PARLIAMENTARY .SKETCHES " BY , Our Wellington Watchman.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2615, 4 June 1887, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY .SKETCHES " BY , Our Wellington Watchman.

The Member I will not, to use the words employed by Mr Hobbs in the Souse with regard to the same person—call him tho honorable momber for Auckland City West (Mr Dargaville) lias lately been occupying a considerable portion of the time of the House and country. This patriotic gentleman, as is well known, is accustomed to moult his political feathers at least once if not twice per session. Ho has just accomplished this interesting feat of (his) nature. Ho came down to tho House a few weeks since wearing 'tho draggled plumage of a spoiled Conservative, and is now resplendent in tho borrowed pinions of an overgrown Democratic barn door rooster. Hecrows, he crows continually this ill-omened fowl. He olaps his ■ungainly wings and pecks and spurs at anything he deems weaker than himself. Ho is now a Government supporter, and wlion his lords and masters crows ho mounts-I will not use an unparliamentary oxpression his ■hill and cracks his throat by crowing with tlieni. Last Thursday lie undertook the defouce'of the Village Settlement ikheme—a scheme which has unfortunately been represented' by some shady person. He (Dargaville) is now a Land Nationalizes of the deepost dye. His great mind has grasped the great truth that the "land is the natural birthright of the people." Yes, he said it; Dargaville of Dargaville said it, and a broad smile went round the House, 110 had visited the special settlements, and drew .an idyllic picture of those Arcadia).' Thon ho commenced to attack brother members under the guise of attacking the nowspapers, which last, according to Dargaville, have never done that great man justice, When ; brought to order by the Speaker he squirmed and wriggled as only he knows how to wriggle. I should not have alluded to this camp follower of politics had he not been a perfect nuisance to anyone who desired to .follow the course of a debate. He interrupts every speaker on the Opposition side, and behaves altogether like a Parliamentary Swashbuckler and Mohawk. It is to be hoped that in the next Parliament this admirable gentleman will .be relegated to that obscurity whence' lie should never have emerged,

Tlio lion, member of Mount Ida made, tlio other night, the Speech of the session, so the papers allege, and one of our local papers already speaks in reverent tones of Mr Scobie Mackenzie as a kind of dark horse—a shady Treasurer or Premier—of the future. Perhaps.

Naturally, the debates, lately have been a trifle heated. Major Atkinson has led the attack with a considerable amount of viru; while Sir" Robert Stout's " Sir" " Sir " have become more sneezy than ever, as if some most unpleasant odor were perpetually beneath his nose. The . Government have arranged Messrs Kerr, Seddonand Dargaville to sit together and act as a clique, and there is no doubt they are earning whatever is to be their roward.

Last night Mr Eolleston made a speeoh or rather read us a sermon the most dreary I have ever had the misfortune to bQ compelled to listen to, and it has boon my sad lotjto sit out many most mournful specimens of Oxford bleat and Cambridge drawl, Mr Rolle3ton is I believe an English University man, and -lie is another proof of the melancholy fact that those Universities only turn out one or two decent ; speakers in a century. The truculent Mr Holmes made great fun of Mi 1 ' Eolloaton's effort which he characterized as "several Chapters from the Lamentations of Jeremiah," It was rather amusing to notice how members took ihisEcclesiastical service. Mr Hamlin, evidently accustomed to Church of England usages, snored like the honest English Yeoman, who " thowt parson Bed what he owt to have said," and thou corned away." Mr Hursthouse under an exaggerated idea of the solemnity of the occasion did his snoring surreptitiously. . Mr Fraser, aceustomod by long practice to.sleep gracefully in kirk, and to appear awake did so. Mr Turnb'ull confessed his sins and kept awake. Mr Ormoncl considered himself a miserable sinner, and looked it. Mr Fisher groaned audibly and determined; to becomo a Freethinker for the future and not be betrayed into any edifice.where lie could not lie down,' .Mr"Boss looked good, so good, and glanced round at Mr Sutter like the

Pharisee in the parable at the publican. Mr Downie Stewart prayed all the time in his sad drab hat, and, if he had a secular thought, wondered when his constituents would present him with a new one. Mr Reese thought about rats. Mr Dobson died right out. "Mr Mariana Monk, of the Moated Grange: He will not cease, lie will not cease, he said; I would that I we're dead." Mr Kerr looked as if he wished ' the service .was oyer in order 'that he might get home and pull thou boots off. Mr Bracken was exposing a tune to a sad >blow melody. Mr Seddon, looked as if he were wondering, whether there-was time to go out and scent his breath ere the preacher came to thirtieth and lastly. Mr Wakefield, with peace on his hps and war ill his heart, composed one of those scathing leading articles with which lie constantly and with some effect, smites the Government. . Wednesday, June 1.

