Our Wellington Watchman.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2624, 15 June 1887, Page 2

Our Wellington Watchman.

Wellington, June U, Tho parliamentary session-of 1887 quietly fizzled out on Friday. It Ims died lor its country's good; and sure, as every schoolboy knowK, l; It is sweet and glorious to dio for one's country," A good many of the members of this Parliament are, let us trust, politically dead. They will never be missed, Many of them have gone to their homes, but some of the patriots hang round Wellington, reluctant to leave the sceno of their inglorious triumphs, and conscious, perhaps, that they look their last, in the capacity of.senators, upon the Empire City. The Government banquet last Thursday was a I pretty tamo affair, notwithstanding the witticisms contained on tho mem, on which tbo noble patriots had insulted their political antagonists in execrable French and worse taste. But the only ilea of party warfare appears to be coarse abuse, and nine-tenths of the country's timo has, during the past session, been consumed in mean, personal quarrels, However, "hope springeth eternal in the human breast," and lot us hope next session wo may havo a now and better lot. Suroly in a country like this there must be men who would work honostly for New Zealand, and it is the bonnden duty of men with capacity and probity to como forward at this pinch, when such men are most urgently required. " Land Nationalization" and " Protection" may perhaps be splendid election shiboleths, but election shrieks will not save a people from poverty, and any observant psrson must see that hard times are ahead unless our finances aro most skilfully handled, The truth is, the mass of the people take as yet (though there is an improvement on this point) littlo real interest in politics, and permit, in a careless good nafcuied way, any smooth spoken humbug to gull them with their eyes open. With regard to your two members, Messrs Beetham and Buchanan, with whom, personally, I havo not tho smallest acquaintance, I am bound to say that from what I havo observed of their conduct in the House, I think Wairarapa is as well represented as any constituency in the colony, I belong to no political party and I hold it to be the duty ol'-a correspondent to belong to none, but to writo of men and things as ho truly sees them. This I havo endeavored to do without fear or. prejudice, and consequently I have nothing to say but what is good of the Wairarapa members. Tho -much advertised " Protection" . meeting,—or rathor the first Government'' Protecttioneleofcion scare—duly came.'off in the Opera House on Saturday night,

Thore was a large audienco and a fair show of the fairer sex. {[That the meeting was a purely Government one was evident from several facts, The chief speakers were Messrs Ballance and Bracken, and several sido attacks were made at George Fisher who was not invited, though a Protectionist, and the member for Wellington South Now I Lave no word to said against Protection ititheabstriict,.but I dq. protest, against protection beips made the rallying cry for party intrigue. Mr Ballance • professes now to.be a protectionist, but how about Sir Bobert Stout 1 He js certainly a Freetrader., Are we threatened with another divided cabinet 1 However this is riot .describing the meeting.. Mr Kennedy Macdonald took the chair, andl-am not going to say made • a bad Chairman, He was dressed in his very best auctioneer's manner and a large smile. He only revealed the original Satan within him when the cheerful'larrikins at the back showed a marked desire to participate in the proceedings—which they occasionally did. Then Kennedy's ample beam went out, and he talked about" chucking out" in a very large maimer lor so snail a man. If Mr M. moans to take' a part—and I think he does—in local political warfare, he must loam to possess that fiery soul of his in patience. Ho cannot knock an adversary down as he does a lot of raw hides.- About fifteen able-bodied men graced, the stage looking more or less uncomfortable, and some of them stole in after the mysterous manner of the liwt heavy robber in a play. Mr Ballanco and Bracken were, as before said there. Messrs Luke, Dransfield, Smith llobortson, and some more, including a Salvation Army Brigadier General who, by the way, made about the best speech of the lot.

Mrßallance, looking vory nervous —for Ballance is a bad public ''speaker unless quite sure of a favorable audience—jtroj)o3ed the first resolution, the formation of a '"'New Zealand Industrial Protection Association." He opined the. movement for protection should be carried by a system of federation rather than centralization. He was magnanimous enough to say that he did not suppose the arguments were all on one side" of the question, but the inference was that the Freetrader was a very inferior sort of animal, He. did not'approve of tho Imperial lustitulo project .because the exhibition of our products iii England would tempt tho (barbaric understood) English to copy our prodmlions, Mr Ballnnco did not say what productions England would want to imitate, but of course that was a mere matter of detail, fmetrado •meant that Colonial artisans would have to work on a level with the, badly paid labor of Europe and compete with the Chinese, I did not hitherto know that there was any Chinese cheap labor in Europe. We are to have, so Mr Ballance thinks, a parliament of labor in New Zealand. It •is to. be hoped that it will ba ■■■ more respectable than the Parliament that do not labor. Our boast jin the future was to be the prosperity of the many not of [lie few (professional politicians understood). Ho saw hopes the Press - ' was yielding -tho ramparts wcro carried—and ho rubbed tho leading morning journal down the wron" way pretty briskly-that is for Ballance, Then he attacked poor Fisher who sat in the dress circle looking patient. After this we had some butter statistics, by which it would appear that 'the butter/export trade need not be consideacd. In 1884-5, we made 12,170,G941bs of butter; we exported 2,791,367, and consumed 9,379,000. So with cheese; weatemost of our cheese, and the argument, if it meant anything, meant this:—We ram consume all we produce, and wo can produce all we can consume, ergo, let us have nothing to do with any nation, Mr Ballance, though slapping |at Importers and Chambers of Commerce, stepped very gingerly round tho corners of the rejected tariff of the Stout-Vogcl Ministry, That was merely an experiment as it were, just a sly little attempt to discover which way the cat jumped, Tariffs, bless you, they could make any tariff that would be acceptable to the almighty people—with votes. I did not go to the meeting to hear any sound Protectionist arguments from Mr Ballanee, and I was not disappointed. Tho lion. John is new to tho business yet, he will have to read it up. However, hfr. gave us a few figures and a good deal of clap-trap and he looked very amiable, and tickled the ears of tho groundlings, and the show was a free one—and what more would you I have ?

