POLITICAL NOTES.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XV, Issue 4470, 14 July 1893, Page 3

POLITICAL NOTES.

AFTERNOON. Tho debato dots not come on nt once, There is a Native Bill, tho Mangfltu No. 1 Empowering Bill, which hufl to ho read a second time. But it cannot ho rend all at once, The Opposition is carried away by a flood of suspicion. It cannot understand many things, or rather it understands them too woll us it thinks. It puts tho worst conslructiou upon everybody and everything. Speaker after speakir throws light,and speaker after speaker throws darkness, until tho discussion sinks, and tho Bill is read a second time, of course on theunderstunding that it goes to the committee for examination and report. Result, however, of the all-round hammering is that tho House has learned a good deal nbout tho Bill, and suspicion is lulled. After this Mr Guinness is elected Chairman of Committees, not without <\ rasping kind of congratulation, which is left-handed as well as rasping, from Mr Fish. Mr Fish comes within the view of tho Speaker, but ,\lr Fi.h being very agile in all llieso matters gets away nimbly from censure. The Leader of tho Opposition follows will) a request for all the riolnils of Cheviot, which tho Ministerreceives with composure utid acquiescence, The House then goes into C'ommitteo having halted on the road for a moment to hear Mr Guinness return thanks for bis election, lu committee there is an attempt to make tho Premier go on with the Financial debate, but it fails as a mattor of course, end then Mrßuckland begins bis' llireo hours.'

Mrßuckhmdis boisterous ss ever, and jerkicr than he usually is, giving one the impression that ho Iws prepared bo much to say and worked it up to such n pressure that his words crowding his throat inordinately stick there, to the great incommodingof tho orstory, Mr Uucklund hammers tho Uiidgot with his bludgeon on every page bo rains blows all over New Zealand from Auckland to the Bluff, wherever Ministers have been. Ho Bouts the volume of condolence received aftor Mr Bsllance's death ; he ridicules the effort made to raise a Memorial Fund; he talks fencing, road-tuak-and other things. Dinner finds him pounding away with jerky determination, rising into small spurts of anger, EVENINQ SITTING. After dinner, Mi Buoklaud spends about forty minutes in scolding the Government. MrG. Hutchison springs to tho front—smooth, formally fluent, teadomic—bombarding ihe Ministerial benches with rounded periods, and carefully polished phrases. After a preliminary flourish of sarcasm at the Premier, ho goes into the episode of 187 C. He has it all in order« docu ■ ments, dates, books. He makes it a chapter of history, with all tbe poihis in his favour made prominent; he puts thorn as lawyers can put such things, clearly, vigorously, with point and force; he handles his papers daintily, and refers lo them with precision ; be waves them, as he makes his points, rcajesticallyin the Premier's direction; he stands at times with his hands on his hips, aud glaring across, seems to pause for reply. With bia but-toned-up, closely fitting frock coat.and carefully regulated attitude, his eyes glaring through ihe spectacles, he is a figure striking enough to arrest the attention. The Opposition applauds as he goes on, from time to lime, tho other side interrupts in hot contradiction now and thenjand occasionally a skirmish arises out ol the interruptions, From 1879 Mr Hutchison advances Kradually up to tho present time with measured accent and ingenious, lawyerliko argument, He breaks into satire as he gets nei>r tho end of his 80 minutes, devoting lofty, mock heroic language to tho position occupied in the Houseby Sir RobtrtStout, Having poured vitriol over Sir Robert and the 1 makeshift. Government Sir, which sits thero without him,' MrHutobison ends, receiving beamingly as ho Bits down tho emphatic applause of his friends.

Mr Hogg rises after him, and goes to work at cnce, throwing his bit; voice and rough Doric at llio onemy. Ho plays them for a brief space on Mr Buckland, whom he finds, with a touch of irony, more courteous than usual, But that is all ho wants to say with Mr Buckland. Hobas serious business with Mr Hutchison, and ho concentrates bis power on him, ' Acting a part, sir,' he shouts oat; and on that text bo declaims forsomo time He digs up facta from the country about co-operative road works and hurls them; ho oxamines the telegraph wires, on which the credit of the Colony was said to have once bung: ho discovers that if the credit had ever been there we all know who would have ruined it. This point ho shouts aurosfl to ' those gentlemen,' and they must hear if they wore half a mile away. He revels in this subject of lost confidence, and tbon bo guts to the surplus. ' It is their husii noss to convert a surplus into a deficit' —all Oppositions do it j he has experience of many, and never saw them do anything else. When hohasdone with Mr Hutchison, he takes up tho Budget and defends it item by item, giving a good deal of advice to Ministers as he gops. 'Eoads, bridges, culverts: these are the cty of the bush settler,'ho saya significantly, and then be fills in the details of the picture. But that is a digression, which happens later on. Before he gets to it he has a good deal to say of tho Budget, amongst which we notice a good comparison. ' Those gentlemen ' had become alarmed at tho advent of the Labour Party to power. They prophesied general ruin, They were like the Ball»rat miner who, at nightfall, tumbled into an old shaft, held on by his eyelids and finger tipntothe edge; bung on all night and turned grey in the process, and when day broke found he had only a few inches to drop. The House gets small after 10 o'clock, and not attentive. M r Hogg keeps up biß pecker, goes off on that excursion up country roada to which we have referred, develops candour, invokes humanity in a tone which will reach far outßidoj and carries us to supper. After Mr Hogg, Mr Earnsbaw hat a turn at the debate. Alcoholic he is and soberly independont 10 long as h( i is on that line, Otherwise he likes i lbs Labour Bureau, and be applauds

Mr Ward and his Budget to the echo. After midnight he ends, and we go away wondoring what Mr Moore,who libb moved tho adjournment, will havo to Buy to-morrow.—New Zealand Times.