PERSONALITIES IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XXXV, Issue 4026, 31 August 1898, Page 2

PERSONALITIES IN AND OUT OF PARLIAMENT.

The present session has probably been a record one for personal recriminations. So acute has feeling become that the strained relations existing between some members is carried away from the House itself into the lobbies. Whether it was the strain of the discordant Financial Debate just concluding, or the strong feeling generated by the two " scenes " which disturbed the week's proceedings, is not clear, but early on Saturday morning warm passages at

arms occurred, much hotter than those I which upset the order of business in ' the House. In one case a burly person- ' age fiercely ordered another, whom he described as an (adjective) rat, to get to the other side of the lobby, or dire consequences would ensue. In another case, just after the House rose (5.45 a.m.), two leading members, who had just before had hot words in the House, renewed their dialogue in the lobby, the language being reported as even beyond all Parliamentary lobby precedent. Two lesser lights got yet a stage further, and rumour has it that coats were off, and , an adjournment was made to the open, and nothing but the kindly publicity of daylight and a consequent accession of spectators prevented a rough-and-tumble encounter. Other episodes of a somewhat similar nature are whispered of, and altogether a most unpleasant and undesirable state of affairs seems to have been arrived at. GENERAL NOTES. Mr Carson, referring to Mr Taylor's connection with the Police Commission, said the member for Christchurch had gone round the colony with the Commission at his own expense. (Mr HallJones : " Not at his own expense.") " Not at his own expense ? " replied Mr Carson, " Why, what does the Minister for Public Works know about it ? " He again stated that it was within his (Mr Carson's) own knowledge that money was raised in Wanganui ana offered to Mr Taylor to recoup his expenses, but it was refused by him. (Mr Pirani: " The same thing in Palmerston.") Mr Carson added that if reform was effected in the police force that reform would be solely due to the member for Christchurch. (The Premier : " No ; to Commissioner Tunbridge.")

According to Mr Robert Thompson the weak point in the present Government is their defective administration, and their best friends held that opinion. He said the country wanted something more thau labor legislation, and he significantly added that if the Seddon Government would not push on such measures as the Local Government Bill, other men would have to do so.

The Government has declined to purchase the rights of the treatment of inebriates at the Hagey Institute.