PRLIAMENTRY GOSSIP.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 184, 4 August 1879, Page 2

PRLIAMENTRY GOSSIP.

(From our own Correspondent.)

The debate on Tuesday night was dull and lifeless. Tbe most prominent members who spoke were the Hon Mr Gisborne and the Hon Mr Thomson, the new members of the Cabinet, and Mr Rees. The speeches of the two former gentlemen were not remarkable for brilliance or power, neither were they listened to with any great attention. Mr Gisborne had once considerable weight in the House, and was regarded as a debater who could do good service to the party which he supported, but it is clear that sitting on a rail weakens a member's influence iu the House to a very great degree. Mr Rees was loud and impetuous as usual. Un Wednesday Mr Sheehan, who has been suffering from^ a sore throat or quinsey, opened the debate at 7*30, and spoke for two hours and a half. Great as must have been his annoyance and disgust at the merciless way in which Sir W. Fox had attacked his administration, and even his moral character and private actions, he, with excellent judgment, pocketed his wrath and paid a well-expressed' tribute to the valuable services and high character of the leader of the Opposition. He kept up the interest of his speech to the end, and though he made no attempt to repel some of the charges brought against him (which was perhaps well-judged), he sat down amidst loud chears, and giving to an unprejudiced listener the impression that he was one who could sway men's minds in no slight degree by bis powers of speech. Mr Wakefield followed, and made a speech of equal leng .b. He attacked the whole administration of the Government with great ability and real eloquence. He has a very pleasing voice and an excellent command of language, which strongly arrest the attention. Few indeed are the members who appear to have so thoroughly the ear of the House I cannot say that Mr Wakefield was able to casta spell upon the House for quite the whole time. Towards one o'clock there seemed to be rather an uneasy feeling that it was time to think of adjourning, but though the speech would have been .more perfectfhad it been a little more condensed, it must, I think, be admitted to have been the best that bas yet been delivered on either side. I ought not to close my remarks upon the debate without alluding to ;the maiden speech of your newly-elected ;m'ember. Mr Acton Adams being a lawyer and accustomed to hear his own voice in public spoke fluently and without any appearance of nervousness. He made one or two good points iu his speech, notably when referring to the working of the Land Tax, and when [he drew a comparison between the amounts per head of population expended in Otago and Nelson. One can hardly judge yet whether he will make his mark iu the House or not. A3 he is able to speak readily, it is to be hoped that he will resist the temptation to jump up and pour out a voluble stream of words upon every possible occasion, as is the case with some members who have a certain amount of fluency of speech. Now such men are intolerable bore3. I need make reference to no other speeches; they are things of the past, and as wearisome as a twice told tale. The result of the division was of course wired to you immediately. When you cons.der that last session what Opposition there was did not number one-third of the members, and that they were without a leader, it seems a most remarkable thing that at the very beginning of this session their strength should have so much increased as to be able to bring a majority of no less than 14 against the Government, the ilargest majority, it is said, which has ever carried a vote of want of confidence in New Zealand. Promises and persuasion may Derbaps j influence some, but the number is too great to be explained in that way. Moreover, they are weapons that can be used on both sides. The Government bas had nearly two years ol exist-

ence, and that has been enough to convince the country what it is capable of. Doubtless the widespread distrust which haß shown itself so prominently in the division of Tuesday has risen from the great cry and little wool which has characterised the proceedings of Ministers from first to last. To a thoughtful member reflecting on the state of the Colony at tbe opening of this session one can easily imagine how barren must have appeared the past administration of. the Governmentj how critical the state of thinga at Iptes.nt, how blank the future. Mr Waterhouse is not a politician who is given to make rash or illconsidered assertions. He revels in blue books, and whatever he states you may be sure he can give chapter and verse for. Whoever reads his speech on the Address in Reply will see how clearly he proves against Ministers his charges not only of ill-advised legislation and want of judgment, but also of au utter disregard for justice. The division was followed by a hideous kind of farce at which an angel might have wept. Mr Hislop got up and moved a senseless amendment that Sir G. Grey might have an opportunity of haranguiug the gallery. And then was repeated once more what we have heard over and over again for the last three years or more usque ad nauseam et lor<gius. The interests of unboru generations, the whole human race, the serf . lorn of the agricultural labours, the 15,000 enlightened patriots of New Zealand who had no votes, &c, &c, &c. All this, though stale, flat, aud unprofitable, would have been tolerable, but what was new in the speech was beyond anything for coarseness that Rees or Swanson ever said. He regarded the life of a Bick Marchioness as of less moment than that of the merest child on ihe West Coast. Reverse the position of the two. If any man should get up up and say that lie regarded the life of the sick wife of a laboring man as of less moment than that of any child of a uobleman, how ready would the famous jiro consul be to.< denounce him, and with what burning eloquence. And rightly so too. Either assertion is shameful and nauseating. I write all this with reluctance and keen disappointment. For more than a quarter of a century I have regarded Sir G. Grey as a kiod of hero- as a man of indomitable will and unflinching courage. He may be the latter, but if a Knight Commander of the Bath goes out of hi3 way to offer an unprovoked slight to a lady, how can a poor hero-worshipper any longer indue him with qualities that are in any way heroic ? Surely Sir George must be persuaded that the public of this colony are more brutish than any people if he thinks to win their admiration and tbeir suffrages by such speeches aa that. As yesterday was gloriouly fine, groups of legislators in solemn confab might be seen strolling about in all directions. The House will meet to-day at half-past two, and doubtless we shall then learn something of interest, but as the Wellington leaves at two, I must wait for another opportunity to tell you what transpires. Wellington, August Ist, 1879.

