PEARLS FROM PARLIAMENT

Free Lance, Volume I, Issue 17, 27 October 1900, Page 17

PEARLS FROM PARLIAMENT

THE last scene of all, on Saturday night, made up for«the weariness of the many latter "dayg. It was not only brisk and lively, but it made up, by one moment of mutual good understanding, for weeks of strife. We were really a happy family as we sang " God Save the Queen," after midnight, following the leading voices of the Premier and Mr Ward. The Lance says "we," because the galleries — Hansard, Press, Ladies, Council, Ministerial Ladies, and general public — all joined the harmony from start to finish. After that it did one good to see the members file past the Speaker and shake hands. * # # Not many minutes before, Sir Maurice had said a few very dignified and manly words of thanks for a favour done him that morning, which he characterised perfectly truthfully as " unexpected and unsolicited." In the early hours the light of the supplementary estimates (^250,000 candle power) was shining on the scene, when Sir Maurice suddenly fell off his perch. He had seen his name down for an extra two hundred a year. From six hundred to eight, and all in the turning of an hour glass, would search most of us. * # * If there were not so many political owls whose sole claim to public attention is their habit of hooting back on the track of everybody who does anything, just to say that he ought to have done it twenty years above — the wretches would say that of a baby in its cradle who had produced an early tooth, rather than say nothing — one might be tempted to wonder why this promotion had not come to Sir Maurice before. The roar of retrenchment of 1887 mulcted him, but the roar had been reduced below dove's language long ago. Look, moreover, all over the Australian Colonies, and where will you see a Speaker like him, or a Speaker who is not better paid. The House has been declaring for ever so many years that it had the best Speaker in the world. On Saturday the House proved its sincerity for the first time. * # • The pace these estimates went through at was amusing. As one correspondent put it, " they came in when the light was grey, and they went out before it was pink." « * * A good spur came into play, for when the figures were ended each member was the richer by forty sovereigns. As the Lance anticipated, there was a sessional allowance. That also fully justified the rumour of Mr Meredith, the only member who had the pluck to refer to the matter in the House, though outside there was enough gossip and pointed. Likewise : — That tale told In the daj s of old, When the session yet was j oung. 'Twi\t me and you, Turns out just as true As it was most highly strung, Of the Boxers grim, "Who made the Mimstrj tiim When the Salaries Bill was spi ung. • • • The increase is nine thousand six hundred pence, and the words put into Hansard are three millions. If they were only three million six hundred thousand, the rate of increased pay would be a penny for every four hundred words — about 3^d per column of brevier in a paper of the size of the Christchurch Press, say. How they will talk next year ! # # * Another of the awful devilries of Seddonism has been dragged to light by a very sympathetically hostile press. The Bank bought up its preferential shares, and the Premier announced in the House that it was a hard cash transaction. Was there ever anything so hideously and radically corrupt ? Was there evei- such juggling since the world began ? Another sin to the colossal record of treasons, stratagems, and spoils ; and the Tammany record again badly broken. * w • All o£ which is as amiable as it is refreshing. But there is really no serious necessity for doubting the good fortune of the Bank, or its good management, simply because certain good people have the

jaundice. The simple fact is that, in the midst of a run of good business, the last call came in so unexpectedly well that the Bank has been able to place its ordinary shareholders in a position to take the first dividend that comes along, and has inaugurated a saving of £17,500 a year to help it come quicker. And the public rejoices because it has ceaied to be responsible for * * * The last half-year's account, which closed on September 30 last, is, it is said, a record, and it is rumoured that a good deal of business can be profitably done, and will be, between the Bank and the Government. It will be another crime. Mem : New version of an old proverb, it is no longer" Nothing succeeds like success," but " Success is the unpardonable sin." * • * Ifc would be ignoring human nature to think that Mr Mills is not well pleased with himself in his long deferred greatness. And it would be ignoring fact to suppose that his appointment is not popular with the House. As senior Government whip, Mr Mills did his work for many years with rare tact and fidelity. There were occasions on which his "whipping" was criticised by some of the party as slack, but it is quite arguable that those very occasions were proofs of the tact which sat on the senior whip like an old coat. In other words, harder " whipping" might have made things worse. For which reason the vast majority hold it as a fixed article of their personal creed, that, the senior whip did his best always. * • * There is no doubt that he would have been appointed to the Ministry when the vacancy occurred before the session, had he possessed agricultural experience of the necessary brand. But the only brand that will go down with the farming interest, which bulks larger in Otago and Canterbury than in any other part of New Zealand, is the brand of practical farmer, with an " O " or a " C," to indicate the district where he was " raised." Mr Duncan possessed that qualification, and therefore took the Hon. John McKenzies place. Mr Mills, who, as senior whip, occupied the same relative position to the Ministry which the Attorney-General — when there is one — does to the Supreme Court Bench, had to wait for another opportunity. V V ¥ The opportunity has come, and Mr Mills is the new Minister. While everybody says that the veteran deserves the honour, and many say he is certain to give further proofs of the right sort of ability, a few may raise the geographical cry. But, in the inter-island senses Marlborough never had any serious political geography, and Mr Mills is coming to Jive in Wellington. The Lance puts his hat on his quivering quill and waves to Mr Minister.