THE FIRST NIGHT SITTING.

Evening Star, Issue 7340, 12 October 1887, Page 2

THE FIRST NIGHT SITTING.

From Our Parliamentary Reporibr.]

WELLINGTON, October 11. ( the House met at 7.30 to-night; and ( there were u&rly ninety menftielS present. \ NW Members; ] The following members took the oath and their seats : Messrs Gadman, Duncan, Fish, Graham, Kelly, Levesjfcam, M'Kenzie (Waihemo), O'Conor, Ornjnnd, Pyke, Keddon. Tanner, Sir John Hall, and Dr Hodgkinsori. The Opening Speech. A Message was received from His Excellency announcing his inability to attend till two o'clock the following day for- the purpose of declaring in person his reasons for calling Parliament together. Ministerial Statement. TheTRMiER (Major Atkinson} said : By permission of the House I would wish to say a few words. When the House last met I had the honor to inform it that His -Excellency nad been pleased to send for me and to ask me to construct a Gpvernment. I was not in a position, as I informed the House, to take any steps till I consulted the gentlemen who had been returned pledged' to retrenchment and against the policy of the late Government, After consultation with that Party, and at its request, I undertook to form a Government. T succeeded in forming a Cabinet, the members of which areas follows i—l am Premier and Colonial Treasurer 4 Mr Mitchelson is Minister of Public Works and Native: Affairs; Mr Hislop is Colonial Secretary ; Mr Fergus is' Minister, of Justice and Minister of Defence ; Mr Fisher is Minister of Education; Mr Richardson is Minister of Lands, Immigration, and Mines j Sir F: Whitaker is iff the Upper House as Attorney-General; and the Hon. Mr Stevens has taken a seat in the Cabinet without a portfolio. Sir, I propose to-mdrrow, after His Excellency has announced his reasons for calling Parliament together, to state the course of business which the Government will ask the House to consider, i would now move that the House do adjourn,till two o'clock to : morrow. Sir J. Vogel: I did not catch who was the Postmaster-General... The Premier: lam Postmaster-General. —(Laughter.) Order of Business. Mr Seddon said he would like to ask the Premier whether it was his intention on the ■ following day to move that the House do adjourn for a fortnight. As the Southern steamer left early to-morrow, it was well that they should all know, as they were Government supporters at present—(laughter)—what the • intentions of the Government were. Major Atklnson said that if it were for the convenience of the House he should be happy to make a statement, especially as he had such a large number of supporters. The course which the Government purposed to ask the House to follow was this: To-morrow they would meet for the purpose of hearing His Excellency's reasons for summoning the Parliament, and then the Government would give notice of the Address-in-Reply for the following day, and for the necessary sessional committees. The Committees would be appointed on Thursday, and the Addressin - Reply discussed. As soon as the Address-in-Reply was debated, he would move the adjournment of the House till Friday fortnight (the 28th inst.), in order to give him time to prepare his Financial Statement. He undertook to submit the Statement to the House on that date, or at the latest—he could not bind himself on so important a subject to a day—on the following Tuesday. He thought that the House would agree with hhn that in view of the large changes that the country was demanding a fortnight was very moderate time in which to perform such. a task as that.—(Hear.) Sir J. Vogel had every desire to afford the new Government all the privileges they had a right to ask, and not tojembarrass them in any way. He should like to point out to the Premier thai an adjournment till Friday fortnight really meant till the Tuesday following, or virtually three weeks. He hoped that the Premier would consider by to-morrow whether an adjournment till Tuesday week, the 25th inst., would not suffice. If the ; Government were not prepared to bring down the Financial Statement on that date, ; other business could be gone on with. It must be a short session, as Christmas was drawing near, and the arrangement he suggested would allow private members to go • on with their Bills. t Mr Ormond was only going to point out i that the course proposed by the Premier would best save time, for if the Statement i were in the hands of members on the Friday > night, they would have a couple of days to > think over it, and would be prepared to , debate it on the Tuesday following. ) Mr Seddon said the last speaker had not caught what fell from the Premier, who had not pledged himself to bring down the Statement on Friday fortnight. He reminded the House of what had been done by the Stout-Vogel Government in 1884, and said that not only had Major Atkinson had four months in which to prepare his policy of retrenchment, but had the benefit of a report by a Royal Commission on which to frame it. Unless the House got a pledge that the i. Statement would be down by Friday fortnight, Ministers would keep them dilly-, dallying, and Christmas would be here without anything being done. Mr Samuel had a melancholy recollection of what occurred in 1884, when the House adjourned from day to day. He urged that Ministers should have ample time to formulate their policy, as it would be certain to be freely criticised. Mr Pvke urged that if the Statement were not brought down till the Tuesday a whole week would be lost. Ministers should be tied down to bring it down on the Friday, bo that the House on the following Tuesday would be prepared to consider it on its merits.

Major Atkinson, in reply, could only say that nobody could be more anxious than he to have the Financial Statement brought down and Hhe session ended—(laughter)— but all .members who knew.anything about the task he was asked to perform would know that afortnight was a very moderate demand, and that if he asked for three weeks or a

month the House could not in justice have refused it. The parallel between now and 1884 would not hold good, for the StoutVogel government accepted all his figures, while now he had got to alter them for the last thirty years. He .repeated that the lime now being asked was reasonable, and he was very niuch surprised at his own moderation. If he succeeded in fetting the Financial Statement down on 'riday fortnight, he would have accomplished a task which had never been accomplished in this House. He did not .pledge himself to that day; but would do his utmost to get it down; and, failing itbat,, pledged nimaejj? to the Tuesday following. Sir J. Vogel objected to the statement going forth unchallenged that this Government came into office with less difficulties than the late r Ministry. , The motion for the adjournment was then put' and carried, and the House ,rose at 8 ,P-»V .■ ' '■ ■, : ■"■•'-' .'i