WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2920, 9 June 1888, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(From Our Own Correspondent^

in tiik house, The ' big talk' on the Custom's Bill is in full blast, and 'ere it is through every member ol' the House will in all probability have added his quota of eloquence to the teeming pages of Hansard, and as every member naturally desires as large an audience as is procurable, it follows that the attendance is good, Amid the vortex of voices and the dreary din of debate, it becomes difficult to prog? uosticate which way the majority really tends, whether to or against the proposed new tariff, The most sultry sign is that the Opposition decidedly approve it. "Under which King, Benzonian ? Speak or die!" perorated the Phenomenon the other night. " Under King Harry," he declared, as he sat down, and the smile with which ' King Harry' responded to the fealty of his self-elcotod admirer was not a happy smile. If Sir Harry, after paddling in the political mire for so many years, retains any ingenuousness and freshness of feeling, his cross just now must be a heavy one, when he finds himself and tariff superciliously patronised by such as Seddon, Reevos, and Fish, and recognises that men liko Beetham, Buchanan, Wilson, and Macarthur will have nothing to do with that tariff, and refuse to cry peace, peace, when there is no peace. Nathless the oceans of drivel, it is impossible to guess bow matters may eventuate with the Government. What is said on the floor of the House is after all but small criterion, the real political destinies of the country being engineered in the lobbies.

WHY TIIEY CUT THE LOAF. Messrs Fisher and Mitchelson have cut the loaf, and call each other by christian names no longer. The cause of their dissention is somewhat as follows One of the conditions of the Te Aro Reclamation Contract was that the contractor should construct a railway line, for the conveyance of the filling in, from Tliorndon to Tc Aro. An Auckland man was the successful tenderer- his, the lowest price. He, backed by Fisher, applied to Mitchelson for permission to run his trucks on the Government line, instead of constructing a line of his own, in accordance with the terms of his contract. Had the permission been granted the contractor would have saved a far larger sum than the difference between his tender and those of the wmcccssM tentora,

Mitchelson refused, fle pointed out that as lie and the contractor were Auckland men, he would, by granting such permission, be accused of. jtff>ritism. Moreover, the asked-fosjbn-cession would be grossly unjust to those contractors who had framed their prices so as to provide for the erection of a private line, and with no idea of using the public railway gratis. Hereon much backstairs influence was without avail brought to bear on Mitchelson, and Fisher, it is said, strongly supported the contractor. Mitchelson went away, and while away from Wellington heard that the' Ministry, through Fisher's representations, had reversed his resigned. Whereon the Premier assured his ■ colleague that the permission to use the line had been given subject to his (Mitchelson's) Some kind of a peace was patched upj hut the wound, though bandaged, is still bleeding. THE HARPOONING OF THE FISH. The present session, up to last evening, had been marked by an absence of those exchanges of gross and puerile personalities, which have been heard in previous sessions. Last night, however, Mr Fish held the floor, and surpassed even Fish in the o jfcsiveness of his remarks, principallpimed at Menteath, Scobie Mackenzie, and Allen. He mimicked the mannerism of Menteath, he called Allen a political Failure, and sneered at Scobie. A more disgusting exhibition of bad taste and crass vulgarity was never listened to in that House and that is saying something. The reverbertions of Fish's rantings died away. Scobie—pale, cold, with knitted brows, and the slight nervousness of repressed but righteous wroth —slowly arose, as slowly stretched himself and drew down his waistcrct. A strange silence fell ou the like that which reigns at an execution just ere the fatal drop is taken. Then, in accents calm and judicial, Scobie administered punishment, and as each sentence fell, cutting like the lash of a stock whip, Fish's air of bravado little by little deserted him, until at last he sat cowering, stricken, helpless. He even blmheil It was not so much what Scobie said as the ramuer in which he said it, and whaimleft unsaid. Terrible was the sneer with which lie spoke of his lion, friend on his knees praying God that Sir Robert Stout might be returned last election. Fish's stammering explanation that he prayed after and not before the election made matters worse. ' That' said Mr Mackenzie," appeared indeed to be a prayer of supererogation." The scorn with which Scobie, commenting, declared that the prayer of the righteous man—great emphasis on the word ' righteous'—availeth much and the look with which he turnMand pointing to Fish said-" really fine and dramatic, Wnen Scobie, always calm and repressed, concluded his castigation by admitting that he knew when he started that he would have to touch pitch—political pitch—and suifer defilement and concluded

" Surely aftci' all, The noblest answer iinkJgcli Is perfect silence when the^rawl." The House heaved a great sigh of relief, such as, in other day3,l have heard from brave men when the last stroke of the cat has fallen upon a bad soldier's back.

Trade with India. Brigadier-General A, Kenny-Herbert, secretary to the Indian Government military department, has furnishedthe Premier of Victoria with reports by Indian military officers upon various samples of meat which the Victorian Government had sent from Victoria to India- The principal commissariat officer, Madras, reports as follows " The preserves are in eveiW'vay superior to the American ™ nds hitherto supplied, The surloin and luncheon beef are especially good, The corned and fresh mutton are excellent, and as the price of mutton is no higher than that of beef, I would strongly recommend that it be supplied in equal quantities. The soups are well reported on by the medical officers, and the extract of me-fts pronounced to be superior to juieberg's extract supplied by Crosse and Blackwell."

Other Control Department Officers in Burmali and in ladia speak equally favorably of the meats, &c. sent. Here is confirmation of my often iterated statement that a great trade between New Zealand and India only awaits development. There are millions in it. India, I repeat, can and will take all the horses, meat, preserved fish, fruit, butter and cheese we can send her. Who and where is the public benefactor who will inaugurate the traffic. Is he wasting time and eternity screech-owling in Arliament? Let him get out of twand earn the blessings of the milling yet to come, by doing somethinjAseful,