CALLED TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 9027, 4 November 1892, Page 13

CALLED TO THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

THE NEW APPOINTMENTS.

Wellington, October 15. TirE new appointments to the Legislative Council were made at the Cabinet Council held this morning. The fact of the appointments having been made became soon known, and the liveliest interest was felt on tho subject. Ministers wore very reticent on tho subject, which intensified the interest. A supplement to the New Zealand Gazette was, however, issued this afternoon containing tho names of the gentlemen newly appointed. Thoy are as follows :—

Win, McCullough, Auckland. Win, Jennings, Auckland. Thos. Kelly, New Plymouth. Hon. E. Richardson, Wellington. John Rigg, Wellington. W. Montgomery, Christchurch. John G. Jonkinson, Christchurch, W. C. Walker, Christchurch. Jas. Kerr, Greymouth. W. M. Bolt, Dunodin. John Macgregor, Dunedin. H. Feldwick, Invercargill.

The Hon. Mr. Richardson is one of the most experienced public men in the colony. As Minister of Public Works he was in the Waterhouse Administration of 1872, in the Vogel Ministry of 1873, in the Pollen Ad ministration of 1875, again in the Vogel Ministry of 1876, again in tho Atkinson Ministry, and, lastly, in the Stout-Vogel Ministry of 1884, going out of office in 1887 , , Mr. Montgomery is equally well known as a public man. He was a Minister in one of the combinations which emerged from the political complications of 1881, but he was only twelve days a Minister. He next went to England, and travelled the European Continent. Mr. Walker was Government whip for the Stout-Vogel Administration. Mr. Kelly, of Taranaki. was Seventeen years in the New Zealand Parliament, most of that time chairman of the Public Petitions Committees. Mr. J. Macgregor is a brother of Dr. Macgregor, the inspector of Hospitals and Asylums. He is a successful barrister, and one of the papers here gives him tho reversion of the seat on the Supreme Court bench which Mr. W. B. Edwards would have occupied. This statement appears somewhat fanciful. Messrs. McCullough, of Auckland, and Kerr, of Greymouth, are considered men of capacity and solid judgment. The members of the Council elevated from the ranks of labour are all well spoken of. Tho enemies of the Government point to these appointments as specimens of polical " hedging." The friends of the Government appeal to the appointments to show that the selection of now Councillors has been governed by a strict regard for the public interests. What may happen in the future is outside any practical consideration just now. The appointments bring up the number of the Council to 47. The result give? to Auckland 8 members of the Legislative Council instead of 6, to Canterbury 8 instead of 5, to OtHgo 10 instead of 7, to Wellington 8 instead of 6, to Taranaki 2 instead of 1, to Wostland 2 ins#ad of 1. Hawko's Bay, Nelson, and Marlborough, so far as tho Legislative Council is concerned, remain as they were. Apart, however, from all unfriendly qualification tho general feeling is favourable to tho selection of tho new Councillors. The Times says the telegraph boy, bearing Mr. Jenkinson's nomination to the Legislative Council, found him working inside a boiler, and thrust tho message through a small hole. Mr. Jenkinson thought it was a hoax, and was only persuaded with difficulty to write an answer, which he did without saying a word.

Mr. William McCullough, of Auckland, master printer, is an Irishman by birth, and may almost claim to be an old identity. On the mother's side he is descended from an old Irish family, the Maemahons, and on his father's side from ono of the Scottish colonists who in the time of James I. settled in the North of Ireland. He left Limerick with his parents totAuckland in 1859, arriving by the ship Tornado in that year. His father purchased 11 farm at Mangapai, and »Mr. McCullou"h went to work on it, at the same time doing a little in journalism by becoming correspondent in the district for the Auckland Weekly News. In 1804 he went to the West Coast goldfields, working as a miner on many of the fields—the Greenstone, Red Jack's Gully, and other districts of the Upper Grey. The glowing reports from the Thames goldfields induced Mr. McCullough to come back to Auckland and visit the Thames. There he worked as a miner and mine manager for several years, subsequently joining the Times as mining reporter. After various changes he became proprietor of the Thames Star, which he has run for twenty years. Mr. McCullougli while on the Thames took an interest in political matters, and at one time or other has held nearly all the public positions in the gift of his fellow-citizens. In 1878-9 he was Mayor, subsequently president of the Hospital Board, chairman of the Harbour Board, and chairman of the Board of Governors of the High School. Subsequently Mr. McCullough bought a printing business in Auckland, and for the last few years has given his attention to it. In politics he is a Liberal, and in favour of the extension of the franchise to women. Mr. McCullougli holds high rank in the Masonic fraternity as Provincial Grand Master, North Island of New Zealand, under the Scottish Constitution, becoming successor to the late Sir Frederick Whitaker, whom he may now be said to succeed in tlio Legislative Council. We understand that one of the reasons why Mr. McCullough has been appointed by the Government to the I egislative Council is that they are desirous of having a representative of the Thames Goldfields there, one who understands goldfield subjects. For nearly twenty years the Thames people have been endeavouring to get a member in the Legislative Council, who might be regarded as interested in and representative of the goldfields. Mr. Win, Jennings, the Labour member for Auckland, is a native of this city, and a printer by trade, He served his time with Messrs. Mitchell and Seffern, in the sixties, at the old New Zealander office and elsewhere. He subsequently went to Dunedin, and was foreman printer on the Ago and Guardian, and afterwards on the Oamaru Mail. Some ten years ago ho returned to Auckland, and obtained a position as one of the foremen of the Evening Star establishment. He has been connected with the Trades and Labour Council, the Knights of Labour, was for some time hon. secretary of the Auckland Liberal Association, and is also an officer of some of the friendly societies. As a Labour representative Mr. Jennings' views have always been moderate and sensible, and he wholly disapproved of the language and conduct of some of the agitators during the great maritime strike. If Labour is to be directly represented in the Upper Chamber he is as eood a selection as could bo made, as he enjoys, from his past record, the confidence and respect of. his fellow workers. In matters of social reform he has also taken a good deal of interest, and actively co-operated with Miss Morrison, the secretary of the New Zealand Tailoresses' Union in the endeavour to improve the condition of the tailoresses and other women workers.