GALLERY NOTES

New Zealand Times, 12 September 1907, Page 5

GALLERY NOTES

(By ARIEL.)

The Council came In like k lamb yesterday, but went out with a note' m it<i accents quite leonine. Ur, to express tne same idea in xuose, the proceedings uvgan with. Air Feidwick and tho Gore Stieets isill and ended wilii Air Alacuonaid and Dr Findlay, on the theme of the famous Five Acres. The former iiad marshalled his arguments in imposing array, and spoke with tne same vigour and connuence as at the opening ot ■ tne debate, Tne Attorney-General paid him tne compliment of saying that ue had made out a tnoroughly convincing case—against the city oi Wellington, it was a perfect anti-climax in the rhetorical sense at any rate, and was immensely enjoyed.

In tho Douse there was a weary period of questions, questions mainly of mere importance without interest, to put it somewhat paradoxically. A good barometer is su£)pUed by the faces in the galleries— not the '“ladies' gallery, for there natural politeness of the sex ensures' attention, or the Press Gallery, for there duty commands it, or a simulacrum of it—but the others, say, the Speaker's, for preference. Yesterday afternoon not a countenance in that enclosure betrayed the slightest sign of emotion. .Nobody smiled, and. no one dropped a tear. But there was a constant change of personnel. The front bench was kaleidoscopic in its transformations. There had been, once* a transient gleam of hope, but it left a deeper sadness behind it.

It was on this wise. When the Land and Income Tax Bill was reported, the leader of the Opposition rose with all his proicssionai truculency (which none but seasoned habitues of the gallery know is assumed) to demand from tho Premier when the Bill was to be debated. Sir Joseph rose, showing the customary contrast of manner, and informed his irate interrogator that the order of business would be: first, the Tariff Bill; then the Bill which had just been mentioned; next the Land BUI; succeeding that the Endowment Bill; following that the Native Land Bill, and afterwards such other measures as might be considered necessary. It was all so neat and categorical and irreproachable that Mr Massey could not for the life of him find words in which to express the astonishment that be would not reveal, or the satisfaction that he would not openly avow. AIL that he could do on the spur of the moment was to imitate the immortal Sloppy. Ho threw himself back, revealing unsuspected buttons, and laughed loud and long. And, as tho menagerie-keeper remarked of the hyaena of the desert, what he laughed at goodness only knows.

Some extra-judicial interest was created for the Ussher petition by the member for'Waikouaiti. The prayer of the petition, shortly, is that whereas the petitioners purchased land under Crown grant purporting to be 706 acres, a resurvey for land transfer purposes showed the. area to be only 669 acres, and they asked the Government for a refund in respect of the lost 37 acres. The Minister of Lands explained that there is no fund out of which compensation may be paid, and further that the loss was all in ,the way of business. The original survey had not been made by the Government, which was further protected by the proviso in the deed embodied in the words "more or less.” Mr Massey could see no reason.why the refund should not be placed on 'the Supplementary Estimates, but, Mr T. Mackenzie went further than this. He professed to see no ditinction In the degree of moral turpitude involved in giving short measure of land and in that of selling short-weight bread. Individually, he was certain that Mr McNab would be “the last man in the world to palm off upon a customer 669 acres for 706, and why should he countenance such an act by the Government? The Minister smiled, and Mr Duncan said the man who gave the short measure land was the original < .surveyor. Apropos of this Mr Jennings remarked that the instrument could not lie. No, said the Minister, it cannot lie, but it sometimes abstains from telling the truth. Whereat there went up quite a chorus of sighs, showing that the instrument had indeed been known to prevaricate.

.As the day was yet young, and there was time to waste, the member for Mannkau moved the adjournment of the House, in order to have the pleasure of explaining to pretty vacant and otherwise inattentive benches that the Government had been shockingly neglectful in the matter of the Onehunga wharf. And Mr Arnold seconded the motion to get a chance of stating, in the same depressing surroundings, that the accommodation for delirium tremens cases in Dunedin is quite inadequate and inappropriate. One or two others put in a differentialword or two to the hushed Chamber, and then Mr Massey, once more in his robes of thunder, rose to denounce Ministers for their alleged inattention to the righteous complaints laid before them. It had been the custom, he said, in the halcyon days of old, for members of the Government to listen, make notes, and reply to the speeches. There was a faint “hear, hoar" from somewhere in the honourable gentleman's rear, and then a curious thing happened. Beginning with Mr Fowlds, the Ministers concerned, , rose .and answered the questions with a’fullness of knowledge which proved that absolutely nothing had been missed!.

After that the questions and mbsequently and thenceforward, the'Tariff.