PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS

Press, Volume XXXIII, Issue 4480, 9 December 1879, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS

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[FSOM OUB CORBBBPOTOBKTS.] WELLINGXON, December 8,

The report of the committee te inquire into the Native expenditure of the last financial year ie coir in print, and shows a discreditable amount of reckless extraragar.ee and defiance of Parliamentary control, well adapted to conceal anj extent of bribery and corruption at the public expense. It shows too, that no laws can prevent the corruption of members of Parliament, if constituents will send dishonest men to uphold a dishonest Government. Iα defiance of the existing laws Mr Rees was piid by the late Government in last August £300 for his zealoub services, under the pretence of employing him to defend the Native prisoners, the only effect of the supposed expenditure being to put Mr Bees in possession of £300, wbioh Mr Sheshan and Sir George Grey were anxious he should hare. The Hon. W. Nabe had first to be need at an unknown cost, and finally Mr SievwTight was employed to pay the money to the boa. member for Auckland City E.ist at an appointed cost for his services in the matter of £52 10s. Mr Sievwright mates opt his bill to Nahe, but pays the money himself to Mr Bees, £150 on August 2nd, and another £150 on August 4th, "on account of retainer and fee." This was done, although the Natives would hare nothing to do with Mr Bees as their counsel, and although the counsel employed by the Native*, Dr. BuUer, had distinctly told Mr Sheehan that all each help must be declined, and that the Natives would hare no confidence whatever in the proceedings, unless the whole expense was borne by themselves, and the conduct thereof entrusted to lawyers entirely independent of the Government. Still Mr Sheehan informed Dr. Buller that " Sir George Grey was willing to help the disaffected Natives with funds," and the £300 was handed to Mr Bees for defending, not the Natives in a court of justice, but a certain other person ia whom Sir George is much more deeply interested, and ia whose defence &nd laudation Mr Bees used to roar so vehemently in the House of Bepresentatives.

Your reporter did not convey to you the only new idea in Sir George Grey's speech last Friday, whioh was much too good to be lost to your readers, and shows that he has reached his second childhood, even more conclusively than his petition against Messrs Hall, Kolleston, Moorhouie, and Saunders for high crimes and misdemeanors against God, their brothers, and the dear little children. Oα Friday night, in his speech against going into committee on the Property Assessment Bill, he deliberately argued that we ought to put a tar of 3d in the £ on our own creditors —on the English bondholders! Major Atkinson suggested that such an able and statesmanlike suggestion only wanted a little extension to solve all our present difficulties, and if we only taxed them to the tuno of a million and a half a year it would make everything smooth and straight for us. The estimates of Publio Works have been recast since the news was receded of the floating of the five million loan, and in consequence the delivery of the statement has been postponed until to-morrow.