The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUEBDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1884.

Thames Star, Volume XV, Issue 4960, 2 December 1884, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. TUEBDAY, DECEMBER 2, 1884.

The proposal of the New Zealand Times to call the late "The Drunken Parliament" is neither unhappy nor perhaps undeserved. There may be a kind of judicial harshness in the application of the phrase, but men who are sent to Wellington to look after other things than their own pleasure should at least keep decently sober. There have been many distinctive appellations bestowed on English Parliaments at various epochs, but the term " Drunken " to the best of our knowledge, has been reserved for one in New Zealand •—in which, in too many instances, intoxication has been pre-eminent —save that assembled at Edinburgh on New Year's Day, 1661, of which Burnet said the members " were almost perpetually dru"nk." There are in the New Zealand Assembly members of long standing, addicted to liquor, known to all frequenters of the Parliamentary; Buildings, whose indulgences at uncertain periods is recurrent without suprise; but the weaknesses of these men would not have caused the lines to characterise the present Parliament as " Drunken." Besides Wellington looks mildly, while holding a reticent tongue, on Legislative eccentricities, and something more than common must have happened to cause the Times to outrun the limits of its somewhat too careful discretion. Members and newspaper reporters as a rule hide the intern perance of Parliament, remembering what influences late and long hours exercise over weak natures, and throw a veil over transactions which society papers would be only too glad to have a chance to blazon. But the session just over was rich, or full perhaps would be a better word, with episodes of a scandalous char* acter. Let U3 take one as described in the Dunedin Herald of the 3rd inst.:

"On Saturday night the usual members' 'symposium' in the Ho^se wqb a very rowdy affair, in which hard drioking at this or that house and so forth was the order of the day or night, the presence of Mr Gordon, the well known Otago reel-dancer and bag-pipe-player, having contributed not a little in giving coloring to the festivities. On the first hours of Sunday morning a procession of M.H.R.'s and their friends headed by the whips made the night hideous in various localities, soreaming at, pn passant, the Pr?shyfccrian minister, whose knowledge of go d' whiskey is underetood to be fair. The whole town to»day is talking of this peculiar in* stance of Parliamentary effervescence, in which the elders led the way. Mr Gordon was epecially "» jmnsoned with his pipes ' on a select committee in orJer to come and give evidence on tl a* committee, as there were ho b'g i p o players to be procured in Wellington for the parliamentary ball to«night. The correspondent tells the people in Dunedin that Sjote-h dancing and Scotch whiskey bad produced wi effects

on Scotch head 3 "on the Sabbath morning." And this happened, be it remembered, to a Parliament which the Pi'ess generally described as being so much superior to its predecessor, although in what the superiority consisted noonehs:. ventured to define. Without going info details, as the Dunedin paper has done, there can be no doubt as to the bibulous character of the session, and the fact is the more remarkable from the Premier's abstaining habits. Those who are acquainted with Uew Zealand parliamentary life have seen men at midnight in the House of Eepresentatives, and its lobbies, almost incapable of standing or articulating ; but these exhibitions were not the " open and scandalous drunkenness '• quoted by the Times. The subject is of course unpleasing and degrading, but there is something to be said on the side of the transgressors. Nearly the whole of tke members after the formation of the present Government found themselves like boys at school with nothing to do. Hence they amused themselves with asking questions, and the Government amused them by answering them. Occasionally some one more restive than others, as Mr Seddon, would get up and make a splash in the tame-duck pond, but otherwise its waters were undisturbed. To fill up spare time, excursions were organised, and members were tempted " to go on the spree." " Those who were usefully disposed," were either induced or allowed to bring in bills for discussion to prevent Satan having the charge of their time; but taking the two months as a whole there was nothing for members to do. And for that matter for Ministers either, besides receiving deputations and listening to their wants—always excepting, of course, the Treasurer. He ran the whole machine. He framed all the bills, directed how all the questions should be answered, and did whatever was " right in his own eyes." All that members were asked to do was "whatthey were told." No thought, no projects were wanted from them; the Treasurer could think and project for all. Hence many who were away from their homes took to drink, perhaps for want of "something better to do." They had got disgusted with themselves and with all other things. The end has been that " The Ninth " has been called " The Drunken Parliament."