Parliamentary Gossip.

Thames Star, Volume XIV, Issue 4575, 3 September 1883, Page 2

Parliamentary Gossip.

(fbom oue own correspondent.)

Wellington, This day. Up to midnight of Saturday, Parliament succeeded in living a kind of sober, righteous/and obedient life, with an indistinct promise of continuing it until the end of the session. This has now been rudely shaken, According to the time of the day set down by the Christian dispensation, fifty-five minutes some odd seconds of the Sabbath morning were trespassed upon, and what aggravates the offence is, the time was mainly taken up by these unregenerate heathens, Messrs Fish, Bracken, and Co., pouring forth anathe* mas on the head of the unctuous Green, and the Sabbath-observing Macandrew. Strange to say, the latter sat out the trying ordeal with the utmost fortitude— thereby exhibiting mucb more patience than he did some years ago, when lie lifted up his testimony against sitting beyond 12 of a Sunday morning, by getting up and walking majestically out of the chamber. The particular bone of contention was the Otago Harbor Board Bill which had been so completely emasculated, that its promoters determined to abandon it altogether. In effect, the contest was between Dunedin and Port Chalmers, and as Mr Macandrew's ■. interest lay in the latter direction, he resisted the withdrawal of the measure, and having the sympaihyiof the Opposition as a whole* his resistance proved successful to the Dunedin members. This gave great offence to them. The singular part of the affair was that although on this occasion Messrs Green and Fish were ostensibly embarked in the one project, so intensely do they hate each other that they could not resist the opportunity for blackguarding each father. After venting their spleen in that way, the venae of vituperation changed, | and the Otago and Canterbury members i got at loggerheads in the " mill." Canterbury was mainly represented by Mr Holmes, and no one who knows that worthy's capacity for Scandal can doubt that the Canterbury cause was ably sustained in the wordy war; the } procedure throughout was most discreditable, and will compare favorably with anything of the kind which has taken } place iv Parliament for years.