THE STATE OF PARTIES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIII, Issue 128, 30 May 1878, Page 2

THE STATE OF PARTIES.

il'ost, May 27.] The question is frequently asked, " What majority will the Miuistry have when they meet Parliament?" We have looked very carefully into this matter, and have come to the conclusion that at present the Ministry possess a fair majority, not taking into account several members who are as yet unpronounced, and whose votes may possibly he given to the Government. We shall endeavor to show this in detail. MINISTERIALISTS. The following members are Ministerialists: —Messrs Baigent, Ballance, Barff, Bastings J. C. Brown, J. E. Brown, Bryce, Bunny, Carrington, De Lautour, Dignan, Pis her Gisborne, Grey, Hamlin,Hislop,Hodgkinsoni Joyce, Kelly, Macandrew, Macfarlane, Mont gomery, Murray, tfahe, O'Rorke, Pyke, Itees, Seaton, Sheehan, Shrimski. Stout, Swanson, Taiaroa, Takamoana, Thompson, Tole, Turnbull, Wakefield, Wallis, Wood, Woolcock, Barton, Moss, Green, Hobbs, Saunders, and Reeves. Total Ministerialists, 47, OPPOSITION. Messrs Atkinson, Beetham, Bowen, Burns Cox, Curtis, Douglas, Fitzroy, Fox, Gibb% Henry, Hunter, Hursthouse, Johnston,' Kenny, Lumsden, Maclean, Moorhouse, Morris, Murray, Ormond, Reid, Richardson. Richmond, Rolleston, Russell, Seymour Sharp, Stevens, Sutton, Tawiti, Teschemaker' Wason, Whitaker, Williams. Total Odhosition, 35. . UNI'BONOUNCED MEMBERS. The following members have not definitely " pronounced " themselves either one way or another, viz: — Messrs Brandon, Manders, W Rowe Total, 3. Thejf oregoing figures show that with Ministerialists 47 and Opposition 35 there is a majority for the Government of 12, leaving out of account the three unpronounced men. In the ranks of the Ministerialists are included the names of seven new members who have been elected during the recess, and who pledged themselves to support Sir G Grey's policy. These are—Mr Barton, elected for Wellington city ; Mr Moss, for Parnell • Mr Turnbull, for Timaru; Mr Green, for Port Chalmers; Mr Hobbs, for Franklin; Mr Saunders, for Cheviot; Mr Reeves, for the Grey Valley. The name of Mr Button is not included in any of the lists of members, as he recently resigned his seat for Hokitika. The Miuistry are certain to gain a supporter ia the new representative to he elected for this seat, as Mr Button resigned expressly to afford them the opportunity to elect a Greyite candidate. We have not included Sir Wm. Fitzherbert's name aniongst either the Mintenalists or Opposition, seeing that he occupies the position of Speaker. There is also a vacant seat to filled up in the representation of Dunedin, owing to Mr Larnach's resignation, for which the return of a Ministerial candidate is certain. The figures approximate as nearly to correctness as it is possible to do. It is possible that one or two members who are ranked as Ministerial supporters will, when Parliament is in session, secede fiom their party; but, on the other hand, four members, -whom we have ranked with the Opposition, are very doubtful adherents of that side, and will possibly come over to the Government. The Ministry will, therefore, be far stronger, when it again meets Parliament, than it was at the close of last session,

The "Wellington correspondent of the Auckland Herald says:— There is some talk of changes in the Cabinet especially in the matter of Government representatives in the Legislative Council. English commercial travellers are agitating for return railway tickets at single fares, as they- nbt only travel largely, but are the means of a large quantity of goods traffic over the lines. A telephone company in San Francisco have devised a plan whereby every one of their subscribers Can be plficad instantaneously in communication with every other subscriber in the city. At Melbourne; they frequently h'aS'e pleasure trips to sea on Saturday for ft distance of 20 miles or so, aud the venture pays the owner of the steamer very well. The London correspondent of the Star writes: — " You are aware of the present rage for new clubs. Hardly a Week paSses without some new organisation being attempted. The newest thing is the Russell Club, in Eegent-street, for both ladies and gentlemen, of the committee of which IMshop Jenner is a member. The club is non-political, and its chief feature is a ladies' drawing-room, with a grand piano; so that the husband may play ' nap " or billiards at one end, whilst the wife smokes cigarettes and tries new songs at the other." _ A hew labor-saving machine haa been invented in Melbourne to simplify the operation of boring posts. With the attention of only one man it is capable of boring 130 posts an hour with tolerable ease. The Lancet, in urging the importance of the physical education of girls, says that owing to the want of functional activity of the muscular system, the muscles waste' and dwindle, and the nutrkiou of the body beconies impaired; The publisher of a paper up Jforth was threatened with a prosecution for inserting the death of a person who proved to be alive. The menace was accompanied with this shrewd observation from the lawyer: — "No printer should publish a death unless he has it communicated expressly by the j party." The Picton I'ress says that cattle are not duly