Untitled

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 206, 27 August 1873, Page 2

In reporting the debate on the mail service, the Wellington correspondent of a Duuedin contemporary says : — "At halfpast twelve the member for Hokitika grot on bis legs, and enlivened the House. He is the jocose man of the Assembly. He told tbe House a new political party had been formed — the racoon party. One member had been announced to have come down from a rail, where he had long heen sitting; many othera had been long occupying similar positions, and were dismounting — hence tbe formation of the new party. He knew that Auckland and

Ota<»o had been invited to co-operate at: 5 30 p.m., and the whisky of one Province and the spiders of the other had done the mail business; so Mr M'Glasban got up as a couterfoil to Mr White's hilarity. There had beeu two or three amendments proposed during the evening, and the hoo. members got into such a muddle over them, as well as the gallery, that no one knew what was before the House; and the Chairman seemed more astray than anyone else. One o'clock came on, and the mental fog far thicker than ever after the first division of 48 to 17. The second amendment was theu withdrawn ; another was put in and withdrawn; and then the Ministerial resolution waß carried, and the Bluff rouie adopted."