Our Wellington Watchman.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2607, 26 May 1887, Page 2

Our Wellington Watchman.

Wellington May 25.The Representation Bill, mutilated and emasculated, has .at last passed the third reading. -After much labor the mountain has been'delivered ,of a , .ftost ridiculous- mouse. The ostensible boM of contention, was the pro- / posed' .reduction. in -.the number of representatives, but after carefully < noting' the .various.debates I strained to declare my belief *' -' there are hot three members- in-the who honestly desire any. such . reduction. True,' there-, .were®, several patriots who, when certain the majority was against re* duction, made apparent frantio efforts to reduce. These good, people, however, deceived no one, but they will be able to pose before their constitu- • . ents as economists of the very ..first water. The debates ,on this .Bill were y farcical, the Bill itself is a.farcej and the more I see of our whole system of representation the more .convinced I am that it is the -greatest farce .of all. Another session of-the same sort of representation would convert, nieiftom democracy to autocracy. after night and listen to. twaddle ;and i stupid personalities ;; to perceive-.:, tlio country's time and money . wasted by ' men,-many of whonure mere .carpet baggers, are surely provocations . sufficient to make one sigh for .some antipodean tiromwell, some strong, earnest, man. w}io should ;clear out,, the, gang arid rule us well, and wisely.: jiim- * self. Utra; Radical as I. am, I, varily ' believe that five years , of . rule by. ami honest capable autocrat, would; -p,r£iv?7 the. Salvation of • politician-ridden, lawyer-ridden New Zealand.; ,- |

One of the chief reasons urged against the curtailment of the. number / of Representatives would be tain districts would be totally unrepresented. I make boldto say thaf ono half the country is practically . unrepresented at the present moment. Thero are doubtless quite as.many members'as the country pays for—somewhere, but they certainly aro ■'■ not in the Home, whereevor else they, may be. Excluding tlioao who are rightly or wrongly away on leave, there'; is yet a large number of representatives seldom or never seen m their seats for more than a minuto or two. at a Jtime. On one or two late occasions' jwhen there were important divisions, I lpe been astounded to behold the irruption of a perfect swarm of ephemeraparliamentary insects of the' houvr-i who passed through the Houso&ffltiS like shadowy ghosts, and their votes, and vanished back to | limbo whence they ,came, Where 1 or how these neuroptera hybernate,-: I dg not know sufficient of the natural history of the New Zealand- representative to assert, but I assert a large number of members have not, since the session commenced", done • ope farthing's worth of wprk for their constituents in the House, whatever they may have done in the lobbies or elsewhere. If then the business of the country oan be carried on with abo.ut 60 members' present, and 80 or 40 practically absent, I for one -want, to know why the country should.pay for more than-60. Dr Newman's argument that there would be more roguery in a small than in a large House is a tacit admission by a member of'the House of the sort of material- fio supposes the House to be composed of.

The Dargaville of Dargayille, mem* - ber for Auckland West, made an-ad- k mission the other night in the House, .X which betokens the candour of.-his W great soul. He wasspeating ostensibly on the subject of the Representation Bill, but he soon shelved this, .and went on to speak of a topic of far more interest to himself-i.e., of Mr Dargaville. Mr Dargaville has a pro-, found belief in Mr Dargaville, : arid every time he hears his own . modest voice, thanks his Creator for having created so truly remarkable a person,; He said: —'• I look back with .considerable gratification to one of my votes"—he did notparticularise which," " and I only trespass on the indul' v gence of the House on this occasion a{ my conduct on a previous oootoion was "—this in tones of muffled sor.' row—" misrepresented by the newspapers, and I trust on this oooasion 'y —he paused, wiped 'a tear from, hia 4 eye, and glanced pathetically at the - reporters' gallery—" tlioy will do me ' justice." " Poor follow!" from'the hon, member for Motueka. "My lion friend;" continues Mr Dargaville, - i "says 'poorfellow I' but let ine tell;; V him that I have the greatest' * for (the newspapers—especially,'' ho.;added in a burst of confidence, on ; ' the eve of a general election." ' X

