JOTTINGS.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4143, 20 June 1892, Page 3

JOTTINGS.

(By Olir; Wellington Correspondent.) Wellington, Saturday.;; Amongst the.Billstobe introduced at an early stage of the session are tho Land Bill, The IndustrialConeiliation Bill; and The Payment of Members Bill. The Land Bill will be in,its old form, with Hie addition of a few olauses suggested in' Committee last session, I'iie Industrial Conciliation Bill, which waa one of last year's slaughtered innocents, will be brought before the House and passed through the various stages assoon as possible, i)nd it- is not anticipated that any opposition will be offered to it in the Upper House. The Payment of Members Bill, will, of course, as before, prove a great bone of contention, and the Government's bite noir, the Legislative Council, are not likely to prove any kinder this year.; This will bemoro especially tbe tm this session, as no provision is likoly to' be raado for any increased remuneration to tho Lords; the increase of pay will be confined entirely to the Lower House. It is probable that' the salaries for members'of the Lower House will be fixed at £240 per annum, paid at the rate of £2O per month in and out of session. Not a bad little " screw " for three months' work out of the year I

The question is often asked whether the Ministry ia weaker or stronger than last year; Theaotunl position is that Messrs G, Fisher, G. Hutchison and H. S. Fish have definitely declared for the Opposition, Mr Eugene.O'Connor, "The Buller Lion," has Btated his intontion of running on the independent ticket. This means that the Government hss lost four trustworthy votes, which is equivalent to a loss of eight upon a division. It is also believed that Sir George Grey and his faithful honchman, Mr Shera, may' be counted < among the "independents." It is also further said that the allegiance of several other members has been severely strained, which means that when Ministers have a bad case they can no longer rely upon those votes for a white-washing majority,

Apropos of the fact that a Farmers' Club has now been formed in Master* ton, it may not he "chesnnts" to state the essenoe of Dr Newman's re* marks on the subject of farmers' clubs, when speaking at the Johnson* villo Banquet. Addressing an audience composed almost entirely of farmers, the dootor said that formers in this colony had not that political influence which their numbers and their devotion to the country entitled them to. Dr Newman further remarked that their silence made them politically weak, and ,ho strongly urged upon them to co-operato together through farmers' clubs and cooperative societies, and that if they did this their wants would bo better attended to in Parliament. Any quantity of money was always forthcoming for gold fields, but it was most difficult to get anything out of Ministers for small farmers,

The following rather good "yarn," told by Dr Newman at his Johnsonville Banquet, may not have reached the Wairarapa, and I will therefore risk repeating it, A New Zealander when recently in England was passing a butcher's shop in one of the suburbs of London, and noticed a boy with a bucket of dark-coloured fluid carefully painting the legs of some carcases of mutton displayed outside the shop, Struckjby this rather peculiar proceeding, the colonist stopped and asked the boy what he was about. The boy replied that the customers would have Southdown mutton, and as they had none in stock he was converting Lincoins and Romneys into the much sought after Southdown. The Dootor then neatly pointed bis talo by the following moral: He said Ministers in the same way were in the habit of palming off coarse Lincoln measures on the publio and cracking them up to be delicious Southdown. It was, therefore, the duty of the Opposition to wash off this " right colour," and show the measures up for what, they really were,

An Opposition caucus is called for Friday, the 34th instant, the day after the opening of Parliament, by the Whip, Mr Harkness, member for the Nelson suburbs, A plan of campaign will then be drawn up, and the tactics of the Opposition for the coming session willbe carefully mapped out.

H.M.S. " Goldfinch," which has been in harbour for the last fortnight, lelt yesterday for Tauranga and Auckland, While at Tauranga the men will be employed in attending to the graves of the soldiers and sailors who fell at the famous Gate Pah dis • aster and other engagements in the vicinity, These graves have lately fallen into a state of great neglect, and it is pleasing to think that the last resting places,of men who died bravely at the call of duty are to be at length put into order. It was a mark of respect that the Government of this country should have paid before, H.M.B. " ftingavooom" remains here until the end of the month. The Citizen's Ball to Lord and Lady Glasgow would not, oi course, bo complete without them, Kosmos, ■