PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XIV, Issue 227, 6 October 1879, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY GOSSIP.

(From our own Correspondent.) The loaded gua mentioned in my last was speedily fired, with what result we shall probably learn to night. Mr Hall's speech was hardly so powerful an attack on the administration of the Government as had been expected of him. But though it muat be admitted that he dwelt over much on things that may be regarded as trivial, yet some of his charges were serious enough, and quite sufficient to warrant any honorable member in withdrawing his confidence from the Government as at present constituted. If, however, Mr Hall's followers may have felt a certain amount of disappointment at the speech with which he opened the debate, the admirers of Sir G. Grey must have been filled with no small amount of chagrin when they found how powerless he was to demolish what they no doubt regarded as a feeble attack. Perhaps he was not very anxious to do so. It is thought that he would not greatly object to a very close division provided that tbe majority should not be on the other side. Rumor says that he would be glad to avail himself of a goad pretext to get rid of three, if not four, of his coadjutors. And surely no Prime Minister ever ha I such a feeble staff as Sir George has managed to collect about him. The oue strong man among them is Mr Macandrew, and he has giveu offeuce in various quarters by his glaring partiality for his owu district and his owu couutrymen. Next to Mr Macandrew, a3 a serviceable member of the Cabinet aod one who brings some strength to his party, comes Colonel Whitmore. Considering that the L-gislative Couucil, in which he represents the Ministry, contains about forty Oppositionists to a somewhat lukewarm body of seven Ministerialists, it is evideut that he has had a hard battle to fight, and no one will deny that he has fought it well. Mr Sheehan would also be a source of strength to the Government if his somewhat reckless disregard lor Mrs Gruody had not raised so strong a feeling against him, that he is now generally regarded as a source rather of weakness and embarrassment. But the other Ministers are no support whatever to the Cabinet. Mr Gisborne is the best of them, and is said to be a good offlce man, but he is a sorry debater. Mr Thomson, " like the brooks of Eden mazily murmuring," always provokes a laugh on the rare occasions when he gets up to address the House, and Mr Fisher is about equally impotent both as a debater and administrator. The man on the beach says that Sir George would be glad to get rid of these last four gentlemen and try the effect of fresh blood. It is worthy of notice that although Mr Hall's speech is regarded as by no means so strong as it might have been, yet neither of the three Ministers who have attempted to answer him bave been at all successful. Sir George Grey, after speaking for a short time in defence of his administration, as usual branched off to his favorite topics of the oppression and selfishness of the rich and the servitude and misery of the poor. Is it possible that the occupants of the public gallery are so simple as to swallow all this, for to them is it addressed ? He drew a pathetic picture of the sufferings of the Irish during the famine, just a generation (53 years) ago, and the House was hard hearted enough to laugh at him instead of being moved to tears. He talked of Lord Beaconsfield drinking costly wines at the £ord Mayor's banquets out of . vessels of gold and silver, regardless of the groans of thousands of his starving fellow countrymen. One quite expected him next to ask with Canning, '■' Who fllls the butcher's shops with great blue flies ? " But all this popular style of haranguing had but slight effect on the audience, whom he was most interested in moving. It answered very well to address the gallery last session, for j an election could not be far off, but now it is ' the members whose sweet voices he has to wiD, and they as a body are by no meaus to be caught with such very poor chaff as that. The speech was a decided failure, and rather lost voters to the party than won them. An unusually large number of new members have aired their eloquence during tbjs debate, and it tpqst be admitted that they have tor the most part the gift of speaking fluently, at least, if not with great ability. Mr Andrews, who proposed, aud Mr Hurst, who seconded, the address in reply, Mr Speight, Mr Masters, Colonel Trimble, Mr Seddon, Mr Whitaker, and some others have addressed the House with apparently the confidence of old stagers. Colonel Trimble evidently a gentleman from the Emerald* i Isle, raised a laugh by announcing that the light of the Ministers was darkness, and Mf Speight, who speaks altogether in the' debating society style, appears to think it is his mission to put down Mr Saunders. A short description of the thirty odd new members may not be uninteresting when they have settled into their places. In all probability the division wiil take place to-night (Friday), but as the steamer leaves at 5 p.m. I cannot wait for it. A carefijl auaiysis of the list of members given a certain majority of four to the Opposition, and, as it is thought not unlikely that Mr Shephard and Mr Tainui will not vote, that will add still further to the majority, as they are eenerally counted upon as Ministerialists, iesterflay the rnosp important man in ifew Zealand was Mf yincent Eyke. ! It was said that both parties had offered bim the place of Minister of Mines, and tbat be was still undecided To-day I hear that the Opposition can afford to dispense with his support, and if it be true thai it* has to be bought at such a price it is well that it should be so A rather lively scene took place la3t njght between Mr Hall and Mr J. (3. Rrown, or Tuapeka Brown as he used to be called. A letter appeared in one of the morning papers yesterday from Mr J. C. Brown, in which he stated among other things that in 1872 the Hail Government on the eve of an important division had offered him anything he chose to name for his vote. A3 this letter very seriously affected Mr Hall's character he brought it before the notice of the House, and characterised ft as ". absolutely an unblushing and unmitigated falsehood,'*! and the Speaker when appealed to by Mr Brown refused to interfere, as the charge had been mjtde not in the House but iu a newspaper. This attempt to damage Mr Hall in the eyes of the new members thus rather recoiled on the heads of those who launched it. Wellington, October 3, 1879.