Wellington Notes.

White Ribbon, Volume 1, Issue 5, 1 November 1895, Page 4

Wellington Notes.

(By Our Own Correspondent.)

Tho session of 18U5 has at length closed, and I think the general feeling is one of relief. For four months we have been called upon to witness the utter incapacity of Ministers to conduct the public business of the country, .and their disregard for its interests, their gross abuse of their privilege in slandering individuals, and their utter inability to control their own following. One would gladly draw the veil over it, and try to forget , it, were it not for the enormous cost it has been, and that too in a time of depression, when the wisest and most prudent legislation was what the country needed. A very interesting paper on “ Parliamentary Reform was read by Mrs Fleming before the members of the Southern Cross Society at their last meeting. Mrs Fleming reviewed the rise and development of Parliament from the Witan to the present Cabinet System. Frequency of reforms had, she pointed out, l>een the main feature of the developments which had taken place, and the tendency of these reforms had been to place tho power more and more in the hands of the people. The struggle had first been between the King and the Parliament, and afterwards between the Parliament and the people. Mrs Fleming pointed out tho defects in parliamentary legislation inherent in party government, and suggested that the remedy lay with tne people. She pointed out the danger of an autocratic Cabinet, an«l the great necessity for jealously gxarding the freedom of the Press from political interference —which recent events ha 1 shown us was not a fictitious danger.

&lie advised women not to waste thoir strength in small battles, but to acquire knowledge of great questions and the simplification of our political system. Although not altogether averse to party government, al.e saw' strong necessity for curbing the power of a Cabinet if the Referendum could do it.