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Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XV, Issue 216, 11 September 1880, Page 4

Mr. Vincent Pyke has written to the. Otago Daily Times, giving his version of the recent "extraordinary scene in the House," now, as he says, the "public have had time to digest the elegant fictions which have been dished up to them under this title." His, explanation is that he was appointed* teller of a division in committee,'' that, after he had handed in his list, his attention was called to the circumstances r that the member for Hokitika (Mr. Seddon) had not voted, and, in the legitimate performance of his duty^ as " teller," he (Mr. Pyke) reported the matter to the Chairman (Mr. Kelly). What follows is best given in Mr. PykeV own words :-- "Mr; Kelty t^ok no; notice "bf my report, but' proceeded to i '

ithe next item of the estimates. I 'again directed his attention to the fact •that Mr. Seddon had not voted. Then Mr. Kelly called on Mr. Seddon tore-, jcord his vote, and Mr. Seddon jocularly ireplied, " Oh I vote against Mr. Pyke." 1 Whereupon Mr Kelly; said, ' I shall rejcord the vote with the noes.' I pointed ! oufc that there was no vote before the | committee of Mr Pyke,' and I was proceeding to call Mr Kelly's attention to |the Standing Orders, which prescribe 'that members must give their voices with the : ' Aye s' or the 'Noes,' when a violent clamor arose on my left amongst the supporters of the Government, who tried fo drown my voice, and did most effectually drown the voice of the acting Chairman, with shouts of ' Sit down !' and discordant yells, accompanied by the stamping of feet. To them I turned round and said ' I will notsit down,' and" I again essayed to address the chair. I may mention parenthetically that during the turbulent scene I resumed my seat four times, and only rose again when I found that Mr. Kelly would not do his duty by calling on Mr.. Seddon to say how he gave his voice Oh the division. Finding it then impossible to obtain either a hearing from the committee, or attention from Mr. Kelly, I moved— ' That the Chairman do leave the chair and report the matter to the Speaker ;' and Mr. Kelly left the chair of his own accord for the purpose, as I supposed, of making such report. He did not do so, however, but reported instead that I had refused to obey the chair. Mr. Kelly's voice is so extremely weak, and the din was so great, that it is possible I may not have heard him upon some occasion, but I am disposed to think otherwise. However thafc may be, my amazement was great when I suddenly found my position changed from' that of plaintiff to thafc of defendant by the very tribunal whose j udgment I had myself evoked. Under the circumstances I declined to make an apology. I felt that I had merely discharged my duty as teller, in doing which I ought to have had the support of the acting chairman.- On the following morning I learned that Mr. Kelly had taken, as addressed to himßelfy thy refusal to sit down at the dem and of the noisy members on my left. That being understood, the explanation was easy to me and satisfactory to the House,a large majority of the members of which were and are prepared to endorse my' statement. As to the dramatised version of the scene in the gallery, I can only say that it was very highly coloured. No angry words passed between myself and the Sergeant-at-Arms — in fact, we were both smiling throughout=*^hor did he make any physical demonstration, nor use the ungentlemanly language attributed to him. And it must be remembered that the conversation between us was carried on in under tones — quite inaud^ ible in the House — and it therefore forms no part of the 'scene.' " From ivhat •#& know of Mr. i?yke } S constituents the foregoing explanation will be accepted " as quite good enough." The " Timaru Herald, 1 * commenting on the reckless native expenditure and analysing the appendix attached lo the West Coast Commission report, says : *' A gentleman named 'Manga' is ever present in some shape or other. For instance; £& is required for'Manga's young men,' and £1 for ' stamps for Manga,' while ten shillings is put aside for ' nails for M anga's house." Coach fares byi| this irrepressible Manga repuire £10 10s to satisry. 'Manga' again standing by himself, this time absorbs another £3 j but stop, we do him an injustice, for a note informs us that this was 'to pay expenses of my young people on .journey from New Plymouth to Wanganui ;' and £2 iB taken for 'petty for Manga, per receipts.' But we have not done with Manga yet.. To a humble payment of 6s 6d to one Davis, a note tells us that this was for a spade for ' Manga' s man/ Who is Manga?" . , A Ballarat exchange mentions : — ."There was a fortunate instance connected with a recent lottery. The promoter, Major Smitshj raffled some property, the first prize .being a mansion and grounds. The first prize was diawn by Major Smith himself, who, however, returned it to be redrawn, on condition thafc the winner " paid for all unsold tickets ih the lottery." The drawing had not proceeded far when the* No. 1 prize was drawn to ticket No. 1384 i: Which happened to be one. of the unsold tickets, and therefore again the property of the Major, who was of course, entitled to the prize, Major Smith, however, decided' to replace-the prize marble in the box, and stated that he would do so on the understanding that in foregoing his claim to }t he would except that the winner of the first prize would repay him the £570 expended in the purchase of the unsold tickets, and that should any Mother of these tickets secure the prize the ticket wpul(i count as a blank, and the prize marble would be returned to the box. This was agreed to by the committee, and gave satisfaction to all concerned. A splendid bronze head, life size, has .been [found near Olympia. It is the first specimen of the head of a victor in the Olympian games ever found in perfect preservation ;it wears the laurel crown. "Sir," said an astonished landlady to a traveller who had sent his cup forward for the seventh time, "You must be very fond of coffee." " Yes,madame, I am," he replied, "or I should never have drunk so much water to get a little."