WELLINGTON.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume IX, Issue 2942, 5 July 1888, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

• (From Our Own Correspondent), Poutical. Really that excellent old New Zealand Nabob, Sir Harry Atkinson, becomes more peppery every day. Whether he commits excesses with pillous and hot curries, or whether an inherent and chronic dyspesia holds him as its own I am unable to say, but no jaundiced Bengal. Tiger could bo more snappish. The defeat he suffered over his motion to go into committeo to consider tho estimates has turned him into a perfect maneater, Stout, during his tenor of office, was suspected of a desire to introduce the birch into the House, but Sir Harry, before he is done and without he is checked with a strong hand, will most assuredly rig tho triangles and give his opponents a taste of the lash. Indeed last night he threatened presently to "crack a whip" over the melancholy and monotonous Mr Menteath, and though the House hypocritically assumed the threat was only symbolical, no one watching tho Premier's face could have doubted that,nothing would have afforded him greater pleasure tkn tying up Menteath there and then and administering to him fifty lashes well laid on.

,Db Hodokinson,

Opened up on Tuesday night the adjourned debate on the motion to go into Committee of Supply, and a very remarkable and soothing oration the old gentleman made, with his spec-' tacles pushed well up on the top of his bald and well polished skull—so remarkable that the laureate of the gallery Was moved to break into the following deathless verso .

Tho Old 'Un maundered on and on, His vocal regulator gono, An no one knew what it all meant, Until tho House was fairly spent. Ho kept it up, while all around A busy hum his droning drowned, Though lacking theme no had the will, And spite of noise kept talkin* still. There are three or four hundred other verses which I will not reproduce. After a long discussion the Premier got his own way about the estimates, THE LATE JIT! PEAHSOX. Considerable and very general regret is felt regarding the untimely decease of this gentleman whose geniality and manliness had made him a host of friends. The Premier referred to the case briefly but with much taste and good feeling, and the House adjourned until the evening as a token of respect to the late member and his family. '.•;.'■ :.- WELLINGTON OPERA HOUSE. lam glad to say a tender has been accepted by the directors.-: for ; the re-construction of theTe Aro Opera House, the,loss of; which place of auMsemeiitljas'beeii seriously feltr: I

rneiits- will",bejmade iri ; the restored : buildirig.foradditional means of egress. inoaseoffirfe-Iliive'several ;time3; in these columns and' elsewhere insis)'; te"d ; on the'defectiveness of- the previ-; oiisarrangements,and have.reasouto. ■ believe.that my words ,have uot fallen ■ upon stony;ground.': : : \ : ".-Vv: ', ;; : ;THEENOLISU FOOTBAILEM. '- 1 :';..:,. The Bulletin is responsible: for the following:,: 'i The English footballers are developing far more aptitude for the Victorian game than was antici-' pated after the strong Carlton team had made such a' holy show' of them, At present the locals are rolling up in their tens of thousands to witness the visitors discomfiture, even as they gave.the cold shoulder to international cricket foran equally patriotic roasou.' But, given;more practice- ; aiid -less cakes and ale, itrriay.: yet be possible for. tliebiirley Britons to. beat a. pre-" mier Victorian team at their own game. And if such an event did come to pass it would bring lamentation .and woe. to ail" army;'of critics who honestly believe that their particular kind of fobtballsurpasseth all outside, 'under. standing. - example, expressed a scientific opinion that the.-Enghßhmenrc'ouldu't-iplay " our game", if tiiey practiced I for ; - 20 years,' yet those same riovicesidefeated' Bendigo in their very; next'match.'; If tliey, are sensible young men andayoid! banquets; ; they" will .certainly"feck the stuffing putof many foolish notions peculiar tomany Victorian footballers." .',;;': Literary :PrßAoy.;; ■; Thisvifemirids.m'e tlunVthe Bulletin of June -,Both -has a paragraph commencing;: -"'Wo rarely-'blow>;but -we are going to; do ] it now.;;;A • large section of..the Australian press seem to live on the Bulletin." " ; '■ .And the paragraph, then proceedeth to show that whole articles are bodily stolen; from' the Bulletin. 'This is probably true. At the samo'time .on more than' one occasion Ihavehad tho felicity to see items, which I fondly supposed to have been rate by.a .person whose writings I admire more .than anyone elso doos, in the Bulletin. Probably: these ,pre stolen from the Bulletin, still it'is peculiar that they appeared in some other paper j?c«f; There is a proverb, a trifle antiquated, which concerns itself with stones and glasshouses..., . ■■'-;-. BINKING. Continues to hold its own in this city as elsewhere. To night there is to he a hat carnarval, at which the Governor has 'promised to his pre'» sence. Some of our giddy young legislators go in for the rollers, and it is a beautiful sight to see, Messrs '• Soddou, Kerr,.'-and the gentleman '. known as. the Buller.lion, linked in [ amity, gliding gracefully across the floor. - Somebody, buttering Mr Sed- - ' don to his face tho other night, said, '•Really Seddon, I consider your. skating the very poetry' of motion!" 1 Seddou replied ." look y' here. I ■ don't coom ere' to talk shop. Motions ' is all very well in the 'Ouse but I cooins 'ere to skate." ; Thomas Bracken, Fote. ' , The genial-Bracken has .but;one • fault,, Ho loves punning not wisely ( but too' well. Someone asked him last night whether Samuel had spoken. "Yes," said Thomas, "he has, either at the'Endor beginning of the debate. Idon'tkuowwitch." .; ,

"TAuiwhA" on Hon, 'GEoitOK'Fis'HEH, The Wellington individual, who, in the' columns of the Australasian, crouches on all fours behind the psendonyin of "Tanivrha," thus, in his " New Zealand Notes," stabs a better man than himself, for, though I may occasionally chasten, I still really admire" Our George" ; Mr Ksher is an extraordinary character. He bcran lifo as a compositor in the Government Printing Office, and was afterwards a Barnard reporter. Then he took to Municipal politics, and without knowing anything about them,except how to get a majority at an election, ho was twico Mayor of Wollingttw, but ultimately defeated by tho present Mayor, who is his polar opposito in all respects, Mr Fisher has also been tivico returned to the House t)f_ Representatives, where bo never distinguished himself much, except by his inordinate pugnacity and by delivoring carelully prepared speeches of nn extra knock-me-dowii character,mainly compiled from American orators. But he has a somewhat terrific presence, and vast lung power, ind is, in fact, an abnormal specimon of a pushing, ambitious, political, iutriguer of the transatlantic type, Hence, ho was taken into the Atkinson Ministry last session, undisguisedly as a sop to tho " working man" and as Ministerial " chuckcr-out" on occasion, Ho has been a dismal failure in all respects, however, and it lias ended in his trying to pky a lone hand under the table.

• Whatever "Our George's" faults may be, and they aro doubtless various, he never had to sleep 'neath the Speaker's table-to escape a publio tar and feathering 1 , nor has he as yet been compelled to make a publio and piti ful apology to the members whom he had slandered. George is big, and perhaps a bit bumptious, but he's 'claar grit.' "Taniwha" is'nt. Surely, 'tis hotter to begin life as a compositor and succeed, than as a "gentleman" and fail.