POLITICAL NOTES.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4908, 7 May 1887, Page 3

POLITICAL NOTES.

[SPECIAL TO DAILY TELEGBAPH. J

[OWH COBBESPOITOENT—BT TEUEQBAPH.] '' .' Wellington, Last night. • A'BUSY DAY. There were no fewer than twenty-four questions asked to-day. .Five now bills were introduced, and twenty orders of the day were set down on the order-paper. COERCION" IN IRELAND: In addition, to the above array, there were five notices of motion for discussion, the first of which was Mr Bracken's motion againstthe system of Governmentscoercion in Ireland. Having. inadvertently tabled thie motion for.'a Government day, Mr Bracken" asked, and obtained, leave to withdraw it from the order-paper.., Those who •wefe : oftho opinion that this, motion was ill-advised, began to congratulate themaelreß qnrtiie igpodaenae displayed by, the member , for" Donedin Central, but their felicitations , were , eh° rt :^, ed ', for .?F Bracken immediately re-tabled the motion for Wednesday, next., """" injNNY PYKE AT IT AGAIN. MrPyke*s question, asking the Government to set aside a convenient room mjfto Parliament' buildings for the use of that considerable section'of the:.' House of which Mr Pyke himself is recognised as the leader, w and whioh consists of the members who do not owe- allegiance to either, of the political •parties in the House,' was looked upon as a mild- joke on the part of the member for Dunstan, and was answered by Sir Robert fltout in a humorous speech, suggesting that Mr Pyke should furnish him with a list of tho members who desire such accommodation, when he would try and obtain for them the use of a small room. lnere was Kreat laughter at this sally, and tho mainder of the Premier's remarks were lost to fte reporters. 'Sir GSorgo Grey, taking umbrage at the Premier's sneer, moved the adjournment of the House, to urge the necessity of providing a room for members who wished to belong to no party, and, ho ventured to say the Premier would find that ihie-'middle parfy would number more than l£ expected Messrs Scobie; McKenzie, Moss and others spoke "to the question, tho refrain of their speeches being thairthere was no suchthidg as a party!? the House, and facotioualy remarked the cross-bred party of tiie middle party was always considered agr.eat nuisance in Parhamentary work anf he suggested that the Government should try and. grant the request, "if, ' **l Blily addea Mr Whyte, Vif only to get rid '" of the nuisance.'' Major Atkinson was also rery humorous, anS said he looked upon | independent men in Parliament as utter nuisances, but speaking from an Oppositaon view in this case,' the nuisance was not so Tery flagrant, because all members of the middle party .were seceders from theGoside- of the House, and !t couM not "be expected that they could suddenly plunge themselves into the xold wators of fcppfsition, < Amidst much he eupportedtheyiewthata kind of halting plSe should be provided for those members Who were on their ( way .from fl» Government to the Opposition eide of the House. The matter then dropped. - . :

. IMFOETANT QUESTIOK.' . " Ma?or Steward asked rather an important question which should, be.pf interest m. aj municipalities, regarding the, imposition of penalties for the Infraction of municipal bylaws, and siich .other minor breaches of , y the law not "of" a criminal... character. Mr Steward's desire ;was that some such system as that prevaiiing.in different parts of the continent-notably' at: Geneva-should. #be adopted in ifew Zealand, allowing penalties for such, breaches of the law to be paid -without the necessity of attendance at the Court:' Mr Tole .replied that the pro-posed-reform had his entire sympathy, that had,.there ,been time he would; have Bubndtted the question for the consideration of the House last session, and that, feeling sure some scheme of the sort would be a trreat'public convenience - and. saving ot time, he trusted the House.would agree to U. a short bill which he intended to submit, embracing the proposed reform. ••-THE FBASER SCANDAL. Mr Rdlleston put another question to the

Government with reference to what is now known as the " Fraser scandal, 'but nothing of importance was elicited. :. ': . gold duty. Mr Seddon gave notice of his intention to introdace ft bill providing for the reduction of the «?old duty,' and also an amendment to ihQ.M&es Bill, 18867 , . . - DEFSBRED-PAYMENT. LANDS. f Mr DonaM Beid; member,for Bruce, is anxious that holders of pastora deferredpayment Hcenses' should have a legal right to such licenses for leases of small ipr ,thk exchange, .and Mr Eeid has therefore given, notice to ask the Givernm.3nt on Tuesday noxt they wm-intbduce this session a bill to. give effect'to whatV'aeemed by many a very desirable proviso. . . EEPBESENTATIQNiBILL. I do not know that I oari add* anything to my previous telegram on the subject to explain the position of the Bill. After •• the exhibition of vacillating power given by Ministers daring the past week, it is impossible to hazard even an

opinionasto what course will be P u »ued. Last session,? and during the recess, the bill was to be a Ministerial bill, upon ■which, the existence of the Government would depend. When introduced the bill contained a "crucial" point, which was to be. insisted upon. That " crucial" point was rejected by the House, and the Government proposed to withdraw the bill. Then an attempt at compromise was made, delegates " being about ijhe Premier! c room, and midnight conferences were held, the result being that the Premier's suggestions for a compromise were ■ rejected. Next the ■ bill appeared on the< paper as, the .first order of tho day, and" good authorities stated that the Government would nohm volens proceed •with it. -Next.the Government make-a Ministerial statement, which simply means, «' Give us till- Tuesday to fix this business , up " when tho Premier to-day suggested tfc postponement of the bill till Tuesday nextf in the hope as he expressed -it, that . A " Borne final -arrangement would be come to. ■ ■■--. Ho could hardly have sincerely hoped that ! .Tuesday would be much SprOTedito what it.is to-day.. The Oppo- .; 3nl>egP& m quite 1 pasture m/the matter it,,ana tbe

■■ ■.■■'•-.r-.-vafrarSl ' ■ . • -malcontents—the- country members— ut6 charged by their own colleagues with ineincerity. No doubt many of them are insincere in the matter, especially .on the reduction of tho number of. members. Whilst on the subject of insincerity, I may Bay that the Evening Post- to-night, in a leading article, charges Ministers with want of sincerity in their professed desire to pass tho Representation Bill this session, and concludes thus: —" The disorganisation promoted and oncouraged by Ministers is now bo great in the House, we have little hope. of any satisfactory solution of the difficulty this session." That short sentence, to me, exactly explains tho present position, and as before remarked, I do not see much chance of improvement by Tuesday noxt. Meetings will no doubt be held in the interim ; delegates will meet, and conferences will be held. A compromise may after all be effected, but it is extremely doubtful if it will be of a satisfactory nature._ It is stated, with some show of authority that nearly half the House—forty-three members are opposed to the adoption of a, Representation Bill in any form this session. The Evening Press, in a loader to-night, exactly bears out the opinion I expressed some days ago that the Government got themselves into their present difficulty by the action of the Premier making part of the bill a "crucial" point, otherwise a Ministerial question, and says if it were any other Government, they would expect them to resign. THE LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION. Major Atkinson, though very anxious to leave for Nelson, where his wife lies dangerously ill ia still here, in consequence of the crisis on the Representation Bill. It is understood that he will be willing to grant even greater concessions rather than allow the bill to drop, while it ie almost certain that there is a majority sufficient to force the hand of the Government, and compel them to go on with the bill. It is not now considered, probable that such a course will be adopted. This day. AFTER THE RISING OP THE HOUSE. . The country members exhibit a strong opposition to the' clause in the Electoral Amendment Bill providing an extension of the hours of polling,- and at one o'clock this morning progress was reported on the clause, and the House adjourned. There is nothing fresh in the situation with regard to the Representation Bill.