VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 63, 13 March 1880, Page 1

VICTORIAN PARLIAMENT.

The following are a few choice cullings from reports in the Melbourne papers of recent debates — or rather wranglinga —ia the Victorian Assembly : — In a discussion in the , Legislative Assembly on the sum of £'2770 proposed for the Government shorthand writers. Mr Bent said this, was a job item, and he understood that a son-in-law of the Chief Secretary had been appointed ia the department. The. gentleman in question should do as his (Mr Bent's) brother had been obliged to do, and learn to earn bis living honestly. : His uncles and cousins and brothers and other relations could not be appointed to the Government service, and he Would not allow the Chief Secretary to appoint all his relatives. Mr Lalor : How many revives did the present Chief Justice place in the Q-overnment service when he was Attora«y«General ? Mr Gillies : It is a gross insult to your colleagues to put it in that way. You ought to haye better manners. Mr Lalor : I do not think the hon. member ia cap ible of being an authority upon good manners or good breeding. * ; Mr Gillies : Are you an authority upon honor ? Mr Lalor : Nor upon honor, either. Mr Andrew, of West; Melbourne, having referred. to Mr Jones as a common informer, Mr Jones retorted that he was a common informer on all occasions when he thought it necessary to prevent rollstuffing. Mr Andrew had given £20 to the registrar ia West Melbourne for the purpose of getting the roll stuffed. (Uproar.) He had then assisted in putting 1000 dummy names on the register, and had dooe his best to put COO of those names on the roll himself. That was the gentleman who respected" Mr G. Higinbotham. Mr Bent : Higinbotham wouldn't spit on him. . . Mr Tucker said that until the Liberals came into power no son of a working man had any chance of getting an appointment. All offices were, given to broken down aristocrats at South Yarra or Toorak, or insolvents who could not pay 2s in the £. The Opposition had not hesitated to put up abject mean' tools to attack the Chief Secretary, or defame the characters of 40 respectable , girls in the Post-office. The hon. member for .Rodney smiled. But how many, acres of land did he give to a policeman^ at Echuca? The, dummied allotments: were the work of the hon. member, as Minister of Lands. Mr Gillies: That is.adeliberate false- , hood. I challenge the. Hon. member to <■ name .one case. ,- s Mr Bent: X I have known the honV member to have been a traitor for 30 years. Mr Tucker thanked Heaven that hef had not known the hon. member so long. The hon. member was looked on throughout the country as an unmitigated fraud — a mere pretender. He put on an affectation of honesty which he did not possess. He was the tool of a party who would kick him over as soon as they were done with him. They had treated him so before.

Mr Bent,:, Traitor. Mr Tucker could allude, if ,he chose, to political rufiiansi-^to members 11 who . came, there .like l?ijl^d<j^/''whia r ;Jbook lessons from, prize-fighters, but jipajrcely knew how to write or spell; and hoped to succeed by force df downright 7 im- ; pudence. ; Mr Best : You are a political scavenger. ! Mr Orr said he had never seen a , more disgracful exhibition i^ any lature, than that which he, had ;jusfc ji witnessed. The hon. member for West I Melbourne had disgraced both himself !, and his constituents. ' ' ' ' ' Mr Andrew: Is that parliamentary ? Mr Orr said what he had stated was within the knowledge and judgment of every hon. member. — (Interruption.) If the hon. member for West Melbourne continued to act as he had done at the present time, instead of visiting Europe he would hare to visit; Yarra Bexid(the Lunatic Asylum). ' Vl Mr Andrew : . You may, have .to go to Pentridge (the Gaol). (During the interruption that ensued an interchange of uncomplimentary remarks took place in a disturbance that rendered reporting impossible.)