ABOUT THE HOUSE. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW.

Evening Post, Volume LXX, Issue 61, 9 September 1905, Page 9

ABOUT THE HOUSE. A BIRD'S EYE VIEW.

[Br a Casual Chuonioleb.] This has been a week of talk — mostly eolftmn heavy remarks like 'cows or other produce — and tho gall-erbs, demoralised i>y debauch of voucher sensation, gazed on fjfe proceedings with the bewildered and p*ocit-Tated air of morphia-fi'snds euddeniy bereft of their drug. The. Council eaft for a calm quarter of "■ an hour'on Tuesday, and adjourned with lan air of conscious virtue. Tha House, aftej the cuatonia,ry formalities — petitions, papers, reports, and the like — plunged" iuto the land question, and for the -rerftaindor oil tho day a scries of epeeches raiding from medium to mediocre wsra delivered on this dull but momentous eubjett.; Beyond the fact that •Mr. Major took v strong exception to tho Premier's method*, afld the ungraceful levity of many of\the combatants, the proceedings call for no remark. Scenting a further delicious draught of sensation, tho galleryites a'nustered in (Surprisingly strong force in the evening, but the gallery ia a, bad guesser, and its jperspiratidn and nunched-up knees were wasted. The House ploughed through the land until half-an-hour o^ midnight. The Council was again superbly rapid on Wednesday, and sat jiiot under an ihouT passing Bills along with the mechsnical accuracy, and smileless intmoibility of a -each register. Disappointed of the voucher the day iiefore, the spectators were present in merely moderate quantities on Wednesday. The . voucher trouble came np again with a petition presented by Mr. Taylor, and' a brief debate, happily devoid of any bitterness or' ill-feeling, concluded with the reference, of the petition to on,e of ths Petitions Committees, and the ■cilstomary Wednesday complaints about" the way in -which Ministers evade the questions put to them -occupied the whole afternoon. ' Land-TrStill land — was iho subject in the evening, and the ga-lleries, which aie always either missing the 'bus or catching the wrong one, groaned awhile, and Btolo heavily away muttering somnolent cunsea. '-In evening clothes. Sir J. G. Ward opened the evening's play, and delivered a speach so diplomatic and impartial , that the reporters were divided onto two factions ac to whether he supported leasehold or freehold, or whether, indeed; he supported anything. He did not care -a strawj hurled masses of fig-j ures at the proceedings, and slipped out .while Mr. tMassey 'was uncoiling a chain of statistics from his neck. Except for loud and vigorous noises by Mr. Flatman, . who was- dreadfully angry, and ■who delivered 6ome terrific sentences, the j proceedings were not ''worth 2d. The -House thinned out, and, the spectators \ yawned. and the press reporters solemnly •wrote dottn sentences like' this: "i! t-hink that .theTe should not be the restrict ions^—eT — the cropping restrictions. I am speaking upon — cr — that is, for th-are should be more elasticity in ' the cropping restrictions, and Land Boards should have more power to say what, that iis to say, in allowing— ern-in aliowing crops to be grown according to the quality of the land— cr — and— cr — that .has not be*n done." . Which w a Strong indict«?nt against somebody. Now and .then a writhing and shapeless mass like this would come to the sur-face-:—"I believe that it should bo reisumed by arbitration or something of *hat way, whereby if large improvements' ihave been put in this way he would oe able, to i'eap 'hi 6 own industry by arbitration or some way or another — or eamothing done how-over." And even t'hi-s — It was Mr. Flatman's— failed to - tonvince members 'of the futility of further argument. Mr. Millar made a speech -as striking as a hotel in a Nolicense district, and threw down the gatmt-fet to tho freholders with a pleassnt ngour and earnestness. After supper .Mr. M'Gowan spoke, but nobody ■was interested, although he 6houted violent platitudes, and used rasping tv quoques for argument. Parliament has Dreadful manners. Now and then somebody would trot out an aged anecdote with lon« whits whiskers. The funeral proceeded until 1.15 a.m., the Premier Laving lit up the gloom with an announcement that he hoped the debate would end next day. Eastbourne was responsible for a little ripple on the smooth surfacs of the Legislative Council on Thursday, and most of tho two hours' sitting of that placid and i dignified corroborea waa occupied v/ifch a duel between Mr. T. K. Macdon•id and Mr. J. E. Jonkinson as to the merits of that seaside r;sort,, and ite claim to put its 'hair up and go into the long skirts' of boroughdom. Mr. Jenkinson was very positive that it was a tinp'ot locality, and that 'it carried only ' Wl3 man to tho square mile, but 'Mr. •Macdonald, atupefisd with astdnishmeut, ins.'sted that it was something in tho nature of a humming metropolis. In order to sattle the point ths Council re-* faTrid ths Bill back to a Committee to procure evidence. It did stuns other business quickly and without any ostentation. In tha , House i'lie voucher came on' igain for the n-th tim2— the -statisticians havo lost all count of its appearances, and tho whole affair was threshed out uncs diot:; There was a large attendant of the public, but onca again thf eag?r hunters after smsation had nrssid the 'bus. . They mz<h up in the evening, lUowevtr, and thoroughly enjoyed them- _ Tha. formal ousiness was shorthand juet, before 3 o'clock tho Premi«r Toee *iid mov-td a thrje-chamberfd motion. Mr Fisher and Mr. Taylor eat tense and ilcrt while the motion was being r-aad, and then want on with thsir writing and arranging of papers. With a suppressed i violence the Premier broko into 1113 Speech, but there was no new matter in it. Every Human being in the colony baa read, it all many times since tha July, and as >jr. Taylor is understood to contemplate the adoption of the tactics of old Cato (whose sob contribution to ihe Roman Haneard wa3 a daily remark to ths effect that Carthago must bo destroyed), and the devotion of most_ of his time to the necessity for an enquiry, the public' will read it many nm«3 again. Mr. Fisher was heavily handicapped with a hoatilo Houae bayond tho reach of argument, but he handled his matter well, he kopt hia temper, and (cept well clear of anything even Tcmotcly personal. Mr. M'Nab rose very sw.iftly c.nd moved a congratulatory resolution, which several speakers in the debate declared to be fulsome and grovelling. Mt. Taylor -followed with an analysis of ihe evidence, and then tho affair was ■well under way and lasted all the afterBoon. ■ Before 7 o'clock the crowd was pouring np the approaches to Parliament, witn much the 6ame air as tho Roman populace en -oute to a gladiatorial fight, and jmbucd with tho fine old Brdtish spirit j.iat impelled the ancestors of Mr. Chamberlain and the Archbishop of Canterbury to don their best jerkins, and. putting a piece of bacon in their pockets' by way of lunch, to sally out e.arly in the -morning to see witches burned^ at iho stake, and after a re-ally happy day in Merry England of tho olden time, become horribly intoxicated on good old British beer and beat their unkempt spouses in the splendid old way that has made England great. There was no standing room when half-past 7 arrived, *nd even the 6pjders had to move out of