The issue and execution of the distress warrant do not always lead to the results desired by the creditor. Iu Masterton, rececently, the creditor had to put his hand into his pocket and pay 15s for auctioneer's and advertising expenses, as the goods seized failed to realise more than a few shillings.

A new use has been found for champagne corks. There can be no question whatever as to the value of good champagne, but of the exact worth of the corks there has been much dispute. Prudent housewives save them up to make a fire burn quickly, while some gentlemen burn their ends when they occasionly go in for Christy Minstel business, or, as we read in Ingoldsby's " Execution," when they have a practical joke with a gentlemen suffering under the effects of emotion or whisky. A German manufacturing firm in London thinking, perhaps, that without interfering with the requirements of niggar ministrelsy, there were other uses for those quondam guardians of our Bollinger or Heidsick, have brought out a perfect little matchbox, made simply out of an ordinary champagne cork. The lower end is scooped out aud fitted wit i an admirable ornamental metal top, while the part usually above the bottle is left au naturet.

Ia reporting the arrival of the last batch of political ploughmen at Wellington, the Post says .—They were, with few exceptions, " loyal " natives, and seemed rather to regard their position as a good joke than a misfortune. Their behavior was quiet in the extreme, in fact Captain Fairchild said this morning he had a good mind to let them take an early stroll on the wharf, as he was quite sure they would all come back to breakfast. The lower bold had been cleared for their accommodation, and tbey were standing and squatting about, talking in a very unconcerned manner. A little fun was caused by tbe arrival of au express with a load of railway coupling chains to be conveyed south, which Captain Fairchild jestingly told some of the bystanders were for shackling the prisoners. As each chain weighed about lOOlbs, a few dense ones expressed their indignation at such heavy heavy irons being used for the purpose, but their paraded humanity only brought down laughter upon themselees.

Some time ago (says one of our contemporaries) a digger named Stanley was admitted to the Hokitika Hospital, where, through indisposition, he was obliged to remain for several months. When leaving, he stated that he was without funds, but he desired to pay for the medical attendance and board provided him while in the hospital, and requested tbat the account should be rendered to his friend and relative the Earl of Derby. The secretary of the institution, acting on the directions given, though not without some doubt at the time of any successful result, posted the account mentioned, which amounted to .£2O ss. By the last English mail a remittance was received for the amount, and a receipt has been forwarded to the " cousin of the Earl," who is at present working in the Eanieri district.

The Oamaru Mail says:—" We learn from a gentleman who has just arrived in town from the Upper Waitaki that the quantity of snow lying on the Otekaike Runs, Hakateramea Ranges, and the Mackenzie Country, iB almost beyond belief. The shepherds connected with the various stations in these neighborhoods are actively engaged in getting the sheep under their care out of the drifts, and removing them to the lower grounds. There are serious reasons for believing that the loss in stock will be very great, and if the severe weather we are ' now experiencing extends into the interior we may anticipate a recurrence of the great floods of last season."

The Mount Ida Chronicle thus refers to a gold mine near Hyde, belonging to a Mr Holveson :— " When we mentioned the extraordinary richness of this claim, two weeks ago— when about 2czs. of gold were obtained per day— it was thought to be next to impossible that deposits of such a rich character existed in Otago ; but the results then obtained pale into insignificance when placed side by side with the unprecedented yield of 12ozs. of gold per day." Iu the Thames goldfields as much as 50 ) ozs. per diem have been turned out for a fortnight at a stretch by some of the mines during the palmy davs of the field —Herald.

If a small boy slides down a fight of stairs on his head, a little piece of candy will generally cure him; but just let his mother waft her old slipper across the base of his trousers for the space of a second, and there is not enough balm in Gilead to soothe his agitation,

A singular charge of horae-stealing was heard at the Resident Magistrate's Court at Ashburton the other day. A man named Watkins was prosecuted for larceny of a mare, which h?d been handed over to bim to shoot, but which he had sold instead. The prosecutor first declared the animal to be valueless, but afterwards said it was worth £5. The Resident Magistrate took a week to consider the case, which he said was probably an unprecedented one. A Hawke's Bay journal says :— " TwentysfeVen years ago ft horrible murder was committed in Wellington, the name of the murderer teing Wood, and that of his victim Green. At Professor Baldwin's seances at Wellington the following simple question wtts asked :— ♦ What was the fate of the young man Green . ' The answer was as follows, and we can vouch for its accuracy in every detail :— « I see a ship, a long way off, I see a young man on it, I cannot see his face, his back is towards me. I see three men go on board the ship, apparently visitors. The ship's name is the General Palmer. Oh, they have murdered the man ' (and the seer shuddered and cowered visibly). Being commanded to go on, he said * They are cutting him into pieces and putting him into a pork ban-el. It is dreadful. The murderer's name was Wood— he was hanged, as he deserved to be, on Mount Ccok a long time ago, in 1850.' It should be said that the question was asked by a well-known citizen, who was above the suspicion of being in collusion with the professor." Mr Edge, the Inspector of Canterbury Schools, is very severe in his strictures on schools which have come under his supervision. In reading, " not more than 30 per cent, of the number examined in the higher standard passed creditably"; of arithmetic he reports that " it is indifferently taught in about half the schools which he has examined." In grammar " the work is done in a careless and mechanical style," while, as to composition," out of 243 examined, 63 failed to gee beyond the heading of their papers, 93 wrote less than eight lines, and the remairder, with but few exceptions, showed that their acquaintance with the construction of sentences and the principles of punctuation was very slight "