WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 210, 3 September 1880, Page 2

WELLINGTON GOSSIP.

[From a Correspondent.] Wellington, September 2, 1880. The session of 1880 is now a thing of the past. After sitting a couple of days over the conventional three months, Parliament has been prorogued and members have returned to their homeß and constituents. On glancing baok at the amount of work done one cannot help remarking what an unusually barren session this has been as compared with those of previous years. It has been unproductive in a marked degree, so much so that we really might have done just as well if we had bad no Parliament at all this year. It is ; true that numerous measures were introduced at the beginning of the session, but'., most of these the Government, at the last, withdrew, after having kept them upon the Order Paper the whole time. Members generally looked forward to this session as one that would be much more important than the last two or three have been, they having been led to beeva so by the promises made by the Government last year that during the recess ;they would carefully consider 'measures that jwould be : beneficial to the welfare of thg jcolony in its present depressed state, and

bring them down this year. It is true some few important Bills were introduced this year and some carried, but look again at the number that were discharged from the Order Paper. One of the most important measures introduced this session was the Beer Duty Bill, and the Government received a severe defeat when the House reduced the duty by one-half. The division list upon this reduction was remarkable, thirteen Ministerial supporters voting for the reduction, and nine staunch Oppositionists for the Government, -clearly showing that the ,'question was not considered a paity one; Major Atkinson showed great acuteness in bringing forward this measure before the Property Assessment Amendment Bill, for he was aware that the sixpence duty upon beer. was not received with very great favor bythe-House, and so in expectation of a defeat he held the Property . Tax , Amendment in his hnhd as a trump Card. Most people seem to think, however, that if. would have shown better judgne it had the Gover iment reduced the beer duty, seeing it was the wish of the House, and thus saved themselves a defeat. Why did the . Government, push the work through so quickly at the last ? That is a question one hears asked everywhere, and which no one seetiiS able to auGwer. They can understand the Government last year wishing to bring the session to a speedy close considering it had extended well into December. But this year it has been so different. Parliament met early in the year at a tinle most convenient to all, and hnd Beverat months before it in which fco finish the work. But the Government said members would not stay (a most ridiculous assertion), and so there was a general rush with the business} most of which was dealt with in the small hours of the morning. I heard the Government com pared to the task masters of Egypt during the last week of the session, and cer tainly those who so compared them were not very far wrong. It is really too much when the members have to ait froth 11 o'clock, in the morning till i p.m., then again duanj the afternoon, and theu at 7.30 until tue I Government choose to allow them to adjourn; And all this was done just to hurry the- seasion to an end. Far better would it be that the Parliament should sit for six months, than that members should be over worked like that, and the business scamped, as it must be | under euch circumstances. But the crowning piece of stupidity was the Government making the House sit all night on Friday. From-7-30 till 830 on the following morning members were kept at work except for the usual half-an-hour's interval, and I really believe the Government would have gone en at that hour had not the Chairman left the chair. Perhapß, however, it is only due to them to say that they were kept several hours over the discussion that ensued over Mr Pyke's affair, but then on the other hand that would never have occurred had the House been allowed to adjourn at a reasonable hour or even at 230 am,, when Mr Pyke himself moved that progress be reported. The action of the Government bo far has not been very praisoworthy, and I have heard several offers to lay odds that they go oi fc next session. Mr Pyke, having made himself most conspicuous throughout this session by his behavior, brought thiogs to a climax early on Saturday rnorniny, when as you have already heard be was expelled from the House by the Sergeant-at-Arms for refusing to obey the Chairman. It is much to be regretted that the tone of the House of Eepresentatives should be bo much lowered by the action of one member, and that our Parliament, which has hitherto been always noted for its behavior, should be turned into a bear garden, and brought to the level of the Victorian Parliament. Mr Pyke, as I said before, has made himself conspicuous through the entire session by hia unseemly behavior. Erer since. the vote for the Otago Central Eailway, the first sod of which it appears he had the honor to turn, was struck out, he seems to have been determined to obstruct the business as much as possible, in fact he has on more than one oc> casion openly declared in the House .that he would endeavor to stop every vote from passing, and used to make himself ridiculous by calling for a division on nearly every item when he was present. That wa3 when the House was in Committee of Supply. Upon other occasions he used to delight in moving upon every opportunity some insane motion, which he was aware would cause a .great amount of discussion, and which was of course only done to obstruct the business.One of these motions of his delayed the House nearly a week. During previous sessions, Mr Pyke has been one of the first to urge* upon the House the desirability of finishing the work and bringing the session ! to a close as speedily as possible, but this ; year he haa been just the reverse; and if this, is to bo his conduct in future years the 1 sooner he makes his exit from the House of Eopresentatives the better for all concerned. i The Council Chamber was converted into a , dining room for the time being last Saturday ) evening, when the Speaker of the Legislative ; Council entertained His Excellency the Go- , vernor and a number of guests at dinner. The Governor took the opportunity of making a j capital speech, in which he said he regretted ' very much his departure from New Zealand, i where be was just beginning to make numer- ! ous f riends, and spoke in the highest terms of ' his successor, Sir Arthur Gordon, whom he !know3very intimately. One of the spare i committee rooirishad to bet transformed into ! a temporary Council Chamber on Saturday ia consequence of the preparations for the '. dinner going on in the Chamber proper, and I ; have heard since that the dignity of some of the Lords was very much hurt in consequence.. It is strange that Parliament should have \ been prorogued by Commission yesterday I when the Governor was in Wellington and • might have had an opportunity of making bis last appearance in public. It has bean the same, however, now for the last few sessions ; Parliament is opened with a grand I display, and is generally prorogued in as 'quiet a manner as possible, as if all connected it were ashamed of, or at least dissatisfied with, their actions.

