POLITICAL NOTES.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XLII, Issue XLII, 30 September 1908, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

{From Our Special Correspondent). A MORIBUND PARLIAMENT. AN EARLY MORNING INCIDENT. WANTED :'~QUORUM. WELLINGTON, Tuesday j Tho present Parliament seems to be j in tho kind of stupor that comes before death, and it is devoutly to be hoped ■ that the new one will be a considerabls improvement upon the present. In th< early hours of this morning the Hou6< was not in a fit state, to do business j but the Government were anxious t< , pass the first item of the Public Worki i Estimates. At times during the dis cu&sion there was less than a quoruir v present, which means that over 60 oul of 80 of the people's representatives were conspicuous by their absence. The Opposition moved to report progress, and this was lost by only 11 to 10. Fiftytwo members were absent. Mr Massey drew attention to the serious niturs of the position, for, he i said, the Opposition had only to leave the Chamber and the business wou.'d come to a standstill, as there would be less than a quorum (20 members) present. This situation scared the Government W.hips considerably, and they sent messengers post huste to beat up a few extra Government, supporters, to make a quorum. ' Their tactics proved a little hard on one innocent Wellington citizen, whose residence waa mistaken for that of a member of Parliament. It was betw-fm 2 and 3 o'clock in the morning. iSiuidenly thcro was a loud knocking nt 'rs door and a violent ringing of the li-tl, which woke tip the whole hou?!iol 1, including an invalid, who nad lieen in bed for ten days with a weak heart. The owner of the house, ?lad only in his pyjamas, went donwstairs to inijui;e what all the bother was a tour, and on opening the door he faced a panting mef.se.nger, who informed him (he Mr Arnold was wanted in the House mvi ediately. The disturbed citizen rcturally uttered a fervent prayer on I ehalf f.f the Liberal Government and Mr Arnold in particular, an:l then sorrowfully climbed the stairs once more and I ried to sleep. After all it seems that there was no great reascn for all the fuss The Government Whips had omitted to notice that many of their flock had foi lowed the Leader of the opp>3itrm into :'.,e lobby, so after all they "ealiy had, mcli'ding the Speaker, a quoniT. piwtii As to poor Mr Arnold, borej P'moi-t to sleep with the dreary debate, wr-i :h .-.tldom rose above the level <f a Road Board discussion, he had betaken himself to the hallowed quiet rf Ihc library, where he was busy writing letters to his constituents. IMPORTATION OF OREGON PINE. A return presented to liio House tod>y shows that during tho five years ii 6 from August, 1903, 10 Augmt, 1808. 9,852,183 superficial feet ;>f Oregon j.tve were imported into New ealan-3. The importations of the sai-6 timbir also included 6,171,719 laths and rhinglis, 4500 palings, and 30 round logs, the laft-named being imported during tiie past year. Of the total ijinnlity of ndinary timber, 6,914,734 ft. came to the Dominion during the past year.