POLITICAL.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVI, Issue 7927, 2 August 1886, Page 5

POLITICAL.

—♦ — [By Telegbaph.] [feom oub special cobbespondent.] WELLINGTON, July 31. The inner history of last night's proceedings is very simple. For a time it seemed quite certain that the Government would carry their addition to the schedule, in spite of the rigour of the Opposition ; but at the last an Otago intrigue developed itself in the lobby. This had its representative in the Committee, in the shape of continued challenges to the Government to allocate the money. " Bring down a schedule; we willsupport it, no matter what it may be." That was the burden of the Opposition song, a Government supporter here and there joining with a strange harmony in the chorus. The intrigue was simply for an Otago schedule. The following list speaks for itself : Otago Central £IOO,OOO Southland railways 55,000 Christchurch-Sumner railway ... 20,000 Total £175,000 The coolness of the proposition was something too splendid. It meant that " the South Island" is Otago. "To be allocated to Southland Island railways" was to be converted into good Scotch by Act of Parliament, so as to read "Otago and Southland." The Government, which had stopped one such intrigue when it was open, put its foot on this one as it crawled along; but it could not do anything more. The whips told Ministers that their refusal was fatal to the proposed addition to the schedule. It was therefore determined to allow them to go to a division, and to accept defeat. Sir J. Vogel attempted to cover the retreat by throwing the responsibility on the Opposition of embarrassing the Colonial finance, and by throwing out threats of using the North Island Trunk Loan or requiring the issue of a loan next year. But the first of these only gave the Opposition leader a chance of closing with the retreating Government and inflicting considerable loi;s. It really was a treat to see him at work. The threat is not likely to have any useful result, and may produce considerable mischief, for it is a kind of seed which in Opposition soil germinates very fast, putting forth rank growths of tropical luxuriance. It would, on the whole, have been better to have accepted defeat in silence, unbroken by reference to anything but the baffled Otago intrigue. However, that is only an affair of the manner., The matter of the Government determination was excellent: that is the opinion of the -bulk of their party this morning. Oppositionists naturally think differently. They of course are making great capital of, the Major's performance, and they are in great glee—some of them even going so far as to predict the speedy downfall of the Government. They will probably, when they get cool, reflect that, after all, there is nothing to boast of in the forming of what was really a bogus line of defence, in storming entrenchments armed with wooden painted cannon, and manned by sticks covered with bits of cloth to make them look like troops. Major Atkinson ought to have taken a leaf out of the book the Premier devoted to him earlier in the discussion, when the Major was pretending the highest sentiments and the most indignant virtue. Sir Robert opened his reply by coolly describing all this as part of the performance, the by-play which the hon gentleman put in, and so the truth of the matter was got at by wholesome force of good - humoured ridicule. Had Major Atkinson treated Sir Julius in the same way, he would have risen much higher than even his friends give him credit for.