PARLIAMENTARY

Observer, Volume 2, Issue 41, 25 June 1881, Page 453

PARLIAMENTARY

+ OVER THE SPEAKER'S CHAIR. BY HLECTBIC TFLEGRAPH.. (FROM, OUR OWN COB RESPONDENT.) . Wellington, Thursday. The Parnell Amendment.— No one knew that it was coming on, although Moss told Lundon that he had a shot to fire. "Blaze away," quoth Jack, and Moss did so. He took hold of the side issue that came out of Grey's

speech. . The funniest thing in the whole debate was the assertion of Moss that lie was not a party man, that there were no parties in the House, and that this was not a party question. Moss knew not what to do on finding himself in this position of difficulty, and this action of Moss "betrays the failure of his political life. He cannot stand upright without something to lean against, or walk without crutches. The man who is afraid to divide the House on a question involving principle or the public welfare, if he get a teller beside himself, will never lead men unless into disaster. On several things most men in the House are agreed, viz., that centralism has to be broken up, that the abolition of the provinces was a mistake, and that some form of local government will have to take the place of the county and road board systems. When Bunny said the county system was a failure, only one man in the House gainsayed the statement — Hirst, the member for Wallace, who is wholly incapable of judging in a matter of this sort. Grey and Macandrew went home after the adjournment at 'half-past ten, leaving the younger men to guard and watcli over the Government. When it was_ definitely known that there would be no division, and Moss asked to withdraw his amendment, the Premier became cheery and cheeky, would allow no withdrawal, and went to bed with a light heart and a contented mind, little knowing what the morrow woiild produce. Yet the cry on almost each man's lips was "Give us back local government ;" and what lends complexity to the cry is that Rolleston and Dick utter the same plaint within as Grey and Macandrew and others make without, the camp. Ministers found out, as soon as Grey opened his mouth about local government, the mistake they had made in not including it in their sessional bill of fare. It was understood that Ormond intended to bring down a similar motion, but Moss knew nothing of Orniond's

intention —an intention Ormond afterwards disclaimed to his friends. Had Ormond have done so, and had the motion been pressed to a division, the outcome might have been a Ministerial defeat, and led to Ormond being sent for. Now Grey would rather keep Atkinson in than see Ormond in office. The Elective Licensing Board.— l was sitting in the gallery when the time came for this business to come on, about a quarter to ten on Friday evening, by the side of G. M. Reid. Some few knew what was to be attempted. The Premier did, and so did Rolleston,and Atkinson cared not, I am told ; but the principle of local government obtained the fullest affirmation. The doom of centralism was announced, and the hopes of the temperance party were highly gratified. The Templars could not have done the thing, though they had recruits from all sides of the House, while the Opposition had to "gang warily" to bring the thing to pass. Grey kept in the background, concealing his vast delight. In one single, silent bound the Legislature passed all other Legislature in the empire, and affirmed that the liquor traffic should be placed under the control of the people. Bastings was put up to arrange the matter, and he carried the movement through splendidly. When the numbers were announced, Hall walked out of the House in unconcealed disgust with the knowledge rankling in his mind that during his term of office the change had taken place, and that the man who drank his pot of beer would in future have the power of determining who should have the power of selling it to him, instead of the Ministry of the day by order of the Governor-in-Council. In this amendment the people have already gained more perhaps than abolition took away from them. That the Lords will be sought to be worked upon to throw the clause out is certain, as the banking

interest is mixed up with the beer selling, and the banking interest cannot be imagined to sutler in the hands of Councillors. Friday evening last, however, was an historic time. It was not a party victory, nor was it made a party question. It means far more than this.

I am told that the expenses of the Greymouth contest amounted to £500 per man, and that the Premier paid those of the defeated candidate. When Fitzgerald stood against Seymour George for Hokitika, and was defeated, the expenses of the present memher for Rodney exceeded £1200. Vincent Pyke occasionally says a thing in familiar conversation deserving of wide publicity. I was walking down Molesworthstreet with the junior member for Timaru, when, just after passing the gate of Government House, we met the chairman of Vincent County. After the usual salutations had taken place when men well acquainted with each other meet after a longer or shorter absence, Jones said, ' ' Where is G. M. Reed to be found ? — he came up in the boat with you." Pyke — ' ' I left him on the wharf, seated on a stump, explaining the principles of pure democracy to George McLean." "Did McLean," I asked, ' ' understand them ?" Pyke— ' ' McLean understands no principles which bear no interest." There are two men in the House who have been called "The People's William"— the Native Minister and the Mayor of Wellington. They are both good men, with this difference — Mr Hutclrinson is a pious man, Mr Rolleston is not. When Mr Hutchinson, the other day, was talking about Mr Sheehan being late for the steamer, he said confidentially to the House, looking wise as he did so, "Indeed Mr Sheehan was always late." When I remembered that the Presbyterian form of godli-

