ACROSS THE STRAIT.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLI, Issue 224, 21 September 1907, Page 8

ACROSS THE STRAIT.

GOSSIP FROM THE EMPIRE CITY

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

Wo are to Dominionise in great style next Thursday, much to the delight of officialdom and the school children. Parents and employers ana the vast majority of the general public doa't care a dump about the affair. The fact is we are a busy people over here, and we have too many holidays already. There will be, no doubt, a good deal of oratory with more than a mere dash of Imperialis- , tic gush, the Volunteers will parade, ! the school children will wave flags, ' the Governor, who is really getting quite extravagant of late, is to give a ; big shivoo to Members of Parliament ! and a select circle of more or less in- ; fluential citizens, and at night there ] are to be illuminations on certain Gov- j ernmenfc buildings and a good round j sum of money will be wasted on elec- ; trie light displays which might be bet- j ter spent on other and more useful ; purposes. The influential citizens . ''will drink their fizz," and that large; section of the public which has not yet . sworn allegiance to Isittism will rm- j bibe more plebeian but equally satisiy- ; ing beverages. Also on Friday morn- 1 ing there will be a plentiful crop ot soro heads and depleted purses. _ But then we shall be living in a Dominion instead of a common Colony. And still some of us are not happy and are apt to say cvi bono? The Council has lost another ot its old hands. William Kelly-"Big Kellv " most Parliamentarians called him, to distinguish him from the popular "Tom" of that ilk-was + never what might be called a brilliant politician, but he had a big store of good hard horse sense, and a long experience of Parliamentary life and[legislative methods, and m both Houses had done not a little good modest effective work. Very- lew of the "lifers" now remain, and or those that do two are rarely ever m the Chamber. I am glad to. hear that the Hon. E. C. J. Stevens, of Christ.church, who some time ago was very dangerously-.ill, is out and about again, and good accounts Jiave come to hand- of Captain Bailhe's health. Meanwhile that genial and'gentlemanly veteran, the Hon. C. O Bowen, looks as fit as a fiddle in spite of his age, and as everybody thought he would, makes a digmned and most ,courteous Speaker. • Whenantf fcf your Marlboroughites drop aeiw£«Bft Strait I strongly counsel them "tosgend an hour or two in the gallery o£ihe. Legislative Council. The speeches- are often very much, superior to those delivered in what is called the "Popular" Chamber, and ,some of the latest "batch" are very well worth hearing. Dr Fmdlay makes an admriahle. leader, and is undoubtedly proving a tower of strength to the Government. Sir Joseph showed great wisdom in this particular appointment. .The Attorney-General, however, has no bed of roses to lie down on just now. He is blamed, by the extremists amongst the unionists for certain references made to the working of the Arbitration Act and the enforcement of fines, and what is a most malignant attempt has been made by one or two so-called labour leaders to misrepresent his attitude. One of these gentry had a letter in the Post the other night m which the Minister was dubbed "Kaiser Fmdlay," and charged with being the adTocate of the wealthy and privileged classes and a bitter enemy to labour. The letter was all the more reprehensible in that the Attorney-General had. given, only a few days before, a clear and convincing denial of the construction which had been twisted out of his speech. Not a few people consider that the letter should never have appeared in the Post. It certainly should never have been written, for a more cruelly unjust and unwarrantable attack has never been made upon a public man in this Colony. . . There is a pretty general opinion in the lobbies that a big split is coming at the next general election in the • old Liberal-Labour alliance. The I'lndependents" were not very successful two years ago, but they are by no means discouraged, and are expecting great things from the forthcoming visit of the redoubtable Keir Hardie, -who. they expent, will strongly advocate' the establishment of an Independent Labour party in the country and in the House. The paid secretaries of the various unions are known to be doing their utmost to stir up strife, and vow vengenace against the unfortunate Mr Millar. His real offence is that his bill would wipe out the nice well-paid billets of the "walking delegates" as the Yankees call the paid "organiser" class, and you, no doubt, will have observed that at Auckland the other day the prediction was made by a prominent Unionist that Mr Millar would lose his seat at next year s election. Knowing Dunedin fairly well I venture to phophesy that nothing of the sort will occur, for Mr Millar gets his support not merely from the Labour party but from all sections ot the community, and at elections, say what you will about so-called block votes" the moderates always outnumber the extremists. In view of the rapidly widening breach between the Government and the Labour party not a few of our political quidnuncs foretell a Coalition Ministry as a result of the next general election. There is practically no difference between the country members of the present Government party and the Opposition, indeed, on some questions it is doubtful whether certain of Mr Massey's followers are not more genuinely democratic than some of those who follow Sir Joseph. One thing is certain, and that is that the next election will witness the retirement of more sitting members than any other election for some years past. Several men could be mentioned who Avere practically put in by the late Mr Seddon. Now that the omnipresent and omnipotent "Dick" has gone it is believed that quite a new class of candidates will come forward, and the changes will be many and somewhat startling. It may seem foolish to theorise and speculate over the result of a struggle which is still, nominally, at least, so far away. But who shall say that we may not have a dissolution early next session .'I here are many things more unlikely. Meanwhile let us "Dominionise and forget our political AjKorries.