PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume I, Issue 80, 15 December 1887, Page 2

PROROGATION OF PARLIAMENT.

it is proposed to prorogue Parliament next week, so that members will have an opportunity of reaching their homes before Christmas, There are now only some six days in which to pass ten Bills —Land Act Amendment Bill, Government Railways Bill, Crown and Native Lands Rating Bill, Naval Defence Bill, Slaughter-house Bill, Pharmacy Bill, Civil Service Reform Bill, District Railway Purchasing Bill, Government Loans to Local Bodies Bill, West Coast Settlement Reserves Bill, and the Property Tax Bill, It is practically certain that the Government, in the short space of time at their command, cannot consider any more than half of these measures, and even then they will not receive the attention .they deserve. As a result, therefore, the session will close with a heavy balance against it, for besides the Bills mentioned there are many others which will have to be slaughtered for want of time to consider them. Up to the present the session has not been very productive in advancing the real, business of the country. The telegrams received from our correspondent at Wellington have only too plainly shown us that to the Opposition party is due the result. Not alone have they broken their pledge to help the Government in the arduous duties which Ministers have undertaken, but they have never neglected the slightest opportunity to cause obstruc tion throughout the session. Tactics of the most miserable kind have been resorted to to delay the business, and now they have the satisfaction of knowing that they have been the means of kill ing many useful measures which, if the proceedings had not been delayed from day to day by the desire of the Opposi tion members to hear their own voices would have been made law. Sir Julius Vogel with his lieutenants Seddon, Fish, and a few others have certainly had their say, but it has been at the expense of their own constituencies and of the colony, From the very jump, to use a racing term, Sir Julius Vogel has been an obstructionist, and from .his great ability as a politician has proved one to be dreaded. Any sympathy that was apparent for him on his being forced to quit the Ministerial benches has now altogether disappeared, for it is clearly to be seen that his greed for office wil 1 always outweigh all other considera tions. It has been indeed pitiful to observe the many degrading attempts he has made to place obstacles in the way of Ministers. One moment praising the bold policy of Major Atkinson, at another opposing its being carried into effect to the utmost of his abilityThose who have seconded him in this are the worst possible kind of members —those on whom a plentiful gift of the gab has been bestowed. Anyhow, we have to be thankful for small mercies, and small as they will be, they are a great bound in the right direction,