WELLINGTON NOTES

Waikato Argus, Volume I, Issue 42, 15 October 1896, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES

[rr.cor orrn own connEsroNnENT j. "Wellington, October S. THR FINAL RUSH. After 17 weeks of prod : gd wrangling over IGO Kills, half of which have been dropped, and the ot'ier Inlf chiefly kicked out, contemptuously l>y the Upper House, .Ministers are keeping members' noses to the grindstone night and day, despite Right Hours Acts, an I other restrictive lobulation for Hie wdl being of humanity. Hut when Mr Soddon is on the job, and tucks in his shirt for work he gets through a great deal in an amazingly short time. Km- instanc-, the Public Works Estimates involving an expemlituie of £1,113 M(>l w lit through at a sitting. Under former slower-moving administrations such a feat woidd have been cons Mered impossible. Thej, old fogies that they were, expected the Public \Vo:ks Statement to be one of the first pipers presented to them. They used to have it for a week to study, and analyse ; members used to compare the proposed expenditure in various electorates, and if it appeared that one district was being starved ami another was having some suspicious polithal job perpetrated in it there wou'd ensue a debate lasting over days—perhaps weeks—ami compromises would be made and everything rectified more or less. Bat under the present rule all

this is changed. Mr Seddon rules, and there is a world of meaning in that one tremendous fact. His system is simplicity itself. He s'mply keeps this most important of all State papers up his sleeve until he has exhausted the patience and endurance of Parliament, then throws it on the table at 3 o'clock in the morning, and passes the lot through at the next sitting. If objections are raised to some pa'pable favours to particular districts the majority is brought to bear, and tint irresistible force docs as he wills. Only one item was struck out—a vote of £2OOO for a railway the Lawrence - Roxburgh, which was not even sanctioned by Parliament. Sir Robert Stout succeeded in doing this, and h : s success is only a failure after all. Tlrs political railway is in Mr Lnruach's electorate. Mr Larnach has a mind of .his own —sometini's, and thereby hangs a tale. It has been no secret that Ministers are very anxious to put another Bank Bill through before the House rises. What its provisions are have not altogether transpired, but it is known that there is much anxiety to shield the martyr Ward from the terrors of the Supreme Court, to say nothing of some qitni/tfttin high ollicials in the Colonial Bank. Those who have waded through the evidence given before Judge Williams and the Upper House Committee will have some idea of what is in store if these brilliant financiers and operators in non-existent oats come before the majesty of the law. This Hill has net been brought down for the simple reason that a careful counting of noses indicated but too surely that the House would not swallow it, but so close was the count that one vote was deemed snlFicient to make it go through. Mr Larnach was against the Bill, as well he might be judging by his caustic evidence before tin: Bank Committee. But the excision rf the £200(1 vote for a railway in his j art of the colony had an inllience. The Premier, who is so vigorous an advocate of the right of majorities to rule when it suits him, intends to ignore the vote of the majority as to the Roxburgh railway. He and Mr Larnach have swapped horses. Mr Seddon says, " I will put this £2OOO on the Supplementary Estimates and whip up a majority if you wid vote for my Bank Bill.'' " It's a bargain." s lys Mr L n n.ich, ai 1 so the Bill is to be brought down. But putting it through is not going to be child's play. There are ructions ahead, and as the Bill is the natural sequence of the Rushing-up Committee, there will be some vcy straight talk Should the Bill pass, the truth regarding the Bulking legislation will be smothered for a time, and a few people in high places be' permitted to stiil roam at large ; but as an application for taking evidence comes before Judge Williams here to-morrow, delays are dangerous. A TYPICAL LIBERAL.

Mr P. J. O'Regau, M.H.R., who by a strange turn of the wheel of fortune evolved from being a raw youth, whose career had been heretofore devoted to a small pateh of hush land in a remote part of the Inangahua, to a full-blown legislator, has pub ished a lengthy address to the ladies and gentlemen of Rullcr. The amazing feature of tins appeal is that, although very wordy, it contains no mention of the .Single Tax, of which the O'Regau has been the prophet and lecturer since he developed a moustache, neither is there a word concerning Liberalism, nor is tho mine of Seddon mentioned, not even a hint at our ever growing debt and our mal administration. This young man, with a deep voice and a pair of hands of abnormal s'ze, not only draws his £'2o per month, but is, as are the Hon Richard Reeves and Mr Rowdy McKcnzie, a member of the West port Harbour Roird, and draws liberal fees and travelling expenses as such out of the money borrowed to carry on that body. These three professional politicians are all worshippers at this shrine of Saint Seddon, as is natural, hut the two who are seeking re election find it better not to own it just now, —heucu the omission of their master's tuune from the election bulletins. Like all others of the p.acty, they call themselves Independents. This word has a better sound, but it. means Seddonism all the same. The O'Regau has some patent old ige pension scheme up his sleeve by which all persons over (i() years of age are to be paid 10s per week by the State without any further taxation, but as Mr Seddon threw his Bill out when ho found by consultation with his officials that it would cost over Co" 00,000 a year, it is hard to guess bow the shallow intelligence of the young man from the coast is going to work the oracle, lie falls foul of the author of these notes, whom be stigmatises as a " hired writer," because your own correspondent m-n tioncd some time ago that a Conservative candidate would contest the Bnller seat. The O'Regau evidently possos.-cs the idea that journalists should not le paid for their work, that working materials cost nothing and they get their postage stamps free. His attitude towards tiie Press is easily understood. He tiied to becoine a journalist himself on the Catholic Times when Evison was running it. The O'Regau estimated his abilities as being far superior to those of the very capable individual who was both manager and Editor, and asserted his superiority after a feu - days on the stall'. Evision promptly fired him out and then the O'Regau took to lecturing on Singh..' Tax and Liberalism. lie has dropped both these planks now and is a candidate with no other views except a continuance of the .L'2() per mc nth. He maybe taken as a type lor more than half the covetous would-be labour leaders now ottering themselves as political doctors. New Zealand has had a surfeit of them and the sinful manner in which votes have been openly bought by the party in power ought to be a lesson to tin: people of the colony iu the contest so near. Political rest and time to see win re we are and what has been done by Seddon and Co. during the past year is more to be desired than more mischievous Bills.