impressed with the power of the railway engine, aud an instance of this was shown when the train was going towards the Opawa on Tuesday morning. A bullock was proceeding leisurely along the line, and in spite of the continual uproar of the whistle and the ejection of steam, did not hurry its pace in the least, and the train was compelled to go slow until the beast thought fit to leave the line. When it did this it showed its contempt for the engine by turning and kicking at it. On the return journey in the evening of the samo day a pig got on the line and had one of its feet cut off by the passing train. The Lytlellon Times remarks that it is high time that the Empire City should bestir itself in the matter of drainage. Otherwise, as in Italy we are told "to see Naples and die,'' so in New Zealand we may, with more prosaic significance, be told to " smell Wellington and die." Burglars aro at work in Blenheim. Last week the shop of Messrs Girling and Co. was broken into, and £5 taken from the till. The Post states that the colonial accounts for the present year will show that a great savin? has been effected in the working of the railways, while there has been a large increase in the revenue from that source. Dr Somerville has stirred up the Dunedin people to some purpose. He exhorted them at oue of his meetings to subscribe funds to erect a building for the Young Men's Christian Association there. Some gave £100, others £50, and in all a sum of £1i33 was collected in the room. That historically- famous piece of ordnance, the Wairau cannon, is [once more to he brought to the front. A number of gentlemen in Blenheim have raised a subscription in order to have the gun properly mounted and placed in a conspicuous position in that tow n. Messrs Gear and Co., butchers, of Wellington, sent home by the Carnatic and the Rial to, about 1400 cases of preserved meat, valued at about £35u0, and ICO tons of tallow of the worth of about £6400, the total value of these two shipmeuta thus being as nearly as possible £lO,tioo. It is credibly slated that the contributions given to Father Henneberry while in the Inangahua district amounted to close on £1300. He intends the dislrict again. " Struck oil " promises to be the salutation of the future among the mining population of Pieton and the Sounds; for we are informed upon reliable authority that a very valuable discovery of crude petroleum has been made by a prospector in search of auriferous reef 3. The spriug is described as yielding abundantly, but of course the exact locality of the find is kept very dark. The discoverer, who is sanguine that there is "money in the development of the new industry," is making arrangements to enable him to secure prospectors' rights and privileges.— -New Zealander. The early closing system is extending to all classes of business in Dunedio. Not long ago the drapers and tailors intimated their intention of closing at 9 p.m. each day of the week, Saturdays included. Now the tobacconists advertise their purpose of reducing their closing hours from 11 p.m. to 9 p.m., Saturdays excepted. " Butcher Boy," the well-known steeplechase horse, has been purchased by Mr Gerald Allwell, of the Waikato, for the sum of £52. Not a single candidate was nominated for the position of Auditor of the Borough of Napier this year. An auctioneer in Oamaru has been fined £50 for selling after 9 o'clock p.m. A memorial, asking the Government to remit the fine, as Mr Greenfield was new to the business, is being signed. The following short account of a sensible and praiseworthy attempt to iuitiate a reform in the liquor trafic, is taken from " Lloyd's London newspaper" of February 24th, under the heading of " A social evening with 400 licensed victuallers and their wives." Our | contemporary says :—• n Wednesday evening at the Vestry hail, Kings-road, Chelsea, a " social evening with 400 licensed vie- j tuallers and their wives" was spent. This was the first meeting of the kind ever held in connection with the " Tavern branch of the London City mission." The missiou has now 20 of its members distributed in various parts of the metropolis, whose duty is it visit the different public-houses for the purpose of bringiug aboub a better state of morality amongst their frequenters than sometimes exists at present. They do not, however, meddle in any way with the publicans' trade, only in so far as to endeavour to stop drunkenness. For this the licensed victuallers are extremely grateful, as they testified by their large attendance on Wednesday evening, together with their wives and families. The proceedings, which were under the presidency of Lord Shaf tesbury, were rendered very attractive by the exhibition by limelight of some fine views of old London. After a few words from Mr Parker, Mr Denny, and Mr Eainsford, Lord Shaf tesbury said he thought the publicans were a very ill-used body of men, and if they only knew their own strength they would soon introduce permanent and beneficial reforms, which would not soon be brought about through Parliament, aa there was evidence in both Houses of au inclination to legislate on the drink question as little as possible (hear, hear). The proceedings, which were thoroughly enjoyed by all present, came to a conclusion in the usual way.