The ingenious Dargayille has go«C reason for regarding the |ouH| with respect, ' for lie received. las£; August from a member thereof a which even lie will probably, to his' day. La'at; large number of the. lion', members-J constituents were not only unemployed ~ but destitute. Telegram after "jote-v gram was dispatched to him ing him to communicate the to the Ministry, b.ufc Davgavilify like Gallia, "cared for nono of these things,' ' His oapaoious intellect was"' ocoupied with the .Waimea Railway and other affairs more congenial than • starving constituents, and the, said . constituents therefore passed a vote of censure on their member, He, |on| returning to Auckland, invited, them IBgß* to meet him at the City Hall, and not* withstanding the strong feeling against; 1 ■ c\ him, wagers were ireely' that Vj Dargaville would " blarney tfie unenj-; ' v ployed into good temper,"; Hp , : .. , ; received with of content, - but,' .-'■!■ ! drawing fed herring after ied Jierchig j* * aoross the scent, had nearly succeeded , t .> i in- bamboozling the "'"intelligent., .- ; | eleotors",. when someone oameon the" •, v-■ platfprm A and asked him whether' it . was true that he had sid to an Auck- v , land reporter just previous to the .. .< solution," lam in scrape wiitomy'• constituents, what I'warit to V the best-way to get 'qui (jf.it," '' r. : - ... b Emphatically,' and with .virtuous ■■ iaiiipatlon,' Mr Dargaville repelled ' the acousation. "Ahl Dargaville," V Bfticlhis'interrogator, "you

• because the reporter is now in Wei- . lington, and cannot come on this platform and contradict you?" A second time, nay a third, like Peter, Dargaville denied. Then a quiet voice was heard behind Mr Dargaville, and that quiet voice said, ."You did say those words sir." It was I have no words lb .TOoli.tb describe the''scene that • more '.dramatic I v: Suffice, it, Jhe. refeter giive a history; of "Mr Dai'ga■.fille's conduct throughout'the session, .The..vote-of censure -was confirmed ; amidst'tumultuous applauso and even •.:: Dargaville, of Dargaville,' Had grace a -.enough .to hang his head as -he crept off the platform. I should think he ,9 < will not have tho hardihood even to V seek re-election for Auckland' West. - • The moral of this story is, that you - never know where a reporter is; if you • ' leave him in Wellington and journey 'to -Auckland the reporter may ho in -■ Auckland before you. There is another, obvious moral already sufli- ;:■ ciently pointed by the biblical narrai live of Ananias and Saphira. *: The" Tomahawk" a now illustrated ;Vi Independent National AYeeMy Journal, •: ; .is shortly to. be published.at • Welling•;>ton,. The paper in question .is, tso lam informed ,to be run on . purely : :'. democratic and non-local lines, 'and is • to. contain ai'tioles. on political, social; theatrical, society, and sporting, mat- • ters. That tliero is room for such- a • i-' paper there can be no doubt, A shoal « of'butterfly journalistic productions ; > '•• have flitted their brief hour at various V"'-times in this cityj but I' have reason JR'" to believe that the Tomahawk will be »v:*..ft:poi'maneiit institution as those who ■■•are conducting it have made their mark in journalism botli in this and in the old country,

'' •* Tho meeting held here on Monday • night in favor of Protection versus : Frfcetrade was stormy. Tins fact was - ■ probably owing to' the presence of v-members of the House of Representa-*-tives, some of whom appear unable to : argue any question without the aid of personalities, Mr Dargaville was -there—poetical and imaginative as • usual; The Wellington people seem . to have : been taken with his gentle '■gush—they do not know Dargaville ■ quite so well as lie is known on his native heath. He spoke of the flower of our youth who were leav- < ing for Victoria." Mr Fisher, M.H.R., -'' With cruel cynicism declared that the i'extent of Mr Dargaville'a interest in ' the : flower of our youth' was represented by the Kaihu Valley Railway ft-which was "one of the swindles of M- 'the-session." Whereupon thcelcgant Dargaville 'gave Mr Fisher the lie direct.

