WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 273, 12 April 1898, Page 3

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[FKOIt OUK OWN COIUiKSrONDKNTI. Wellington, April 1. MINISTERIAL AMENITIES. Although the radical portion of the community affects to behove that Her Majesty's npresentative in I lie co'ony is a mere figure head ami that his salary anil tho maintenance of Government House would he better spent or. the co-operative painters or navvies of Wellington, Lord Kanfurly himself at Mas terton assured those prfs<mt that although the duties of a Governor were not regular* when they did come upon him there was simply one mass of work. Apart from what he may consider wo;k, it mm>t be admitted that a tour through the colony and the presentation of, and reply to, the loyal addresses is apt to prove a bore. And when those who were present at the opening of the last session and witnessed the fortitude with which lie worked his way through tlvit dreary wilderness of atrocious English, the Queen's speech, it must be conceded that Lord Ranfurly has pluck and staying power, which is more than can be said of his Prime Minister who prepared the speech, but who later on funked at the reading of his own Budget, which he simply threw on tho table of the House. One of the uses of a Governor is to keep up the old country traditions of Government, cf the etiquette and courtesies practised between the Queeu, her Ministers and her people. We, being democratic, ignore those which would look r'diculous in a new country, but there are others which apply to any age or couutrj—they distinguish the man of cultivation from the boor. Among those unwritten laws which are so easily grasped is one which forbids any Minister while acting the part, of a courier to the Governor to make any party speeches. But Mr Scddon holds himself above all such foolishness. He accompanied His Excellency this wet k to Hawke'3 Bay, and being distinctly in the eHemy's countiy he determined to give the Hawko's Bay people his version of the condition of affairs as bearing upon the awful change which has come over public feeling with regard to the Liberal leaders. Tha announcement was no sooner made than it was countermanded, so to say, on account of " other arrangements.'' These arrangements it is understood consisted of a very direct snub from the Queen's representative to the effect that he did not want to put on any undue side, but he must draw the Hue somewhere, and that was at travelling in company with a I'ren.ier who was lost to all sense of decency. A LIBERAL DEFICIT.

And while our boastful Treasurer is telling of half a million t c surplus with one breath, and of his ncecis for two millions with the next to carry on with, there is desolation in the camp iu YVellintlton. The election being over, the Liberal Election Committee advertised for all accounts to be sent in. This appeal was responded to promptly, and when the total was made up it took the committee's breath away. When the duel first commenced Mr Duthie, in his opening speech, rjaid that a candidate was bound down by a law made by the present Government not to spend £2OO. He thought that if a caudidate got through a fight in Wellington for that sum, that it was cheap, especially if he were successful. As he paid no canvassers and as his committees and even his Secretary worked for the love of the game, it is possible that he succeeded in keeping within the legal limit. But the other fellows, on totting up the bills referred to above find that somewhere in the neighbourhood of £4OO will have to be found to liquidate the claims of those who stood by Mr Seddou iu the memorable fight. That committee is considering whether repudiation, liquidation or an art union is the best way nut of their difficulties. . Meantime, it is hardly safe to hint remotely to any member of that committee that the Liberal Government passed the Bill which enables the working man to enter Parliament. * RETURNS. Better late than never, and it was a co-incidence perhaps, that several returns of public expenditure up to March 31st, 1597, should come to hand ou March 31st, 1898. Among them is one giving the particulars of expenditure of the native vote for sick and indigent natives. This in the previous year in a large measure was spent in the expenses of Messrs Seddon and Carroll's trip to Uriwcra. This year Mr Carroll has been doing a good deal of visitation of the sick again, for £248 was drawn by him and his retinue ou various pretexts. Just at present both he aud his chief are again among the natives they profess to love so well, and another big slice will be taken out of the indigent vote again. The object of this visit appeals to be partly to assist at a great native banquet aud partly to arrange a new native land law. Every year since 1894 has produced a Native Land Act, and it would seem from the present proceedings that they must have all been failures, else why this measure which is iuteuded to revolutionise land dealings. As for the banquet, a visitor has been taking stock, and reports that tons upon tons of potatoes, 50 fat bullocks, pigs ad lib, and a large stock of highly-flavoured dried shark, is on the spot, and that a ball was held at which the hat was sent round and £7B collected to prop«rly entertain the Premier on his arrival. This looks a mean sum when compared with what the British taxpayers paid to entertain the Colonial Premiers ; but seeing that uo liquor is allowed up that way, it i 3 just possible that the Ministerial party will manage to wo r ry along on the pigs, dried shark, and £7B. THE LEFT WING. " Lord, gie us a good coneeit o' ourselves '' has an application to people outside Scotland. Mr T. E. Taylor has addressed the people of Invercarcill on the political aspect of affairs, aud can see uo hope for New Zealand with Mr Seddon in power, and there was no honesty in the Opposition. The only possible salvation for the colony was through the abolition of the Upper House, substituting the Referendum for it, and handing over the administration of the affairs of the State to the Left Wing. That is how the speech reads when condensed. Mr Taylor is the queerest compound of earnestness and inconsistency I hat has yet floated into prominence. He supported Mr Duthie in the late struggle a few weeks aco, and yet i ays now of him, " Personally he regarded Mr Duthie as a spent force in politics. His only qualification was a sound knowledge ol finance ; apart from that he was the veriest fossil." Mr Taylor's views will probably alter when he hears this fossil on land settlement, a subject he has endeavoured, vaiuly it is true, to educate Mr John McKenzie o.i for years. The operation of the labour laws and the tariff are matters he knows more of than Tommy is likely to know for another ten year 3, and as some one will have to tackle the Bank of New Zealand, it must be conceded that a 3 Mr Duthie's action aud protests iu the last Parliament have been fully justified by subsequent events, he may be accorded a knowledge superior to even Mr Taylor's, and the same may indeed be said of all prominent subjects. Here is how he puts forth the claims of his "party": "He belieted the time was ripe for those men in the House who were opposed to gambling and drink, who believed that the land policy should be a lotrical policy. . . The time was ripe for these men to form a separate party and, acting as a wedge, split the existing parties in two, and for a time govern the colony as though it belonged to the people and not to a batch of politicians." After this wc may hope to hear from Mr Pirani.