PARLIAMENTARY PERSONALITIES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5427, 19 August 1878, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY PERSONALITIES.

ixoTiv. By a Stranger in the Gallery. For clear vigorous ideas delivered iu rougli language, but with an energy unsurpassed in the House, Mr. Swanson stands pre-eminent. When he enters into a debate such as took place the other night on the increased amount of salary placed on the Estimates for the Speaker, his speeches always help the subject distinctly forward. In a few words he showed how necessary some fixed j>rinciple was upon which to base both payment to members and payment of officials, and at a later stage he bodly proposed the embodiment of these-priu-ciples in a BUI to be brought iu by the Government immediately. Like most clearheaded determined men he is ever looking for firm ground to stand upon, and although not always a safe guard to follow as a pilot, as a look-out man for the political ship we do not think he could be surpassed; his practised eye detects sunken rocks, shoals, or quicksands in a way that forces admiration from the beholder.

A very different style of man is Mr. Saunders, Trained iu a course of provincialism, years of proof that its abolition has not ruined either the country or the constitution have failed to convince him that the past is irrevocable. The shade of his buried love haunts him still, and even this session he intends to pray for a resurrection. A olear, deliberate enunciation, each word falling with precision, betrays the twenty years practice as a debater that Mr. Saunders often boasts of. The crushing fire of this heavy artillery, directed against the light field battery of Mr. Barton, was painfully effective. Even were we to deny the correctness of Mr. Saunders’ argument, that because the Speaker’s chair could be well filled without a salary therefore none was required, yet we must admire how he solemnly assured the House that the learned gentleman (Mr. Barton) who had worn all the hair off the top of his skull with his study of the law, displayed phrenologicaliy a great development of the bump of combativeness ; that it was no difficult matter to excite the legal gentleman—a red rag, or a policeman, or a judge, was sufficient, and he (Mr. Saunders) appeared also to excite his pugnacity. He hoped that in future he might be allowed a- little peace, as he had no desire to be constantly baited by the hou. member for Wellington City. A Stranger suggests that no one expressed the principle that the real object of the Speaker’s salary is this : to secure the very best man in the whole House to execute the high judicial functions of the office; having chosen a Speaker, to supply him with such a salary that he may be able to fulfil thoroughly the public and social duties inseparably attached to the office without encroaching on his private purse. It is not a question of pay, but of covering with a little margin all direct and indirect expenses. And this would equally apply to payment of members. Let any one compare the cost of living —house rent and the usual style of living—in Wellington now, with that of ten years ago, and an increase of pay will at once appe.ir reasonable and just. Sir George Grey demands more space than wc have at our disposal now to record a tribute to his eloquence ; subdued as it was by the dead-weight of a weak measure, the other night in speaking on the Electoral Bill, it was yet great. How carefully he avoided any attempt to show that public opinion had ever expressed itself iu favor of an extended franchise ! How beautifully were the climate, the country, and the population extolled as the best, the most fertile, and the most intellectual respectively ! Those dreadful figures intended to show that more than half the adult males were not enabled to vote, that 70,000 names would be enrolled by this Bill, fallacious though they are, still stand as monuments to the bold ingenuity and wonderful skill of the orator. It is generally supposed to be the duty of those introducing a change to first show that injustice exists and change is required. If the party to be benefited has nothing to lose, a change may do it good, and can hardly injure it; the classes at present excluded from the franchise chiefly occupy this position. Xu the debate on the Speaker’s salary, Sir George took up an isolated position apart from his colleagues. He declined comparison with other colonies advocated by the Native Minister ; probably because he knew no comparisons would have been made had New Zealand Ministers and high officials been the better paid instead of lower. If Sir George can disregard salary, are his colleagues equally ; fortunate % Y.