this House by means of resolutions or by exceptional Bills. It requires tlie deepest and most profoifhd study and attention—the same kind of attention that was given to the forests question, at which some honorable members have been pleased to sneer. But they may depend upon it, that iu dealing with all important questions, if satisfactory results are to be secured, a very large amount of attention and of work must be given to them. The session was not allowed to close without a more de finite indication of the Government's intention being placed before the House by resolution, or rather by amendment upon Mr. Fitzherbert's lost waif, the dissolution motion. The proposition so introduced and agreed to by the House was: "That the Provincialsystem of Government in the North Island should as soon as possible be followed by an inexpensive but more thorough form of local Government, under which theseinlands ehould be divided into districts and a nb-districts, endowed with substantial revenues, and the residents therein be enabled to take a larger and more direct share in the management of local affairs and the expenditure of local revenues than is at the present the case." Mr. Stafford very strongly urged the adoption of the Government proposals. He said: There would be a great fight in some of the capital towns of the Provinces. There was a large bread-and-butter interest in question, which would fight very hard indeed, and the sooner they recognised the work they would have to encounter the better. Let ihem all do their best for the public good. This was a time when the best men in the country must do their best for .the country, and if they would not do so, then he would say, God help the country. The Hon. Mr. Campbell has no very great idea of Cromwell. When the Ororawell Waterworks Loan Bill was before the Council, he said he was acquainted with the peculiar circumstances of the case, and he knew the town of Cromwell—ho should call it a few huts. From his knowledge of the place, he could say it was built on barren shingle, on a' corner formed by two rivers, and at any day it might be absolutely deserted. He warned the Council that, in passing this Bill, they might be binding the Colony to pay the principal and interest of the amount raised. Dr. Menzies, to save the Bill, had to open up the old sores—the typhoid fever, dirt, and filth of the place, as reporte'-l by Dr. Coughtrey, that impudent (and no one know* who he is) young man now happily appointed Professor of Ana- j tomy at our University ; and, As a little mako ' weight, Captain Frnsc* quoted Mr. Macandraw's opinion that Cromwell was destined to be the capital, not only of new Zealand, but of Polynesia. Mr Holmes too said that, although the town was now a small place, it was so centrally situated that in time it must become 'of imoojtaiice.——ln the Council, talking about 'Justices, Mr. Menzies related | what was within his own knowledge, that one, recently appointed, wbo.eamo up to be sworn by tho other Justices, could not even read the oath, and he thought "if th'e Government would exercise more discretion in the appointments, there would be less irregularity in the attendance at Petty Session Courts. Colonel Brett, explosive as usual, said that Magistrates iu the old country were all leading gentlemen men of talent, position, and ability, whereas they know that, in, thjs country, there wore actually common publicans who were Justices of the Peace—the very first men who would break the" laws of the country. Dr. Pollen thought it might be admitted, without casting a reflection upon any Government that his Excellency was advised to .make appointments, not always with respect to the personal fitness and qualifications of the gentlemen appointed, but to a great many other influences—that, in point of fact, there were a great many gentlemen on the Commission of Peace who, for all practical purposes, might be ddscribed as merely ornamental. During the, Provincial Abolition Debate the Maoris were allowed their say—at least, Mr. Katene,. a Government Minister, said—This" part 'of the debate is -set apart for the Maoris. Mr. 'Takamoaria opened the. ball with dolightful candor: Ee hoped it would notiuatter-if his romarks wanderedjiway from the subject. He thought there ehould be two Governments, and two Parliaments. The Parliament in the - Middle Island should devoto its attention to making money - -to finding money. The Parliament in the North Island should devoto its attention to disputing with the Maoris, because tho troubles with '/ho Alaoris would not cease. Disputing evidently means keeping them quiet with the money mode by the South Parliament. The programmo is short, candid, and to tho point. Then, too, he has a fine scorn for anything or body not come from England. Perhaps lie said if~we went to England to find bome one, then the management of our affairs would be clear. So JBnglish admiring is he, that, as a Yorkshire jockey would say of Mr. Jackaoii or Mr.; Merry, " there goes the man who belongs to Stockwcll, Blair Athol, or Thormanby, so he says, " the Maoris are the people who belong to.the soil," not seeing the subtle irony of his own words, for there appears to be no donbt that" their mother the earth is fast receiving the race, weakened and impaired by the civilisation extended to them. More Maoris, too, he thought should be returned to the house : " It is not right.that there should be only two or three in this House, and that you should havo all the talk,- and that all that is loft ,to the Maoris is simply to consent to what is proposed. Mr. Katene, Government Minister, and his contempt foi the ignorant Maoris, of whom presumedly Mr.. Takamoana is one, is very grand. He says: "Who says there are to be two persons to eat the fiesh of this island ? The Maoris are an ignorant people, i They do not understand this work. I thoroughly approve of what the Premier said in reference to those red lines which are marked upon the- map now before the House." Then too he consoles the Superintendents: " If the Premier chooses, he need not altogether settle the Superintendents." Mr. Katene's old idea of a settlement of an adversary would be to eat him, but then he wa3 only an ignorant Maori, not a Government Minister. . How his old ideas haunt him, though. " I wish," he said,' "to see the General Government only eating the flesh of Te Ika-a-Mani (not a Superintendent; but the North Island)." We have not space to more than refer to Captain Eraser's ."skeleton in the cupboard." He drew a very highly colored picture of the state,of a gentleman formerly well-known in this district, now in.the Du--nedin. Asylum, -far gone with paralysis, through neglect, who, Captain Fraser said, had made over by deed the whole of his property to his brother-in-law - the lawyer who drew the deed requiring, before consenting, to havo medical evidence, thai the.gentleman in question was mentally capable of the act —tho same medical evidence which satisfied the lawyer being again forthcoming ..very shortly afterwards to commit the mentally sound and capable business man as a lunatic to the Asylum. From- the note read of the Inspector's opinion, it appeared that that gentleman thought the invalided gentleman's money, or a portion of it, should be spent in obtaining change and relaxation, which, would prolong a perfectly harmless life. ; The same hon. member, always a good friend to the district, fapoke up for our treeless plains when the.Forests Bill was before the Council, ho .staled that, in his opinion, the Maniototo aud Manuhcrikia plains will nevor be planted under provincial institutions. Biit if a system of forestry were introduced there, and forests planted, the land which now barely supports sheep would become very valuable, and a large population would settle around there, which could neverbs hoped for under the present circumstances. There are many parts of Otago entirely denudedof timber, and the timber has not been there, probably, for hundreds of years. I have found mounds with moa eyg-shells, on the Ida Val-

ley plains, showing that timber has not been there for many hundred years. Mr. Holmes liberally supported the Bill, stating, if the Provincial Governments persevere in withholding land for such a purpose, he himself would have no hesitation in making a present Of say 500 acres to the Colonial Government for the purpose of trying the experiment in the south of the Middle Island.;