GALLERY NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 6314, 14 September 1907, Page 8

GALLERY NOTES.

(BY ARIEL.) The attention of the Council was occupied yesterday with the Pure Food Hill, considered in committee. The discussion centred in the staff of life, end it was interesting to observe the amount of knowledge which some of the fathers of the State, who are also incidentally fathers of large families of their own, concerning the wiles of the wicked baker. Mr Giorge Jones was able to give additional evidence (it any were wanted) of his quite extraordinary versatility. Fresh from wrestling with the babyfarmer and the totalizator, the honourable gentleman was able to give a lecture on bread which might have graced the halls of tho Technical School. Onlv once did ho trip. He had spoken severely of the tin loaf, harshly of the variety known as the "batch”—both being insidious retainers of moisture, and therefore dissemblers in tho matter of weight—and turned smilingly to contemplate tho honest cottage loaf, which, as it disdained to keep a drop of superfluous water, perforce compelled the kneador to bestow upon it the proper quantity of dough. There was, said -Mr Jones, nothing wrong about the honest cottager, nor with his blood relation the, the —and here ho paused, and said he could not remember'names or faces, when tho Hon. Mr Paul, sitting just below, whisperisl "Barracoota.” Oh, yes,’’ chortled tho relieved orator, "Barracouta! Good old, honest barracoota!” Half the Councillors were no wiser than before, but they had tho good manners not to press for an explanation.

Mr Paul hoped the Government woulc insist that every loaf should bo sold by weight, and that tho four-pound loaf, whether cottage, tin, batch, barra-what-d’ye-call-it, or fancy, should contain four times sixteen ounces of bread. It the bakor could not afford to sell the tancy stylo at the same price as the connnoi or barracoota article, let him make up by charging more, not by giving shortwoight. This sounds all right, but it would not work. It is a weakliest, inherent in human nature to think that the baker may bo right when he declares that tho loaf is so many pounds weight, but to have no dealing with him wlic’ ho puts up tho price. Mankind would prefer to buy a short-weight fancy loai tor 6d than a full-woight one for 7d.

The afternoon sitting of tho Ilouse was mostly time wasted, or time misspent. The Premier complained that he had been misreported in the matter of boiler. 1 - by a country journal, but after explanations, it was found that the matter was one of interpretation. There was not much in it any way, though it showed how anxious the Premier is to have hi; views on the tariff made absolutely deal and unmistakable.

It was known that the tariff could not come up for the last polishing touches until 7.30, and members proceeded to amuse themselves with the Chattels Transfer Amendment Bill, which provides for the registration of instrument* of transfer in the four chief centres and Gisborne only. This gave ample room for a semi-serious warfare on the wellworn issues of town versus country, ccntialism versus decentralisation, etc., etc., and before the debate had exhausted the day's supply of. wit, humour, and sarcasm, the name of every centre, and some of no centres, had been the subject of an amendment. Finally progress was reported, and the Bill bids fair to be amongst the number of the Innocents.

In the evening the new order-paper was found to contain a few further necessary amendments to the tariff schedule. Raw cotton, formerly free, was put clown for a tax of 4d a pound, and as soon as Mr James Allen conld get a hearing, he concentrated all the powers of his voice ana vocabulary upon the cowering devotee? item. All ears were strained, the occupants of the galleries being temporarily under the impression that the Prime Minister had been found out in the of trying to subvert the Constitution. Never since the session opened has the Bruce spoken in such ringing tones, and with a so lively display of rhetoric at he did last night in defence of the c. of shoddy. At his back, equally vehement, more lavish in the matter c gesticulation, and more illogical also, perhaps, was the member for Christchurch. Mr Ell. and behind both, armed cap-a-pie and carrying an actual buckler of cotton, like a cavalier of Abyssinia, rode the member for Newtown.

Mr Barber it evidently was who supplied the other sort of raw material out of which Messrs Allen and Ell wove their speeches, and posed as the friends of the down-trodden working man, who got better value for his money out of the cotton and wool mixture than from the pure wool fabric. Mr Laurenson, with his arguments drawn from the famous Mosgiel motto and trademark, made a lovely point by showing that all the working man would save by the shoddy expedient was “tuppence" on u pair of pants, while Mr Hardy (with fifty years' experience in the trade, sir, and don't you forget it) scorned the notion that any mixture with measly cotton in it could equal in the matter of durability the good old wool.

Late in the evening the “a oo” party rose in its might and vanquished the party of "oo wi' a trifle of cotton in it" by a substantial majority. Whereat the wool kings—upon whom Mr Eil had poured gallons of scorn during the night, and amongst whom he classed the blushing Mr Laurenson—wiped their brows and breathed freely once more. ’