+ ■ - Of course the most diflicult anddebateable subject in all the wide range of political economy my be settled definitely by those kind of arguments, and no doubt gentlemen who call each ■other liars, and other gentlemen who ' flourish walking sticks on public platforms are only educating public •opinion, ( but I confess, howover '••striking such methods may be, I should have preferred more ■in the way of demonstration, and less of mere-bald assortion, It was very kind of Mr Dargaville, of Dargaville, '■arid Mr Hogg of Masterton, to enlighten a Wellington public on the subject of the advantages of protection •and perhaps next time those prophets leave their own district to prophecy in ours, they will equip themselves with \ a little reason, a little logic, and a few vulgar facts and figures,

■ Some facetious person once writing 'of our climate said it was an excbllen climate—for tljo survivors. One o two events which have lately occurret in New Zealand, would tend, I thinii ttf'induce that humorist to alter hi opinion; For instance, the other da' in Wellington, a "survivor"—describet a'a a Trery old man—was sentenced ti men days' imprisonment with hart labor for the heinous offence of shelter irig himself from the hurricane of wine and rain by creeping into some atiav . in l an outhouse. It seems hardli WdNh the trouble of surviving to vcrj old age to find oneself with no refugi but shaw, to be followed by. the hospi tality which a gaol affords, does it 1 sfie tjameis hardly worth the candle, Then again, in Auckland, the otliei <lay. another absurd old man, who was . housed.'at the Kefuge but. had certain fantastic ideas touching cleanliness, cropt down to the sea to wash his . clothes, was followed by an attendant, -1 "rimin," and received three months' w hard labor, To be old and poor is • evidently, of itself an offence in New Zealand, but to be old and poor and to desire to sleep out of the rain, or to be clean, these our modern Solons rightly consider great crimes. Ido not think, V6i6l ut J,P.,l&boQ]d hU to send aji old Wan to clioketi simply because lie hsd'clean; .instincts, Looking at such nff'OM imtin's'grey 'iiairs, and marking the wrinkles which time alid sorrow had drawn iijbft hisfape I niigjit bo temp, tel' tQ : gro\y joft; to. think of own old fattier, and my own coming Old Ago, and might thus be induced to • Jobytho' dreadlul old culprit go i'ree, '■ But'perhaps that Auckland Justice CoVer had a father, or if ho had, never • knoW him, and oo escaped any feelings : of sentimentality. Could not soiue energ'etrM.H.K., bring in a short bill to pole-axe all men over sixty years of age who are poor

£' The people of New Zealand hardly , realise one of the advantage on- ■ joy, theydo notpropertyappreciate-the • e?6§i 8 P speak, ot all great modern Mcial and apolitical ideas are laid in this. Colony, Yet so it is. Within tho past few years a San Franciscan - ( Mr Henry George- has' made a- great stir on the subject of Land Nationalization, anil those who have been attracted by the theory are apt to give Mr ■ George credit for its inception. Tkjs is altogether wrong. The originator . *" of Land Nationalization is our pre- ; 'gent'. Premier,. Sir Robert Stout ' —we have his own word for it. ' So again the other day, when .. the prince of-the Earl of Aberdeen' -in this,r city attracted attention to Home Rule for Ireland, people were incliaed to credit Mr Isaac Butt, an

honest man though a lawyer, with initiating the idea of Homo Rule, Another popular fallacy, for Sir Robert Stout iuformed us he had advocated Home Rule many years ago on a Wellington platform, Sir Robert is moreovor the originator of True Democracy, True Agnosticism, the Representation Bill, and all other great niodem truths, and most likely a nuihber of ancient, ones I should never;be .surprised if he claimed to have framed.:, the declaration of American Independence and. Magna Cliarta, Greece had her Socrates, we have our Stout. .