; The dull proceedings of a thin House yesiterday (says the N. Z. Timet of Wednesday) 'were enlivened by a few witty scintillation!. ißising in his place, with awful menace in hii Itones, "the People's William" wished to iknbw what had become of the hundred and !odd •' Bills " brought down by the Governlimentduringthe session.. "They were, dishonored," curtly and promptly replied the member for Auckland City East. Quick in repartee thus the junior member for the Thames, " Not dishonored, but referred back to the drawer." And the laugh went round, I The Pictou Prets says :— There has been a good deal of activity over the coal find this 'week, and parties wishing to take part in the | development of the coal have been engaged in pegging put the ground and taking other measures to obtain the legal right to secure I themselves before commencing active work. There are rumors of further valuable flnda, ibut as we can only speak from hearsay, we i are unable to say what truth there is in the many reports. . > An Auckland telegram of Tuesday says:— 'Phillip Hansen King died at his residence, Waiuku, last night. Deceased was the oldest settler in New Zealand, having arrived at the Bay of Islands on Christmas Day, 1814. He jwas then sixteen months old. His brother as at present resident in Auckland, and is 'the oldest born colonist in New Zealand. 'Deceased's father was one of the first missionaries with Mr Marsden. He had until lately been acting as clerk and interpreter for the past eighteen years to the Waiuku Resident Magistrate's Court and snrrouuding districts. The cable message conveying Home the news of the capture of the Kellys reached London Jive hourß before ib was put in at Sydney I The telegram was despatched from Sydney at 12.30 p.m. (Sydney time) on 28th June, and it reached London af 7.33 a.m. (Greenwich^ time) on the s'anie day. ,, Allow-; ing for ,tho difference of time ■between* Sydney and London — Sydney being ten, hours and five minutes in advance of Green- 1 wick time — the actual timo occupied in transmission wa9 five hours and eight minutes, thus enabling events' at the Antipodest obe published in London on the day of their occurrence. ! -j The time for sending in returns under the; Property Assessment Act, which, under the jfornVr notification, expired to-day, is to be extended a month j namely, to. the 3otu September. It- is necessary fcj, explain tjhaiupatho reduction of the tear duty by one-half id

