LOCAL GOSSIP.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 8928, 17 December 1887, Page 1 (Supplement)

LOCAL GOSSIP.

"Let me have audience lot a word or two." —Shaksptr*. Still, one cannot look with much satisfaction at the proceedings of our legislators. At the last general election, two things were quite determined — first, that the honorarium should be reduced and, second, that the number of members should be reduced. But these two things would never have been gained if the country had not pledged those who were elected, and kept their eye upon them pretty sharply since. The latest dodge was to postpone the reduction of the number of members for three years, with the enactment that if before the expiration of that time there was a general election the old members should be returned. The effect of that would have been that at the end of two years we should have had a now Parliament, who would have thought it a great hardship that their life and their numbers should be reduced by a Parliament who suffered nothing themselves. They would certainly have still further postponed the reduction, and perhaps would have repealed the Act. Even now, so selfish and corrupt is Parliament, that unless publio opinion is briskly maintained, and members are oarefully watched on this point, they will find some pretext for repealing the Aot which has been passed to reduce the number of members.

Mr. Hobba never had a high opinion of those with whom he is associated in the b ,use of Representatives, and has publicly expressed his astonishment that he should ever have become the companion of such sinful, unchristian men. But his opinion, I understand, is now much worse respect, ing them, or some of them, than ever. Mr. Hobbs was anxious to got through his Bill for the Kamo-Kawakawa railway, and he had precedence. But in order to propitiate Mr. Vincent Pyke, who followed with his Otaeo Central Railway Bill, Mr. Hobbs gave way. Then came Sir George Grey with his Fair Kent Board Bill, and Mr. Hobbs consented to give way to propitiate him. For all this, which secured the passage of the proteges of Grey and Pyke, Mr. Hobbs was to get but a comparatively small return. They were to " keep a House" for him, so as to allow him to get his measure through. That is, they were to see that enough members were kept in the House so that there should not be a " count out." But when Mr. Pyke got his job perpetrated, he received such a (stimulating series of congratulations from his friends that he became quite oblivious of what he had promised. When the counting out motion came on Mr. Pyke was nowhere, or at all events was not available. Sir George Grey, when his own Bill was through, simply went home, and left Mr. Hobbs to be "counted out." Had Mr. Hobbs stuck to his advantage of being first on the Order Paper, Pyke and Grey would have kept a House, aud run his Bill through a second reading.

I always thought Mr. Hobbs & sharp man, but I must alter my opinion now. I must class him with Mr. Moss as a " virtuous innocent." lam beginning to think that he was quite right in looking upon himself as too good and unsophisticated to associate with such men as are around him. Now, if he bad allowed Mr. John Lundon to go in, that at least could not have been said. John would not have pretended to be better than Pyke, and that is not saying much. 1 don't believe that any member could have got him to forego any advantage which he held for his constituents. Hobbs, I am told, summed it all op in the declara» tiou, " 1 was a fool" He used no adjective, observe.

Another episode of Parliamentary life which we have all been discussing here during the last week is that of the Hon. Dr. Pollen. He is so disgusted at the members of the House of Representatives for reducing his honorarium_ to £100, while they pay themselves £150, that he has determined to shake the filthy dust of politics from his boots. Such an act can but portend something awful. Daniel points to the writing on the wall, and declares that the Medo is at the gate. He may be, but when Cyrus comes to New Zealand, he will take the shape of the English creditor with an execution in his hand. To some extent, I sympathise with the doctor. Why should there be a distinction made between the members of the House of Representatives and the members of the Legislative Council ? It in true the former have to stand the risk of a contested election, but then the honorarium in no way is supposed to cover election expenses. True, too, that the members of the Upper House have not to listen to so much talk, and are not kept so lata out of bed. But then the members of the Lower House cannot expect to be paid for that, because the vast amount of talk is a curse to the country, for which they themselves are responsible. The inferior pay is a plain declaration that the members of the House of Representatives consider "the lords" inferior men. Dr. Pollen cannot stand being set down as inferior to such men as Fish and Seddon.