ness was the particular religious fermented elixir of life his Worship had exposed from his youth upwards, I inquired of a Scotchman in the House whether malevolence and Presbyterianism were convertable terms, and he said " "Very nearly so." The member for Newton thinks every man petitioning the House for the redress of any grievance, unless he has mighty political influence on both sides, is a fool. I heartily endorse the opinion. The Middle Party is all head, and is lookingfor and hoping to find a tail. 1 should decline! The most boorish man in the House is the member for Motueka, Hursthouse. He has the intolerable and costermonger habit of seeking to embarrass speakers when they make a point against his party, sprawling at full length on a couch and indulging frequently in a hoarse guffaw or an ironical "hear, hear.' This was especially noticeable when the member for Mount Ida was speaking on the Charitable Aid Bill on its second reading. Ido not think Hursthouse knows any better. Bred in the Colony, learning the usages of society in a tap-room or bar-parlour, no visible refinement of manner or action could be expected from him. Were a horse wanted to be broken in, a fence mended, a barmaid to be chaffed or spooned, or a pair of pants to be made out of a guano bag, why Mr Hursthouse would understand all about the matter. I have never seen any other Legislature where they applaud speakers by clapping their hands as they do at Wellington. A triple combination will be formed against the clause in the Licensing Bill making the Licensing Boards elective. The combination will be composed of the beer, bible, and banking interest. The best speech delivered on the amendment made by Moss was that of Lundon. I thought a\ hen I heard it, but I am certain of it when I have read through the proof, that there is more practical aud sound wisdom in it than in all the speeches delivered on the same subject. Wakefield, and many others who do not like John, complimented him on his spontaneous effort after its conclusion, and, strange to say, Lundon thought he had made a failure. Colonel Trimble, I am told, will be opposed at the next election by Major Brown, when it will be seen to whom the Liberal interest will be given. When the discussion on the Hospital and Charitable Aids Bill came on in the House. I was reminded of a circumstance happening not long since in a country hospital. A young woman was delivered of a male child. She was there, because her husband had met with an accident, and had been admitted as a patient. The man died the day before his child was born, which was some twelve months after their marriage. They were both foreigners ; he came from Piedmont, she was born in Sedan. A day or two after the man was buried, _ the child was found in the morning dead likewise. Pie was supposed to have been smothered in the night, but his death was caused by an overdose of laudnaum administered by the matron of the hospital The story in my mind caused this reflection : did the doctor, who knew the cause of the child's death, actually allow it to be buried without enquiry. The thing happened a few months since, and in this provincial district. On the safest authority, I am told that the condition of the Nelson asylum is even worse than the asylum at Wellington ever has been. If any person^ is. anxious to know what Sir George Grey's ideas of local government are, let them hunt up a copy of the charter he drafted and printed long since. A ex-Minister tells me that each day a new point will grow on the Middle Party, and I hear that, by the 'Frisco mail, the Governor wrote another dispatch to the Imperial, authorities on the Maori prisoners business. The member who beat Richmond for Nelson suburbs is a Dane, the first we have had in Parliament. Von der Heyde was a Hollander, and the last man is from Bremen, and, writing from memory, these are the only aliens I remember in the House save Driver, who hails from the States. The speech of the man from Copenhagen does not betray him. His father Avasthe Court doctor to theDanishßoyal family. He has one brother a minister in the Danish church, and another had obtained celebrity as an explorer for the Danish Government. The • man in the House is the youngest son of a large family. The eldest son is the present Chief Judge of Denmark. lam told by one of his country men, the member for Nelson suburbs was educated as a mechanical engineer, and came to New Zealand as second engineer of the Airdale, when he was under twenty years of age. His career in this life was cut short by the loss of gold, which took place on board the Airdale, at the Nelson wharf, in 1863. The Gold was found suspended from the vessels side by a rope. The chief engineer, who was discharged at the same time as Levestam, settled with his second in Nelson. Since that period Levestam has been engaged erecting mills in Nelson, Marlborough, and Westland. He was lately the Government Inspector of Machinery until he got into a row with Nancarrow, whom he told that it was requsite that he should go to school and get some glimmering of mathematics and learn the outlines of his business. He married in Nelson, and has added to the population of the country. He speaks our language without the idiom or the precision a foreigner generally acquires. A short, thick, self-possessed, modest man he appears to be. Seymour George has come to be fattened up. He has been half starved in Auckland apparently. Legal opinion will be taken in Victoria, and probably New South Wales, as to the title of large areas of Crown granted land in the Wai- ■ kato, on the grounds that when the Court sat there and adjudicated on ownerships in 1867 and. 1868 there were a large number of owners who were not present at the Court. The claims of the absentees being based on the Native Rights Act, 1865, it has been considered that a more unbiassed opinion can be got of that . in New Zealand. Should the opinion given be favourable to the soundness of the claims, money in abundance will be found for their prosecution.