Committee of the House, the Government decided not to proceed with their Property Assessment Aol Amendment Bill, which extended the exemption from property tax to all pesonal effects, as thia would involve a loss of £40,000 to the revenue, which had been farther decreased by a considei a^le sum through the rejection of the Succession Duties Bill in the Legislative Council. The Government therefore determined to abandon their first Amendment Bill and to introduce another in the Upper House, which ' merely substituted the new and greatly simplified schedule for the former elaborate and complex affair. The practical effect of this change will be, that owners of property will hive to return only its net taxable value themselves deducting all their debts after and liabilities. — i J ost. The Post of Monday says :— The Government have received a telegram from the Native Minister to-day to the effect that the fencing contingent sent dOwri by Te Whiti yesterday numbered no fewer than eleven, mostly rather ancient and decrepit Maoris. It is stated that Te Whiti has almost exhausted his stock of active young men, and is beginning to fall back on his patriarchs, invalids, and cripples. They were duly arrested} but their destination is not yet definitely known. It is repotted thai some ill feeling has arisen among the Parihaka natives in consequence of one having his pocket picked of a£l note. This introduction of pocket-picking, one of the arts of high civilization, into' the primitive community at Parihaka has not beeii Well t eceived by the natives — the victim especially— and acrimonious discussions have ensued. Te Whiti declares the theft was not committed by one of his tribe, but by a Wanganui visitor. The result has not yet transpired. Mr. Bryce is now superintending tile sui'rey and marking off of a site for the proposed lighthouse at Cape Egmont, which will be gone on with so soon as the West Coast Settlement Bill has received the Royal assent. A redoubt will also be erected near Cape Egmont for the defence of the lighthouse if necessary. Mosquitoes (wtite3 the San Jfiftricisco co * respondent of the 'Herald) are fashionable this summer in the State, though not, Heaven bo praised, in the "city. Not half a day's journey, the stiuging plagues are thicker than ever were King Pharaoh's locusts. The poor horses are so thickly covered with them that their own colour, be it brown, black, or white, is perfectly indistinguishable beneath the veil of mosquitoes> covering the entire body. Men work with their heads tied up in veils, and their hands gloved— those who do not take such precautions inhale the creatures with their breath. They cover everything, aud the air is dark with them, as with a cloud. Ooe of the ten plagues evidently, encored— let us hope the other nine will not follow suit. Concerning the recent gale at Dunedin the Morning Herald aays:— Shortly after 7 a.m. yesterday (19th inst.)' a heavy gale swept 'over Dunedin, atld did mudh damage. As far jas we can learn, Mr James Campbell, of the Dunedin Market, Moray place, china and glass merchant, was the greatest sufferer. Messrs :J. M'Donald and Robert Adcock were passing along the right-of-way near the market at 17-30. a.m. when a fierce whirlwind caught the northern end of Campbell's Bazaar, and carried a large portion of the iron root and beams about forty yards, causing. them to strike with itremendous force the western end of Messrs Richards and Co.'s premises. Indeed the escape of Messrs Adcock aud M'Donald was providential. About 100 sheets of iron roof and several enormous beams— one of them weighing about ljcwt — were simultaneously ■swept alonp, but luckily they did not do great damage to tne building, on which they were scattered. So considerable was the propelling jforce of the whirlwind, however, that part of the iron sheets got Btuck in the brickwork of Messrs Richards' premises, and smashed several thick pieces of timber. If the debris had been shot a few feet further, the damage to the premises of Messrs Richards and Co. would have been very costly. This fact will be readily appreciated when it is mentioned that the weight of the material carried by the whirlwind in one sweep was at least 2 tons. A large quantity of the brickwork at the Northern end of Campbell's Bazaar fell upon some magnificent specimens of glassware, statuary, aud plated goods exhibited by Mr Campbell. He arrived at the scene of the wreckage shortly after the damage was done. No leas than 50 cart loads of the damaged goods were carted from the Bazaar yesterday. Mr Campbell estimates his loss at £3000. ;He has a policy of insurance over £1500 worth of the goods, but of course the risk of the whirlwind was not covered. At the dinner given to tW Governor the other night by Sir W. Fitzherbert, Hii Excellency said : — " They we're very fortunate in getting so able an administrator as Sir Arthur Gordon ; he was a most coußcientioui, able, and high-minded man ; a better could not be found. He (Sir H. Robinson) had watched his career ever since he began public life. He was the beßfc possible man they could have got ; he had many very high qualities, and but one irreparable defect — Gordon wa* not an Irishman. (Laughter.) .They knew Lord Dufferin had said Irishmen were the best administrators in the world. No doubt they all agreed with that sentiment. That was Sir A. Gordon's only shortcoming 1 , and that he could not help ; but being a Scotchman he would have congenial feelings among the people of Otago. . He had 'written and congratulated Sir Arthur Gordon, bud told him if he was not happy in New Zealand it would be his own fault. If Sir 'Arthur Gorden only did his duty here half as well as he had done it elsewhere he would have the confidence, and experience the generosity; of the people of New Zealand " i On Saturday last a Chinaman fell out of his cart, at Timaru, and the wheel passed over his head. He appeared tq, die, and. arrangements were made for the inquest. |A.bout 4 o'clock, however, to the great,; as-, toniehneat oE his friends and his medical attendant he came to life again. Ha did really (lie, however, late the same evening. | The moneys appropriated for purposes . of immigration, public works, and public services of the colony, as detailed in the Immigration find Public Works Appropriation Act, 1880, and the Appropriation Act, 1880, amount, in the aggregate, to £4,996,526 9s, 9d., the items being as follows : — Immigration and publio works —

£ s. d Immigration ... ... 25,984 13 4 Public Works, Departmental 14,870 6 8 Railways 1,572,000 0 0 Surveys of now lines „. 9,550 0 0 Roads ... ... 287,748 0 0 Land Purchases 122,147 3 .9 Waterworks on goldfields ... . 26,716 4 7 Telegraph extension ... 43,577 10 0 Public buildings ... ... 240,335 17 10 Lighthouses 4,550 0 0 Miscellaneous public works .137,678 9 9 Contingent defence ... ... 154,000 0 0 Charges and expenses ... 189,430 19 9. Total ... • £2,828;589 13 9 ■ Public Services— Charges on Consolidated Fund— ' £ :s. d Liabilities and Engagements 299,747 12 4 Legislative ... .... 35,300 6 10 Colonial Secretary 191,977 18 6 Colonial Treasurer 50,330 6 Minister of Justice ... ... 133,708 16 4 Postmaster-General & Commissioner of Telegraphs 261,357 12 1 Commissioner of Customs ... 89,244 5 2 Commissioner of Stamps ... 23,897 10 0 Minister of Education ... 276,162 0 0 Minister of Native Affairs ... 15,177 9 1 Minister of Mines 21,141 14 4 Minister of Public Works ... 604,446 16 7 Minister of Defence ... 163,4*6 11 3 Total . ... ... £2.167 936 16 0