the crevices. The spectators were fascinated,'but the debate was not worthy of the occasion, and the Bellowdrama began to pall. Mr. Hogg brightened things up with a perversion of a speech from " Macbeth," and he made one f jgh for what the stage lost when lie decided to become a politician. Everybody talked —as.no doubt they had a right to— and matters proceeded quite seriously until Mr. E. M-. Smith, of the white vest, arose and gave a grotesque exhibition of the" humour that the ancient Briton used tp roar at. Mr. Smith would have been a Prince of Jesters on t'ho Stono Ago, when Humour was siijl in the stages prior to tho development of even thelowly form of raising a laugh by sitting on a pork pie. He was born too late by 8000 years." The Hous3 goodnaturedly laughed,' and this inspired Mr. , Smith to further flights, and he concluded tremendously pleased with himsoJf. .Mr. Baums followed with tho flashing Eloquence of the College Dialectic Society, and spoke of charges being made. "What charge? Six and eight ?" ■interjected a flippant membar. And so tho 1 long night wore on. At midnight the galleries were still TuU, and many ladies were present. Late comers could not effect -an entry. In ihe next halfhour ', the crowd thinned. Mr. Massey's views, wero awaited with interest, rle put .the position of the man in the street. He accepted the Auditor-Gona-Tal's 'report, but there was still a mystery, and an" enquiry was wanted. At last ' iMr. M'Nab's amendment — wiuch was severely assaulted by Mr. Herries," who left the Chamber rather than assist the New Liberals on tho one hand or vote for the Premier's motion (part of which he disagreed with) air the otherwas carried. ' Mr. Bedford moved an amendment • asking for a further enquiry, and in spite of the Premier's attempt to 'block it (by way," probably, of giving an example of tho British justice that he was speaking co much about) ik •was, ruled in order. It failed to find a seconder till too 'late, when Mt. Mander trisd to get in. The motion was .then put and carried by 47 votes to 5. The New Liberals had the company of Mr. Moss in the lobby. The Premier was openly triumphant, and moved the adjournment of the House, just before 2 a.m., with much empressement. Everybody leit lively and alert, and the galleries, having for once got their moneys worth, went home with a glow of satisfaction. ' ' Except that it struggled vainly with Sir Wm. Steward's strange passion to let uncles marry, their deceased wifo's niece, and that the subject grew vague and intangible, and that Mr. Mahuta broke his 1 Mark brown silence and objected to the Bill on the high moral grounds of decency and the low utilitarian ground of 'calling a halt in our marriage laws, the Legislative Council hardly knew that it met at all yesterday. Very quickly the House got into Estimates, and the same dreary discussion ensued as has made Fridays days of drab debate. Various classes came under reView, and the Lands Department, with tho Hon. T. Duncan at the helm, lasted all the evening and well into this morning. A curious featufo of the debate up till midnight was Mr. Fisher in the role< of departmental critic — and he criticised 1 very well. He contributed to the humoiir of some very depressing circumstances . that thickened to pea-soup gloom whenever the Minister for Lands made remarks in inaudible Doric. Holding up a nicelyprinted and lithographed map, Mr. Fisher explained that this artistic production was one of many "ways-in which the Lands Department expensively /perspired in order to induce somebody to take up a certain block of land. The Department, he indicated, has been feverishly trying to obtain a customer for thi s land, which it has for five years been offered at a halfyearly rental of 3s 3d. In its anxiety to rake in this small sprat the Department" has used massy whales— lso years rent of the block, according to Mr. Fisher. The Minister plodded heavily across the Chamber to see the, map, and after long pondering, seated that it cost a penny or something* to that effect. As the hours went on the galleryites went home, and everything became very dreary— sleepy members, abstracted Ministers, and boredom generally. Shortly befoie 2 a.m. Mr. T. Mackenzie arrived on the scene with his snuff-mull. With an insinuating air he induced several members to liven up, and left a trail of wueezing and electrified victims behind. The House had woke up. Mr. Mackenzie stood in one aisle, with a pensive air of triumph, and his eye roved about iib search of further piey. Suddenly, just as the Premier was speaking, Mr. Mackenzie was hoist rwith his own petard. Without warning, a whizzing, rending whoop burst from him in one gigantic sneeze lik<» all Scotland being blown up with 1 dynamite. Instantaneously every light 'in the whole building went out,' and in the pilthy blackness members sneezed and roaied I with laughter. In a minute the startled electricity peeped out again. , The Premier rebuked Mr. very proparly for up-ending' the cosmos, ,and Mr. Mackenzie smiled cheerfully as he looked up at the light with the air of a man who could do it again if he 'chose. Then he leaked out of the circumstances, and members came tumbling in from ihe lobbies — awakened by the uproar. They obliterated themselves with great velocity when Mr. Ell rose. The rest of . the night was expensive, but unenthusiastic. Now and then the division bell rang, and outraged sleepers were dragged in by tho whips to voto on a subject, the very "matter (not to mention the merits) of which they did not know, and did not care 3d about. At 3 a.m. they were talking about the Wnngamii River. Three minutes later the week's toil was done.