tTnder the heading of " Who stole M'Carthy's Mutton?" the following curious advertisement appears in the Patea Mail -.— " The hungry and needy I will give unto (if asked), but I don't like my mutton stolen. Shaken of uncooked sheep's legs from the Green Island Fellmongery, beware 1 Mend your ways, orF. OS. M'Carthy will have you before tile Beak. 1 ' The Westport Times says that some splendid samples of nuggety gold, found in the Waimangaroa river near the Wellington Company's coals works have been shown in town by the finder, a recent arrival in the colony. Among miners in the locality the find has. caused some little excitement. Tito Kbwarii's brothen who is said to he as large as two-ordinary men, was lately fined for drunkenness at Carlyle. The Heathen Chinee is not to be outdone by his fellow colonists in taking advantage of the Bankruptcy Act. The following advertisement receutly appeared in an Otago paper :— " This is to notify that Ah Col* 1 , Ah Young, Che On, of Skippers, Lake County, miners, of the ;Kum Sin Tong Company, have this day filed a statemeut that they are Unable to meet their engagements with their creditors'. In Aucklaud the telegraph has been put to a novel use by some local bodies- At the invitation of the Borough and County Couucil of the Thames, the Borough Councils of Hamilton, the County Councils of Waikato and Piako, and. Road Boards of Wairoa and Newcastle, attended at the telegraph office nearest or most convenient to each, for the purpose of having a conference on all matters relative to the Thames and Waikato railway. The Government with great liberality placed the wires free at the service of the parties for the day. Lady Vogel's name appears, with a long list of countesses and ladies, as oue of the patronesses of the London Ladies' Dress Association, a co-operative millinery and dress company. A Dunedin contemporary remarks that Mr Watt, R.M., has been in the habit of punishing contractors for not keeping their lamps burning at night. The fault has almost invariably been attributable to defective lamps and not negligence. A few days ago Mr Watt took the trouble to procure a patent inextinguishable lamp. This be exhibited from the Bench, announcing that it could be purchased for 7s 6d from a certain ironmongery warehouse in town. It is said that the cheap advertisement has had the effect of creating quite a run on the lamps in question in Dnuediu. If the Aryus is to be believed, there is some probability of the greatest of living tragedians, Henry Irving, visiting Australia, and probably New Zealand also, at no distant date. Mr Aarons, of the Academy of Music, has offered a tempting bait, and seems to think it will be accepted. The same gentleman proffered Patti £250 a night for a tour in the colonies; but it wasn't good enough. She replied that she could always get £200 a night going from London to Liverpool or Manchester, and did not feel inclined to lose six weeks and travel 14,000 miles for only £50 more. How to convert Mr Gladstone to Lord Beaconsfield? — Turn him round and round and round until he becomes Dizzy. Some idea of the enormous grain production in Canterbury, and the work which consequently developes on the railway there, may be gathered from the fact that during the month of April last 32,5000 tons of grain passed over the Canterbury lines (in addition to ordinary traffic). The gross total receipts from these linea for the same period amounted to £39,500. The highest amount realised in any previous month was £32,000. The most remarkable accident on record happened not long ago on the North Western road between London and Liverpool. A gentleman and his wife were travelling in a compartment alone, when (the train going at the rate of sixty miles an hour) an iron rail projecting from a car on a side-track cut iuto the carriage and took the head of the lady clear off, and rolled it into the husband's lap. He subsequently sued the company for damages, and created great surprise in Court by giving his age at 36, although his hair was snow-white. It had been turned from jetblack by the horror of that event.