To Mr Ballance succeeded Mr Luke, a small person with a long Beard and voice, evidently a local preacher of some sort. Mr Luke—who may, for all I know, be a descendant of the apostle of that name—spoke in sonorous tones of the "great battle that had to bo fought." Everything was against them—wealth, vested interests, &c, <k Ho had been taunted with •' going back to- Toryism" (I should hardly have accused Mr Luke of that), but he had " no sympathy in his soul for Toryism." Salisbury, Beach, Churchill and Co will, weep when they learn this! The loud Luke alluded to this country as tho "paradise of the south," at which the cheerful larrikins laughed consumedly, He further stated that " wheat went home at 3s 3d per bushel and came ovt again as shoddy at 6s per bushel"—and this'also seomed to please the thoughtless, Then he went and sat down by Mr Ballance—the saint and the sinner together. Politics like poverty, makes us acquainted with strange kd-follows,

Then tho "Janiale" Tommy Bracken 'tuk the flure.' Thomas appeared to he in a theological mood, for he said, "If the great principles of Christianity were carried out, there would be no gaols,' and no poverty." He did not enlarge. He compared the prosperity of "protectionist" France with that of "freetrade" England. Talked a good deal about Victoria, and declared Cabbage-gar-den.';. Graham' Berry" was the only Australasian politician with a backbone. He' might have mentioned several with • a jawbone. Ho had

received a letter from Mr Leaves, who had to leave Dunedin (intentional pun on Tommy's part—he is given to that land of thing), because, times were so had in Dunedin. When he left he was a Freethinker, (loud laughter) "sure he meant a Freetrader," but now Mr Leaves was a Protectionist. With this clincher of an argument the' '."'Janiale" sat down. ■: Then' Mowed a ; gentleman -from Dunedin; Mi■ Frager, of some ■ Association:with a terrific panie.. He; was ordered to " Sliug it.out!" but£e hadaeoldaM soon subsided.; Then agentleman'who.said he wasanoper'--,a'tive bootmaker and an Irisliman had something to remark. He said-. Sir. Julius Yogol was a gentleman' for '■whom we all had the greatest respect, and there was a good deal "of merriment. He told us a story—this Italian—about pouring hot" water down a hen's throat in order that it might lay boiled eggs, but we were unable to get the hang of the moral deduced. There was, he stated, "Nothing like leather." " Why don't you,', honest .men." he demanded, "have nothing but Now Zealandjoather ?" and wo signified by our applause that the Now Zealand article was good enough for us. Now up rose a gentleman of the name of Smith, and soon sat down again. The Salvation Army Brigadier sailed in', in the purely profossionalmauner—first facing his audience, then swinging rapidly round, and shouting at the occupants on the platform—like a joint on a jack. Mr Ballanee looked somowhat uneasy, fearing the Brigadier might propose knee drill. I had almost forgotten Mr Dransfield which would have been more than the larrakinsdid. They seemed to enjoy Mr D. who is a born comedian but does not suspect it." One of our members," said tho inimitable Dransfiosd, '-'has told us his view,' Betrench! Betrench! Befcrench!' Some of us have retrenched enough. We want"—(voice: "more long beers?") "How then are we to provide for our unemployed ?" (voice: " Shut up the public "ouses ?") "That's very pretty," said Mr D;, "but mj mind (he meant to have said' to mj mind') there's notHing in it." A roar of applause demonstrated that the populace agreed with Mi Dransfield's appraisement of his owr intellectual powers. AMr Robertson who had something to do with iron' mado the best speech of the ovening a; regards sense. He told the working men to trust themselves, to organise and not to trouble about politicians Mr Robertson hit tho position square in tho eye. Protection will be waftet on every breeze until the election ii t past, after that—the deluge. Howeve; we all wont home in good temper, feel ing that our bleeding country wai saved