Whatever (says The Times of 2nd;July) nny be tho precise outcome of tho deliberations o£ the Congress of Zemstvos and Dumas at Moscow, tho mere fact that such a congress has been held is of profuond significance. It is a landmark in the history of Russia,' the starting-point of a new order of things, the germ of changes of which we may safely predict that they will be great and far-rciching, however little we may be able to forsec their exact character. In a country hitherto ruled by an ircn system of ruthless repression representatives from all parts have come together not merely** to supplicate or to protest, but to discuss, to judge, and to condemn the actions of tho bureaucracy. The Government has been ill-advised enough to show a.t once that the disposition is unchanged and that it is no longer able to do as it would. It prohibited tho meeting, and the meeting took place all the same. It sent police to dissolve the meeting in tho accustomed manner, and the meeting received the police with good-humoured derision. On the second day the representatives met unmolested, and spoko their minds us freely as if they had been sitting in London. Japan, siys the London Daily Telegraph, has heard of the fame of BillingsKate Fish Market, and has asked its Consul-General (Mr. Arakawa) and Mr. Kata. to make a report on the subject. They accordingly communicated with the Corporation of the City, ' and were recently conducted through Billingsgate by ' the Chairman and members of the committee who have charge of the markets. "Wo are going to -have a greater fight thon ever for the principles and tenets of the Christian faith, and as a commander-in-chief I look for my recruits and sergeants to the great public schools," said the Bishop of London at speech-day at Shrewabuor School,