PARLIAMENTARY.

Observer, Volume 4, Issue 94, 1 July 1882, Page 252

PARLIAMENTARY.

(by telegkraph.) From Otje Special Cokeespondent. OVER THE SPEAKER'S CHAIR. Wellington, Thursday. —Dick Deadeye has taken to boss Gillon. — Joe Ivess, in Parliament, is like the fly in amber. — There is no doubt but that the Government are in a majority. — I -will make one conditional prophesy. If the Opposition combine, we shall hare a long session. — Last Monday's Times had three columns of Atkinson's figures. Fancy that for lighb reading. — Pollen has come out os the champion of the rights of the people. , — It is not generally known that Rblleston -went to the Opposition caucus held on the 21sfc of this month, but he did. — Undor the Peace Preservation Bill, Colonel Brett said, " Let Te Whiti and Tohu be tried and be hanged." Such is Legislative Council simplicity. — I hear of a Civil servant having abused a member, who moved that his salary should be .reduced £25 a-year. It took place in the lobby. — Rou9 Marten, in the Post, claims to have invented State Assurance, and to have made Atkinson adopt the invention. — The Williainsons lost £500 in Wellington playing "Patience" — until their patience was played out. — Whitmore said in the Council the other day that Dillon Bell's speeches were so long that he always forgot what their beginning was like. — The Observes people had better back Kennedy for the Governorship rather than Strahan. Robinson would come back if the chaffers would keep quiet. — I notice at times in the Ladies' Gallery a darnosel writing shorthand. . What a match, she would have made for a newspaper man — if she would avoid babies. — Gordon's Ministry one day wanted his Excellency's signature in a hurry. When lie was informed of their haste he said, "Do they thiuk I am a stamp ?" I would have given a good sum to have known his thoughts ns he was steaming out of the harbour, and leaving New Zealand for ever. — Pharazyn has a bill to whitewash, himself which he hox^es to pass through the Council. He remarked that if he could not do so he would blow his brains out, whereat an evil-minded, member of the Lower House said, " The old man must be a devilish good shot if he does not miss the mark." — This advertisement can now go in the Observer: — "Wanted, — A Colonial Governor; duties light; pay good." The fact is that good men will not come, and. do not care for Governorships. While Responsible Government exis+s they have nothing to do but be " stammers." —I noticed in one of the reports of the Native Affairs Committee, signed by that military man, Kurnle Trimble, that the petitioners (natives) had sold their lands " several generations since." Now, reniein bering that Hori Tupae, who lately died at Tauranga, saw Captain Cook in the flesh, it seems pertinent to inquire the duration of a Maori generation, and who was the first missionary here, because he must have been the purchaser. — I could not go and hear Dai'gaville's speech on finance, but believe he made a good, speech, because Ministers are loudly asserting there was nothing in it. Sir George Grey said, however, that ib was an excellent speech. The Post announced a no-confidence motion to be coming on, so Dargaville had a full house ; but on the following day the Post said the party had changed its mind. The truth is no such thing was thought of, it only being a fabrication of what Jock iised to call " the Evening Ananias." — On Friday morning last, that distinguished public benefactor from Tauranga, George Vesey Stewart, put in an appearance here. The same morning the following Association telegram appeared in the N.Z. Tivies, and most probably in every other morning paper in New Zealand: — "Tanranga, June 22. — Not a single application was made for rural lands at Pukeroa on Wednesday on deferred x>nyments. Twelve thousand pounds was offered to the Government for 12,000 acres some twelve months ago by llr Vesey Stewart, and declined. Had the offer been accepted, the block by the present time would have been settled' upon, as Te Puke, by thriving, well-to-do English farmers." What the people here want to know is, who sent the wire from Tauranga so nicely timed ? Tbe curious are asking how was the Association tlras worked ? - — Green, of Dunedin, preaches in the Torystreet Theatre on Sunday evenings. I went to hear him last Sunday evening for half-an-hour, but prefer him on the stump to the platform. Ho had a goodaiidience, and was well listened to, although he gave the people who heard him only the husks of Christianity to feed on. He only talked about things, not of them. He diifered from Christ and Hfs Chur2h in making the ministry assume the functions and duties of the Holy Ghost. What made me go and hear him was the following anecdote— whether true or not I don't know, but it ought to be true :— Walking with Stout, and disputing about the incarnation of Christ, they came across some ants busy at work. ' Green said — " If you wanted to communicate with these ants, how would you do it ?" Stout; either with or without thinking, beyond saying something smart, replied, "Why, become an ant myself, if I could." "Exactly so," said Green, " and that is what our Maker did when He wanted to communicate with us." I thought a man of whom this was related might have other pearls to throw away, but Stout appeared, after the fashion of lawyers generally, to have stripped his companion naked.