WELLINGTON ITEMS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXX, Issue 10217, 11 December 1893, Page 5

WELLINGTON ITEMS.

[feom oue own correspondent.] WELLINGTON. Dec. 9. Tho Govern-uent Las decided to offer for sale at the Christchurch Land Office on Jaa. 10, the mansion house at; the Cheviot Estate and the block of oOOOacres surrounding it, the upset price to be the same as before, viz., JE25,000. Some slight modifies;, tions have been made in the boundaries of the block. This is the only alteration. Dec. 10. The following paragraph in last eight’s Post stands eelf-oonfeaeed as & mere rumour:—“ It io stented on apparently good authority that within the last few days overtures have made t/jSirE. Stout to accept a seat in the BJiniatry with the portfolio of Attorney-General. Sir Patrick Buckley retiring in hi a favour. The proposal was decisively rejected. It is said that Sir Eobe.tfc Stout replied that he bad sis thousand good reasons for declining to listen to anyy suggestion of tho kind.” The phrase “ apparently good authority ” discounts he &vily the authenticity of the item. [Psb Press Association. ] A Gazette further prorogues Parliament until Feb. 15, Tho prorogation is only formal. The Nevj Zealand Times has analysed the composition of the new Parliament compared wi'ch that elected in 1884. There are only fifteen members in the House out of tho ninety-five then returned, and of these, three—Sic E. Stout. Sir Maurice O’Eorhe and Mr Pyke—have not sat contiguously. Of tho other eighty, twenty are dead, eleven ere Legislative Councillors, and of the remainder some have voluntarily withdrawn from politics.