A CURIOUS TRANSACTION.

Evening Star, Issue 5762, 27 August 1881, Page 2

A CURIOUS TRANSACTION.

[From our Parliamentary Correspondent,] WELLINGTON, August 26. It was whispered very loudly in the lobbies of the House last year that “ Dick ” Reeves, as his friends and acquaintances call him, stood to make a good thing out of tho honorariums of the Upper House. He was reported, first, to have bid for the lot; but tho number got gradually smaller until it narrowed down to the Hons. Robert Campbell and "Wood. Tho purchase money was Ll5O per honorarium, the usual amount being 200 guineas. Through tho reduction of tho 10 per cent, tho honorarium was reduced to 180 guineas. Purchasing for Ll5O, Mr Reeves, of course, cleared L3O on the purchase of each councillor’s honorarium that was transferred to him. That of the Hon. R. Campbell he got, but that of Mr Wood was refused on the ground of the bargain not being confirmed, on Mr Wood denying any agreement to sell. This year tho matter becoming lobby gossip again, Mr Waterhouse took the matter up and moved yesterday tho appointment of a select committee to inquire into the whole affair. Mr Wood seconded the motion to appoint the committee, having no other course to adopt but to deny the transaction or be convicted of repudiating his bargain. Tho Hon. Robert Campbell, being in England, cannot be called on to give evidence, and it is very unlikely that he would do so if he were here. Mr Reeves asserts positively that ho bought Mr Wood’s honorarium, and tho honorable Councillor named denies with equal positiveness having sold it. The transaction is thought to throw odium on the Council, and Mr Reeves, it is pointed out, voted steadily for the honorarium throughout. He was an interested one in the amount he obtained for the Hon. Robert Campbell, and also in the amount he received for himself.