PEALS FROM PARLIAMENT.

Free Lance, Volume IV, Issue 164, 22 August 1903, Page 7

PEALS FROM PARLIAMENT.

GENERATIONS of training have brought men to the perfect state in which we are at the present moment.— The Pienner. Crown tenants under the Counties Bill will be merely serfs and slaves giving their whole energy and that of their wives and families to pay rent to the Government and taxes to the local bodies.— Sir V. 7 . R. Russell. * * I have known a great many barmaids in dntercnt paits of this country. I have never know n one of them to do me any harm, and I have never done them any harm.— Mr. McLaehlaii, repiesentirig Prohibition Ashburton. I say it behoves the Government now, ■without any wnste of time, to bring m a measure making it legal for one man to be the husband of three, four, or five wives, in order to provide homes for them, and to insure an increase ot the population.— Mr. Parata s little suggestion . * * * He assumed that the £3-per-mile proposal was based on the principle of a string between two tins, such as many of them saw in the colony betore telephones came into use. He could construct telephones himself on that basis at a cost of about 7s 6d per mile. —Sir J. G. Ward. * * * If they go to church and put their threepenny-bits in the plate, who pays ? Why, the country e\ery time. Whlem they go to places of amusement, who pays p The country ' And so it is all along the line., I am sure the town members do not realise the pleasant position they are in.— Mr. Rutherford. Who is it pays to run the country as a going concern ? Who keeps up the means of communication, without which aJI business would be at a standstill 9 Who is it that maintains the roads? Does the honourable member for Lyttelton or the honourable member for Dunedin City? The farmers maintain them. — Mr. Lewis. As for myself, when I regard these men who have gone into the wilderness, into the dense, unroaded bush, who are ■endeavouring to build up homes for themselves, their wives and little childTen, far from their fellow -men and from civilsation I always feel in passing them on the street that I ought to laise my hat to them.— Mr. Laurenson. * *• * If a traveller comes along, tired, weary, and thirsty like the honourable member for Chnstchurch City (Mr. Taylor), wanting a good long glass of beer, surely it would be entirely wrong to say that the worthy wife of the proprietor of the institution should not be permitted to supply him.— Mr. T. Mackenzie. He held in his hand a paper published in Austr?Jia and there were paragraphs in it to which he would allude. Speaking of a respectable paper, published in New Zealand, the writer said -'It was a scrofulous, slobbering, soursmelling paste-pot print, published in a somnolent hamlet in the South Island of New Zftaland. We cannot undeistand why the boss rooster of that frowsy, fatuous, fly-blister deemed it expedient to make the attack." — Mr. Seddon. ■* * * I will conclude with a few lines, which I think appropriate — Arrayed beneath the stainless light, Shoulder to shoulder sternly true , In the cause of common right Theirs is noble work to do. Aw ake ye dull lethargic crew , Dash down oppression's- iron wall, And claim in voices thunder loud A fair equality for all. That's me.— Mr. E. M. Smith, on "baimaids. » * * Some honourable members do not fail to sneak in the most disparaging terms of our (farmers') morality, and of everything connected with us. It might be imagined that anyone who owns more than a hundred acres of land is necessanlv a scoundrel from the way these honourable (rentlemeii speak. I beg them not to do so because it is ■very offensive. — Sir W. R. Russell.

A deputation fiom the Piohibitionists, who hi led— and, I tlunk, slopped over one of the Conimittee-iooms>. — Mr. Lewis. The honourable member foi L\ ttelton said lie was going to tiavel from Auckland to the Bhiff. Well, he might make a big smash if you gave him a basket of eggs and a stick.— Mi. Witty. * * * His own opinion was that i\e had too many elections in this countiy, and that the money spent in connection with them w ould be much better utilised in making loads and budges. — The Premier. ** * , I think there are some gentlemen m this Chamber — bachelors' — who, if they were animated by kindly and generous impulses, would rescue some of these barmaids from the position they occupy. — Mr. Hogg. jf. * * It is all "rot" talking about the distie.ss of the woi king-people. The uoi king-people are very well off, very much better than they were in the old Tory days, and the Liberal Government should be given full credit for what they have done.— Mr. Rutherford. * * * I need go no further than the Huttroad. What is that like? It is a disgrace to any community. One person said to me the other day, "How can that road be improved?" I said, -There is only one way I can think of, and that is by shifting it to the West Coast."— Mr. T. Mackenzie. * * * If we aie going to conduct our business for the rest of the session on the lines of to-msht, then members may order their Christmas dinners in Wellington I beg to move the third reading of the Bill —Mr Seddon, during debate on Counties Bill * ■* •* What is the difference between the woik of a man's brains and the work of his hands' 3 Is an author not as much entitled to protection for his work as the man who grows cabbages and potartoes? — Mr. Baurae. * * * This Bill reads, ' From and after the first day of July, one thousand nine hundred and four, no female woman — ■ (laughter from flippant hon. members) — Theie is nothing, sir, more discouraging, more disheartening to men like myself and the honourable member, who are engaged in social reform matters, than the callous, heartless laugh of mere worldlings such as I have around me. — Mr. Lewis.

He had had enough of Reuter , he was the same gentleman who sent the Papawai speech to Australia. — King Dick. ■* * *■ If I was elected to the Cabinet I should fill the bill with dignity and honour. But I want them to take my advice. — Mr. E. M. Smith. * • * Mr Bedford. — The Premier tells us "membeis do not understand the matters w hich I have to take into consideration when nominating my colleagues. Ministers must be guided by me.

members have not yet reached the matunty of judgment or foresight — they are too feeble m intellect — to enable them to elect an Executive which would properly represent them and carry ooit their wishes." Sir, it is an insult. An hon. member. — We do not know enough tricks. Mr. Bedford.— No, but could we not Mr. Aitken. — Learn some tricks? — His Worship's wit. Of course, we are at times twitted with having only one thought on the Government benches and that is of simply following the leader. Well, now, there is a good deal of truth in that, for, after all it is sound and good loyalty to follow your chief. — Hon. Mr. Mills. * * •*• Then w hat says the "Cyclopaedia of Political Science" 53 Mr. Lalor, I think, is the writer. What does he say? Mr. Speaker. — Time is up — Mr. E. G. Alien as answered •*■ * * I w ill conclude by reciting some poetry — Anse, ye champion of the public cause, Embrace in me a young aspirant blood ; Not party n raise alone, a gaudy flower, But solid pelf conjoined with solid pow er. That's me.— Mr. E. M. Smith's overwhelming modesty.