Tawhiao and the Legislative Council. Rumoured Appointments.

Te Aroha News, Volume IV, Issue 160, 10 July 1886, Page 3

Tawhiao and the Legislative Council. Rumoured Appointments.

Welltxgtox, July 7. The attitude of the Legislative Council, in refusing to paea certain measuies previously passed by the popular Chamber, was probably the cause of the lengthened debate which took place in the House of Representatives yesterday afternoon over a question put with respect xo the offer to call Tawhiao to the Legislative Council. In anB>vor to Dr. Newman, the Native Minister said it was true that the Government had offered Tawhiao a seat in the Letii&lative Council, but such offer was not etill open. He did not • know that any tempting pioposals had been made to Tawhiao by the Government. Dr. Newman con&idered the replies unsatisfactory, and moved the adjournment of the House. He said that the Native Minister, in his speeches'at VVanganui and Lawrence, had Hpokeu of Tawhiao as a brokeu-down drunkard aud sot, and it was a deliberate insult to the people of the colony to offer to c&ll such a person to the Council. The Hon. Mr Ballance said he was being entirely misrepresented, and he challenged the hon. gentleman to poove the assertion he had just made. Dr. Nowman said that the Native Minister had challenged him to prove what he had fcaid, and he wpuld accept it at once. (Hear,) In hia Lawrence speech, de livercd in February, last fl Mr Ballance hyvd stated : ,V Tfiwhiao was inclined to drink, and when, in that state hia antics wore peculiar. Fancy him in that state sitting on , the Bench oxerciaing his functions as a J.P." Then in a speech at Wanganui the jtfatjve Minister had stated that the present Government had been blamed for their nutaeious appointments to the Commission of the Feace, but they had nevor yet appointed a drunken sot such as 3*awbiao was when the pre vious Ministry . offered to appoint him. He (Dr. . Newman) . fcubimtted that when the Minister had seen fit, rightly" or wrongly, to criticise the King in such terms, he had no right subsequently to offer him a seat in the Legislativo Council. The Hon. Mr Ballance' eaid, in, reply, that -he had,, been, imperfectly , quoted What he stated was.this, that Tawhiao was inclined to drink too much at the .particular time when. he was, offered, a Commission , the Peace, 'but he (the speaker) qualified that by saying that for several years, Tawbiao. . had -been,, a, r}gid/, teetotaller.'That attierecUth.a complexion of, the case,, ; dnd if; the pr / egent,,G,o.yer,n;nent Ijad offered, TdwhJ&o a eeat,in;the,joquncU4t,wa9>«oJ;jJ3 < a drunken eofc, inaßmnch as f or^seyeral yejarsV, he had been most abstemious in his habits, and had worn the blue ribbon.

The Premier read extracts from hia colleague's Lawrence and Wanganui speeches, confirmatory of the Btatement just made. Mr McArthur, in defending the member for Thorndon from the charge of suppressing any portion of the report ot Mr Ballance's Wanganui speech, said there was no mention in the " Wunganui Chronicle " (from which Dr. Newman had been quoting) of Tawhiao having changed hia habits, Mr Orraond asked that the Government should give a more definite statement with regaid to their intentions respecting the Legislative Council. He considered that the Premier's answer yesterday that "at present " they had no intention of making iurfcfeer appointment, was vague. There were rumours throughout the colony that at the end of the session certain gentlemen were to be created Councillors in reward for their political services. He would like an assurance that the Government had no such intention. The Premier : I decline to say what is going to happen in the future. It is absurd to ask for such a pledge. We may be in power for live or six years (laughier), and we are not going to pledge ourselves as to what we are going to do in the future. It is sufficient for us to say what our present intentions are. In one newspaper I saw it stated that we were goi- q to call the member for Napier (Mr Ormond) to the Council, and the hon. gentleman knows that is not correct. (Laughter. ) " Mr O'Connor suggested the introduction of a bill to prevent iurther appointments to the Council. It was a grievous thing that the people of the colony should be called on to pay a large sum to privileged persons sitting in another place, and it was an anomaly that representatives of wealth should be paid by the taxpayers for representing their own interests Some provision might also be made for a vote of the two Chambers being taken jointly in case of a deadlock. Sir George Grey assured the House that Tawhaio was not aware that the offer of the seat had been withdrawn. Seeing that Tawhaio had for several years given up drinking, it was ungenerous for the Minister to tax him on his former intemperate habits. Since relinquishing hia former drinking propensities, Tawhaio hud succeeded in getting many of his people to abstain from drinking. The Native Minister had said he was not aware that he had offered tempting proposals to Tawhiao, but surely a seat in the Legislative Council and a pension of £200 was a very tempting bait. The discussion closed after the Native Minister had made a few further remarks.