HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. YESTERDAY.

Evening Post, Volume II, Issue 160, 15 August 1866, Page 2

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES. YESTERDAY.

The following is a continuation of the report of yesterday's proceedings published by us in our last issue: — The Hon. the PREMIER congratu'ated himself on the speech made by Mr. Fitzgerald, as it had long been expected from that gentleman, who huri>iuce ihts commencement of the session, never lost an opportunity of sneering at the Government. This he would not mind so much were it not that the lum. gentleman gave such credit to himself for forbearance,whereas the truth was i hat he whb the only member of Mr. Weld's Government who had not exhibited any such virtue. The resolutions brought forward, were intended to elicit a vote of no confidence in the Government, add he was. surprised that the friends of the mover of them should have trusted such a blunderer with figures, for of all men in the House the hon. member for Chrfotchureh was the one least competent to deal with financial questions; he was too versatile, and, if he might be allowed to use the expression, too Hibernian to throw any light on a subject that required all the skill of a man like Mr. Fitzhcrbert to render clear. Why had he not got that gentleman to do the financial part of the business ? for in taking it upon himself he had showed a lamentable ignorance, and hail failed to make a single point. To sum up the figures and the deductions therefrom, so ela-

borately made by the honorable member for Chris tchurch, would be a Herculean task, and to cut them to pieces would only be mere " chicken butchery," they were so weak and absurd. The hon. gentleman in the first place had tried to pin him (Mr. Stafford) to " statements made with regard to a certain saving of £240,000. Now the first thing to be settled was what saving he had really promised on taking office. When the late Colonial Treasurer had made his financial statement last year, his first thought had been that a saving of £240,000 might be made on the estimates, but on taking office he found that for the first year he would be unable to effect so much. He had, however, done what he believed Mr. Weld's government would have done also, had they remained in office— he had spent considerably less than the sum voted for the service of the country, notwithstanding that he had paid one month's contract money, namely, j£4OOC to the Panama Company, and had transmitted to England the whole cost of the telegraphic cable for Cook's Strait. When standing up as the champion of the provinces, the hon member for Christchurch had shewn himself as ignorant as he was on other matters, and he must congratulate the ultraprovincialists on their new adherent— a more thoroughly provincial opinion could not have been given than he had given, and he was only astonished that the lion, gentleman had not voted at the close of the recent debate on separation for the resolutions brought down by Mr. Whitaker, and the amendments proposed by Mr. Dick. Then again, ou the subject of the defence of the colony, the honorable gentleman was utterly aud woefully iv the dark, and had, as usual, for the sake of oratorical effect, travelled quite outside the question, and, to use a well-known expression, had erected a man of straw to knock down himself. This man of straw, this Frankenstein, this dreadful scourge of which the country was to beware, was a standing army. It was a wonder that, with his strong Hibernian feeliugs, the hon. gentleman had not gone further, and with recollections of '98 in hs mind's eye, had not drawn a graphic picture of this army grounding arms at his door-step, and unfringiug the liberty of the subject. But as to this terrible bugbear with .which the House was to be so frightened, he ] {night say it was entirely a mythical one, and ittiat, U only existed in the fertile imagination of the hon. gentleman. To prove that such was the case, let any hon. member move as an amendment, that in the estimates the name of " armed constabulary" be inserted in lieu of " Militia," and the GoTernment would not make the alteration a Ministerial question. A great deal hud been made about the three-eighths of the austoms which it was said he had, on taking office, promised to give to the provinces. He denied this— he had nevtr done so, but he thought that if possible that amount should be allocated to them, if th« Colony would not be injured thereby. It was not his intention to draw comparisons between the present GovernI ment and its predecessors, as he did not wish to irritate the minds of anyone, but he would noc submit to be dictated to as to what ger« tlemen he should have for his colleagues. In conclusion, all he could say was that suppotters of the amendment would find its mover the worst friend they had, and he would prophecy that the day from which the the provincial power and system w<uld date its decline would be the day when it attempted to make an aggression with the view of destroying the General Government of the country. (flear, hear.) On the motion of Mr. Moorhouse, the debate was adjourned until this evening.