PARLIAMENTARY NOTES. [BY TELEGRAPH—OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Waikato Times, Volume XIX, Issue 1587, 5 September 1882, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES. [BY TELEGRAPH — OWN CORRESPONDENT.]

Wellington, Last Night. A report that the Premier will, after the close of the session, resign, and Major Atkinson will assume the portfolio is premature. It is not improbable ,a step of the kind will eventually be taken, as it is well known Mr Whitaker's numerous private engagements will not admit of his continued residence in Wellington. About the end of the 'year it is believed a change in this direction may eventuate. In that case Mr Whitaker will retain tbe Attorney-Generalship. Hi s administration as head of the Governmenthas frozn time to time been borne favorable testimony to by all sides in the representative chamber. The report that Sir John Hall would probably resume the leadership is discountenanced by the fact that of late lie has not been altogether in accord with the Government, prominently so in regard to the leasing proposals in the Land Bill. Although pushing on the business with every possible despatch, Government has not yet given the slightest intimation of the time afc which it proposes to commence purging the Order Paper. On the contrary, they act as if they meditated pushing through every item. That, however, is impossible, and the announcement of a wholesale slaughter may be looked for at any moment. Meantime they are going through their policy bills at a good round canter, and at the present rate they should reach the Loan Bills in a day or so. On Saturday the question ot the public works estimates came up, and rather pointed observations were- made of the impropriety of keeping them back so long. Major Atkinson promptly accepted the challenge, giving it to be understood that until they knew the fate of the proposals it would be impossible to say what money Government would have at its dispo&al. A slight skirmish arose on the occasion. Mr Seddon, who was rather prominent in the fray, was promptly sat upon by Mr Dodson, a new made convert to the Government cause, who told him that if he would encumber their proceedings with less useless talk, the chances are the business would have been disposed of long ago. The rebuke coming from such a quarter was felt to be ill ■ timed, and hon. members were not slow to reseut it. Meantime members were impatient to get away to their evening meal, and they were not slow to give vent to their feelings in a scene of disorder. Mr Seddon is no doubt a bit of a bore ; still he has uses as well as abuses ; he talks a good deal, and in doing so takes improper liberties with his h's. He keeps them out where they should be in, but then again he distributes them most unsparingly when they should be out, so that between the two the balance of power is pretty evenly maintained. Apart from that he can always make his mark after a kind of rough and tumble way, and on more than one occasion he has detected flaws which escaped more polished minds ; so that he has no right to be made the butt of a mere political nobody. Bellamy's is just now furnishing its quota to the current gossip. In days of yore the sessional grog score was wont to tot up to between £4000 and £5000 per session ; on this occasion it falls short of £2000, and what renders the deficiency the move conspicuous, is that the liquor supplied to this festive establishment is little short of what it was on former occasions. The fact is, that under the extended franchise it is found the decanters of liquor don't go half as far as they went under the old system, or to adopt Bellanys' .own explanation the ' ' Great Liberal party refresh themselvps as powerfully nowadays on eighteen pence as they did in olden times on five, bob." The commissariat is also out of joint. Under the operations of a revised tariff the butchers bill has Ijeen reduced from £80 to £30 per month.