THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1872.

Grey River Argus, Volume XII, Issue 1113, 21 February 1872, Page 2

THE Grey River Argus. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1872.

Messrs Reynolds and Bathgate — the one an old and industrious member of the j Assembly, the other a new and not very promising accession to the Legislature— have, somewhat late in the day, addressed their Dunedin constituents on the incidents of the session, and commented on the proceedings of the Ministry during the recess. Of Mr Bathgate's speech we are not yet in possession of a full report, but, if any deduction may be made from the achievements of that gentleman in the House, a perusal of his platitudes on the platform may be indefinitely postponed without any great injustice being done to himself, or any grievous injury being inflicted upon . the . community. Of Mr Reynolds's speech, or, as it may be more accurately described, his statistical statement, the Dunedin papers of the 14th contain a pretty full account, and thongh it is in no degree different from those dry-as-dust deliverances which he has periodically made before the Dunedin populace, it is worth the reading, if the object only is to discover the results of the eccentricity for which the hon. gentleman is notorious— the eccentricity of being ever present within the House or its precincts, from dawn to dusk, and from dusk- again to dawn, la this particular, Mr Reynolds is an eminent subject of wonder, if not exactly of envy, among his fellow-members. In or out of his proper seat, and in or out of place as his presence may be, he is there of a morning as promptly as the carpetsweepers. He is ever there, and all there, of a day — now on the floor of the House, now in the lobby, now in the library, and, if nowhere else, in the smoking-room ; and great is his consumption, in every permissible situation, of blue-books and cigarettes. What becomes of him of a night is probably less known by his landlady than by the nocturnal custodian of the Parliamentary properties. Blessed with a constitution which is superior to fatigue, he is among blue-books while others are among the blankets, and he v among the blue-books again when others seek solace in brandy and soda. If the blue-book is his bane, the inevitable cigarette is its antidote, and he survives the session with an amount of physical strength and smokingpower which t puts to shame the many younger and stouter members by whom he is surrounded. Thus constituted, and thus industrious, if he does not bring to the counsels of his colleagues much that is remarkable for its novelty or its originality, he must take away with him, in his inner consciousness, and for communication to his constituents, a great deal of information statistical and historical. Thus we find him, in the first few sentences of his speech at Dunedin, and with a modesty which his fellow-members will be able to appreciate, contributing to the statistical records of the session, the following facts : — " The average of the daily sittings was nine hours and 28 minutes, so that you will see that your representatives— at least those who really did their duty— had quite enough to do. Besides that, the members had to attend at Committee meetings, and read through the various Bills coming before the House, and the reports laid upon the table. Tou must bear in mind that there were no less than about 90 Acts passed ; in addition to which there were about 40 Bills either rejected by the House, or allowed to drop. Then there were about 340 motions which came before the House; about 270 papers were presented; and about 270 reports were brought up by Select Committees. You can thus see that it would be almost impossible to give full details of every measure without occupying a week. I may say that Ido not profess to have thoroughly mastered the whole legislation of last session — in fact, it would be impossible for any member to have done so — but I think I have a general idea of what took place, and that T cari answer any questions that may be put to me." In his place in the House, wherever it

might be, and however much engrossed he might be in the perusal of Parliamentary literature, Mr Reynolds was a steady and by no means superficial supporter of the Government. He rendered them good service on many occasions, but his sympathies are not more with the Ministry than they are with the- interests of the Middle Island. Separation is still a hobby of his which he occasionally takes out for a ride at somewhat inconvenient seasons, and though he has not demonstratively trotted vit out oh the Dunedin platform, he desiderates, in the composition of the Ministry, more of the Middle Island element than it at present contains, and does not scruple to dispute the discretion shown in selecting some of the recent additions to their ranks. With the majority of peopie the present activity of the Ministry in visiting various parts of the country will go a long way to diminiah the discontent which Mr Reynolds thus expresses, but there is no doubt that, in such important parts of the Colony as the Province of Otago, a greater feeling of satisfaction would exist if tho Ministry were not so extensively composed of members representing North Island constituencies. On this subject, and speaking of arrangements made during and since the session, Mr Reynolds says: — "As the session advanced I expressed my dissatisfaction with the composition of the Ministry, inasmuch as its members represented North Island constituencies exclusively ; and I was assured that its ranks would be filled up with Southern Island members — one, at least, of whom would bo from Otago, and "another from the Province of Canterbury. I regret to say that this understanding >was not exactly kept. Ido not, however, entirely blame the Government for this ; I rather blame one or two of our own , Otago representatives, who, as far as 1 can judge, from feelings of jealousy, sacrificed the interests of the Province. I may say that since the dispersion of the Assembly 1 have taken very serious exception to the late appointment of Mr Ormond as a member of the Government. I do not do so on personal grounds, because I believe Mr Ormond is certainly an able man. Ido so because I think the Middle Island should have further representation in the Ministry. Hawke's Bay has a population of 6059 souls. She has two members in the House of Representatives, and both those members are in the Ministry ; whereas Otago, with a population 0f '69,491, and 19 representatives, has not 'a single member in the Government. There can be no doubt as to the necessity which exists for the Province of Otago — which forms so large a portion of the Colony— being represented in the Ministry. Take, for example, the Railway scheme which is now being carried out. What do we find, gentlemen ? We find that Taranaki is represented in the Ministry by Mr Gisborue, Wellington is represented by Mr Fox, Hawke's Bay is represented by Messrs M'Lean and Ormond, and the Middle is represented solely by Mr Reeves, of Canterbury." If it were only the fact that the North Island enjoys an excess of representation in the Ministry, and that that uneven representation did not influence in any material degree the action of the Ministry, the circumstance might be lightly considered, but Mr Reynolds, though a supporter of the Government, challenges their administration, especially in respect to the railway projects, and as we are not unconcerned in that matter, we shall quote at another time' some of the statements which he has made. Here again he shines in statistics— by his poring and pondering over Parliamentary papers, he has accumulated an array of figures as to population, railways, cost of construction per mile,' and so forth, which perhaps few members besides himself have so readily at their finger-ends — and these results of his peculiar and persistent labors in the House are, at least, worthy of recognition to the extent of being placed before other readers than those whom h6 more immediately represents.