Our Wellington Letter.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2052, 2 August 1875, Page 2

Our Wellington Letter.

(FBOM OVa, OWN'COBBESPONDENT.) July 26th. That which has been done in the Parliament of the country so far is simply a sort of preliminary canter of the repre* sentative horses, or a: little skirmishing prior to the battle which has yet to come. The Opposition when speaking on the address—or such of themki did speak-- wert " just showing what their .forces were com- , posed of, and the Ministert&peop'le hung | cut their colours pr^M^pfiunly,.. Hence,>£ ; as Messieurs Bowen and Rolleston were -^ (pleased to observe, .the debate oh. tW 'question of the address in reply was not - ." a waste of time." It kind of sorted out the parties?, and most of the members of the lower House have become assigned to certain, .placfes- ou hare -been. 1, made aware of the general proceedings through the wire; therefore you know that the, address was carried on the voices, and you know what Sir George Grey said,; though to your great loss you did not hear that gentleman's masterly oratorical-, effort. But the real business of the '; session has yet to begin, and great - things are looked for. It is confidently expected that the session will last orer four months. There is, of course, the usual amount of speculation regarding the little game of this; that,*and the other person; and it' should be needless to remark that specu. lation is very vague at this stageof WeXj: 1 proceedings. One thing may be wag«red yi * on with the utmost confidence: the present Government. are going to carry-- - their measures,] in spite of the Opposition ; but the fighting will be warm. Sir ,George is game, even as the "chicken," if he will pardon my likening him untothat notorious and distinguished member of the P.R. Perhaps the truest statement; that Mr Fitzherbert ever said was his* declaration that Sir George had by his presence put into members the pluck : they* sadly wanted. * It was stated that Mr Stafford would go in for a new Ministry, but it is pretty certain that he will support the present Government through.' the^iession, and assume the . leaderships afterward?.. In consequence, Kowe^r,' ojC-^efgeneril "un-" certainty which must bedsit atthepreient stage of Parliamentary proceedings, some very hpnor^fii.mg.SJlfeSj:?. who hare.-w their own particular little game to play— - and who, by the way has not?—somehon. members, X say," -,; have raised - for themselves little prominences from which they may look- down, on either side, and ' ' decide upon the most desirable one to adopt. This is the course adopted by Mr Pyke, who, being too wary to de'velope his ideas at once, prefers, like Captain Cuttle, to "stand by." Thus, in speaking to the proposition for an adjournment of tho debate on the address, he professed that he felt embarrassed what to do, and everyone who knew that gentleman felt that he was doing ample justice to his own sentiments when he said so. As an esteemed and talented friend observed to me, the hon. Member for Otago has become firmly possessed of the idea that he ought to be Minister of Mines. It will be granted that everf man has a perfect right to hold opinions - of his own suitableness for any post under heaven, and if Mr Pyke's qualifications are on a par with his opinions of himself, he should be a desirable candidate, and " the right man in the right place!" whatever and wherever that place might happen,to be. The want of a readjustment, of _repre. sentation throughout • the• colony "is »'■ generally recognised, and matters will.be amended; The Thames will receive an additional member. This the people of the Thames will not look upon as a very . tremendous concession—that; is to say as the distribution now stands, teveral districts in the north of far less importance than the Thames in population and re* source having three and four represent** tions in the Parliament of the Colony

but you must be thankful for small • mercies. A very necessary change has been made in the arrangement of accommodation for pressmen in the- House of Representatives, which before was radically bad and discreditable to the architect or whatevor person had to do with planning the construction of the inside of the House. The reporters'gallery was fixed above and on one side of the Speaker s Chair, over which there i is a. ponderous (if not ornamental) and excessively inconvenient canopy. Owing to this the occupants of- the Government Benches were hidden from view and out of hearing almost; so that if you were sharp enough to catch a speaker's voice, that was the only way in which you could identify him. The New Zealand Times referred to this obstruction in a leaderette of Thursday last, aud the Government have shifted the reporters' gallery, to a more convenient position on the floor , of the Houses :■ ''- ■'- - --'■ ■'•■■■■ The Times copies a leader from, the Thames Evening Star re the subject of representation. The leader you will recollect was comment on one which the Times published, and which was wired "^Htov you, advocating the rights of ,the Thames district to an increase of representation. Wellington at the present juncture is full of life and full of swells; big bugs (pardon the expression) of all sorts are here; and so far as I have been enabled to gather from a week's residence in the Empire City, the same social distinctions : obtain here as are described by Dickens in Pickwick. Dockyard man No. 1 doesn't know Dockyard man No. 2, and go on till we get to small gentry. A very cleverly, written article ; appeared in the Times on the subject of "keeping up appearances," in which were exposed the miserable straits to which:.persons were put in Wellington (as elsewhere I mny add), to make themselves appear in the eyes of others what in truth they; are not.? People living on comfortable means, which would seem to people of simple minds to be a most uncomfortable, not to say melancholy, state of existence—without the mental resources of Montague Tig, these- people have all his falseness and unsubstantially.