But neither I nor the country will consider that the colony is lost, even if Dr. Pollen and half-a dozeu other lords take it into their heads to clear oat. Dr. Pollen is no doubt a man of oaltnre, which cannot be said of many in the House of Represents tives ; he is a gentlemanly fellow, and has large reading and experience. The closing scene of his long life in the Legislature of New Zealand seems to have been exquisitely touching. He came into the Chamber of the Legislative Council to get some private papers which happened to be in the drawer attached to bis place, and thereupon he was surrounded by his sorrow4bg colleagues, entreating that he should not leave them. The doctor was melted to tears. He stood, in the anguish of his heart, slowly rubbing his hands against each other, significant of the fact that he was washing his hands of New Zealand politics for ever, while around ' him clung his fellow-statesmen imploring him not to forsake them. But he was inexorable. True, even Dr. Pollen is human. A few tears coursed down his manly cheeks. He thought of the old times and the great men he had once associated with, before the VQgelian era, when all became iufeoted with the idea I that borrowing money was the same as earning it. But the prayers of his colleagues were repelled j he gathered np bis hat and left the field of politics clear for Fish and Seddon. •

We have heard a great deal about election expenses, but, if we are to believe cstndiri statements made, much of the talk is simply bosh. The Hon. Mr. Shrimski, who in now in the Upper Houau, but who for many years sat in the Lower, declared the other day that his expenses had not on any occasion cost him above £20. It may be somewhat of a reply to say that Mr. Shrimski wa* quite willing to save this £20 by obtaining a seat in tho Upper House. But the Hon. Mr. Reynolds had beaten Mr. Shrimski's record, for lie declared that long as he had represented Dunedin constituencies he had never spent more than £5 on an election. The newspapers must not have got muoh out of him for advertising. Surely one of these men is a Jew and the other a Scotchman, or they never could have done the business so economically as that. But after this let no man talk about elections costing hundreds of pounds, when a five* pound note can cover the whole thing.

But, for prominence as a local topic, not even the sayings and doings of Parliament could compote, daring the last few days, with the remarks about the disappearance of a young solicitor, who started life with th* fairest prospects, and who has utterly wrecked them, and brought poignant grief to all his friends by downright folly. If a tenth part of the stories are true of people who have been " let in," then the record is a very black one, and many will have reason to regret that they ever bad anything to do with the subject of our notice. How is it that so many young men with fair prospects •' go wrong 3!" is there some radical error in the way in which our youths are brought up? ■ - -

It ia difficult to obtain any merriment out of anything connected with yellow fever, and yet anyone who has received a circular, a copy of which has come into my hands, will experience a ripple of amusement. The said circular, beside* prescribing for yellow fever, advertises an antidote for enake-bite, and as neither yellow lever nor snakeu are to

be feared in New Zealand, it is difficult to conceive why it should have been sent. Perhaps the sender, who is no doubt a foreigner, was not aware of those facts. The circular is dated Guayaquil, in South America. It runs thus:—"This disease commences with a bad cold, and the pores of the skin are closed. The person attacked feels as though they had a very bad cold, and the' skin is quite dr.y. If nothing is done for them a small portion get well, but the others, after twenty to sixty hours of these pains, with slight internal fever, all at once think they are over with the attack."

It must be refreshing to the officers of the Harbour Board to find that " the roar for retrenchment" has not reached the august body under which they serve, even in the form of a whisper. The salaries of the officers amount to £5000 per annum, and many of us remember when the work was better done for £500. But the Board went into committee on the salaries, and determined " that the salaries remain as during the previous year." This is simply incomprehensible. The officers Harbour Board are better paid than the employes of any publio body in New Zealand, and how it is that the members never even talk at a Board meeting about reducing them, is a positive wonder. It was understood that a reduction was to be made ; but it seems that when the members of the Board get into that palatial building, their hearts sink into their boots in the presence of their employes. And yet the Board have no funds to do useful works when they are asked for, and there is a perfect chorus of complaints as to how the wharves are managed, and the pilot service, and everything connected with the Board. I am quite sure that the harbour could be managed by the staff of the City Council, with the addition, perhaps, of a couple of clerks. Will any member of the Board let the public know why, when every public body is retrenching in the way of salaries, they should make not the slightest effort in that direction, when their staff is the most costly and highly-paid of all? Mekgutio.