During the afternoon stonewalling was the order of the day. Mi 1 Sutter asked for certain returns relative to village settlements, and when tho Hon Mr Ballance promised thoy would be laid oil the tablo shortly, moved tho adjournment of tho. House and entered into an attack of the village settlement scheme, declaring that the employment of Mr John Lundon was a stain upon the character of the Minister who employed him, and that the whole scheme was neither more nor less than a piece of political intrigue. Ha was understood to remark among other things, that Mr Lundon was staying at a hot hell at Government oxpense. Then the House lost itself, and plunged con more into' the subject of John Lundon and settlements. This gave Mr-Hobbs an opportunity he has long been looking for, that is replying to a personal attack levelled by. Dargaville at him the other night. Poor Mr Hobbs has a weak falsetto voice, is nervous and becomos irritable, but he certainly dressed Mr Dargaville down pretty well under the circumstances. Mr Ballance skirted the question of his creature Mr Lundon, but became, for lnm, almost warm on the subject of his pet village scheme, which he modestly declared was the "bost in the whole world," but which the member for Franklyn North subsequently asserted with even greater empremment was the "very worst scheme of sottlomont ever devised in the world." Thus the aftornoon was frittered away.

But to-night the war trumpet Bounded in earnest. Major Atkinson, warmly cheered, rose to attack the Government, and delivered thrust after thrust at Sir Robert and his moribund Ministry. The voice of the loader of the Opposition rang with the stern notes of battlo. .He ceased, and Roberta's Robustus got up iu a whirlwind of wrath, with his sneer, his laugh of the 'anthropomorphic ape"—the last senteuco is Mr Wakefield's not mine, but it expresses the nature of the cachination. After the Premier in a violent physical and montal porapiration had-, seated himself, Mrßryce made a short, sarcastic and telling speech, and him Mr Ballance lamely answered, Then Mr Wakefield, outwardly calm and snrpressed, but with the wild light of com oat raging in his eye took the floor. He was seldom, I should think, heard to better advantage.' As a specimon of his style he stated a certain occurrence which had-previously taken-place in the House, and when the Premier, in the most offensive manner, askod, '• May I enquire at what date ?" "Oh yes, Sir, in 1866. The hou, gentleman had not been discovered in those days, There were Ministers, Sir, in those days—Ministers, Sir, you understand me," During the progress of Mr Wakefield's speech, the able-bodied gentleman who earns liia daily bread by lifting "that bauble" twenty times a week brought in the Representation Bill from the " other place." This created a diversion and much cheering. Mr Wakefield, taking advantage of the occurence, proceeded "The applause with which my remarks wore greeted," thereby ovoking immense applause and laughter. The Member for Selwyn accused Ministers | of having done everything in their power to retard the passing ?of the Representation Bill, and this accusation ho continually re-iterated, and it was not denied. He declared that the Govoriimant had abandoned overy proposal thoy had ever made, that they had never had a real majority in the House, He admitted that Sir Julius Vogel had ever been a consistent Conservative. He (Mr Wakefiold) had himself always been a Conservative, was flshamod to say so nowhere, and had never professed to be a Radical, The idea of the so-called Coalition between the Treasurer and Premier he uusparingly ridiculed, and showed how thoy had stumped the Country—one at either end—propounding precisely opposite principles, He then turned his attention to tho Minister ot Lands and his boast that his system of prepetual leases in village settlements was tho best in the whole world. Mr Wakefield, with allusion to the Pampering of Mr Balance's settlers, recounted his early difficulties in the Colony, and declared that many a time he went down to tho sea and drunk salt water. (Sir Robert laughed the hyona laugh)," Yos," said Mr Wakefiold, the Hon the Premier laughs but it is the laugh "ignoranco." But now, he asserted, Mr Ballance's Village settlers had to have Government steamers to carry their pianos to tbem. But I cannot' do Mr Wakefield's effort justice, I detest his political principles but am forced to admit that his speech was that of an educated man and by far the best I have ever heard in the House, and that tho Premior was damaged by it.