PARLIAMENTARY .

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 89, 27 May 1882, Page 172

PARLIAMENTARY .

(by telegbaph.)

From Oxtb Special Coerespondfut,

OVER THE SPEAKER'S CHAIR,

Wellington, Thursday.

— Members complain that no copies of the Observer are sent to the General Assembly library. — People here -wonder who composed the sixth paragraph of the Governor's speech. — Peacock spoke fluently and well, and Rutherford is an improvement to Murray. — Fish, of Dunedin, expected to be made Minister of Public Works, and he is not even on the Public Accounts Committee. — Bryce . turned very sulky about the charges in the Times, sent to the Herald, as to the causes of his intended resignation, — One would think from the manner Bargaville assumos towards Sir George Grey that he thinks the dear Maliu's business quite forgotten. , — Rous Marten has a swelled head, abcess, or lock-jaw. I don't know which is correct. He says it is a punishment from Heaven for tho " whoppers *' he sent to the Herald. — Hurst came down in a new suit of clothes — loud pattern, inch squares, in black on a grey ground. It was a sign, people said, that he would gOon +he square in 1 the future, if he could. , — Sir G-. M. O'Eorke said the funniest thing in returning thanks for his election as Speaker I have heard for a long time. The substance was that no j>ersou desired a return to provincialism. — Atkinson, in his dealing with the House as yot reminds one of the passages in "A Midsummer Night's Dream," " I will roar you as gently ac any sucking dove, I will roar you as 'twere any nightingale." — Last week a female patient in the Wellington Asylum came down town with a male cousin to have her portrait taken. Neither of the cousins nor the portrait have siDce been seen. — People here want to know whether there is' any relationship between Bryce and. Berry, or likely to be, because the Herald so warmly espoused his policy and vindicated his illegal action. , . •. ' — When Bryce and Atkinson left Matanaata in a hurry, the story runs that a Southern man wired to Bryce to know why he left in such a haste. The answer was " J. C. Firth wanted three of us to sleep in one bed." — It is proposed that the new members should wear frontlets or be branded with red ochre on the, forehead, in order to be known by the press and each other. One good man who professed to know tho new men very well says there are many Seddons in the list. — Bracken tells me there was no truth whatever in the lying telegram from Dunedin, which appeared in the papers, about the Dunedin Herald being wound up. It was only a hope expressed by one bank paper to another. • — Hursthouse was elected an opponent of the Hall Government, and only on this ticket with much exertion. The Hall Government having gone out of existence he finds himself, it is said, at liberty to support that of Whitaker — It was the new suit of clothes which turned the scales in Hurst's behalf for the Chairmanship. He also pointed to his large majority, and said he was the choice of the people, when he was told "So was Barrabas." — I was shewn a letter from Bradlaugh to a Wellington resident. What its contents were matters not. Suffice it to say there was no eulogy on John Bryce. But what took my attention was the signature " Bradlaugh," nothing more than the free man apoing the peer. — Wellington people take exception to the Governor's wife calling herself "Lady Hamilton Gordon," wanting, they say, to make out that she was Lady Hamilton before she was married. In fact, the people in ihe Empire City have the same affection for Sir Arthur that the King natives have for John Bryce. — It is stated here that when Dargaville went South he told Southern members that he could command fire votes besides his own if he were made a Minister. In the event of the Government changing harids the/ votes he could gain were Hurst, Swanson, DoLatour, McDonald and Mitchelson. So censorious is man when in a jealous mood. — Orombie Browne has come into a fortune — so he says ; but Dunningham states the Eussians have no regard for the truth, and Browne's name may have ended with a " sky "or a " schoff." It is always pleasing, however, to see a Press man get out of the hands of Jews and money-lenders, and the purlieus of insolvency. • ' — The Wellington people have been in awful ' funks about the Dunedin colts motion to shift the Seat of Government. The old stagers regard it as a Peers' training ground for tho colts to take a preliminary canter on. The idea emanated from Shrimski some years since to shift to Christchurch in order that he could go to Oamaru on Saturdays. — The Union Steam Shipping Company is in a bad way, and Peter Denny should look closely into, its affairs; I found out this important fact in this way : I had to pay for my passage on board the Penguin by cheque, and was charged one shilling exchange. On expostulating about this great extortion of this Scotch Company, I was told the shilling helped to pay the dividend. The Penguin was not this time over-crowded. —Rev. Mr iGrreen, Southern member, interviewed Te Whiti and Tohu at Lyttelton, and Eichmond Beetham, acting as interpreter, explained that Green was a meinbor of Parliament and minister as well, whereupon Te Whiti wanted to know why he was in custody. The explanation came that Mr Green was a minister of the gospel and not of the Crown, a dual calling of priest ana politician. Te Whiti could not understand. — The last description of the late Mayor of Wellington is that " ho is a man always ready to trade with other men's money or brains." He is trying to rat from Grey. Now, men who would sell a king or a queen, like a bowl of meal, would not be expected to pay heed to principle. It is this trait in the Scotch, character which has quadrupled Scotland's wealth these last forty years. The people turn everything into gold they touch, Wm. Hutchinson imposed on a credulous people for sometime, but those who knew him best swore he was only another Vicar of Bray.