WELLINGTON.

Oamaru Mail, Volume IV, Issue 1026, 4 August 1879, Page 2

WELLINGTON.

(l"KOM OUR OWN COKBESrOXDENT.)

A contemplation of the actions of those wlio are supposed to represent in a high degree the thinking power, principle, and conscientiousness of the land, cannot be a source of congratulation to any rightminded man, whether he take his standpoint on one side of the House of Representatives or the other. There was apparent in the action of too many members of the House, who spoke in the late debate, a desire to attach themselves to the party from which the most advantage could be derived, and though in the speeches they delivered during the debate they professed attachment to either one side or the other, in most cases the superficiality of those speeches exposed a want of sincerity, and an evidence that if any advantage had been procurable from an advocacy of any other cause, those deliverances might have been different. This was practically demonstrated in several instances of secession from the Liberal side. It is a matter of fact that Sir George Grey's programme alone holds his supporters together. It is not belief in the man that does it. He has advanced certain proposals which are recognised as essential by the members who form his party. The fact that he has advanced them tends to induce those members to support him, and not success in carrying them out. Defective administration might be looked upon as a ground for defection from a support of his Ministry, but it could not possibly be distorted into a good and sufficient reason for acknowledging the superiority of Sir' William Fox as a ministerial leader. Among the many nice Parliamentary expressions coined each session, none is more elegant than the term "rat," and that the hon. member for Franklin (Mr. Hobbs) should announce that he was " proud of being termed a c rat,'" would surprise one who did not know the man. The evening on which the division took placa produced Mr. Hislop, who. iu a long and sensible speech, quite to the point, went to show that the vote taken, which was adverse to the Government, had been arrived at without any papers or information having been laid before the House to prove the maladministration or neglect with which the administrators were charged, and wound up by proposing that an addition to that effect be made to the Address in Reply after the clause proposed by Sir William Fox and carried by the House. This, of course, was lost on the voices, as its effect would have been to nullify the adverse votQ previously given. After the division on the want of confidence motion had taken place, the Opposition members were jubilant, a few—notably Mr. Wakofield—particularly so, when the Premier, in the best speech of the session, but which speech might have been more politic in some respects, gave the Canterbury runholders and squatocracy generally an overhauling, and endeavored to show

that, instead of being "the common' enemy, as Sir William Fox had Bticr ma .. tised him, he was only '-'the enemy of those' who were en emies of all except themselves " The Premier was eloquent,and at times was quite affected, but the speech, whatever effect it may have had upon adherents embittered the Canterbury members and others of the Opposition. The scene which presented itself upon the Premier announcing, amidst ringing cheers, that His Excellency had granted a dissolution shewed how completely the tables had been turned. The disgusted appearance of many members of the Opposition was unmistakeable. It had been said that Sir George Grey had been holding back ». trump card, and that the Opposition had only " two tricks in," so that a " euchre was not beyond possibility ; but the lefthand members were quite unprepared for to large a trump. They had api parwtly " played their bowers," and had 1 forgotten the existence of " the joker." It is thought that one or two of the shining lights of the Legislature will leave Wellington to return no more, at least as legislators. Poor Manders, what will the Ladies' Gallery occupants do for tlioir idol! and Ho'obs, the "rat." Oh) those nice little deliverances of that pharisaical representative, in which he thanks; his Creator that he is made as he is, and says how wicked men are that are about him ; how, in fact, although he does not announce it in the House, he is not going to be bound to any Ministry that he thinks will not be able to give him a berth. The loss of those, and many others, will be as severely felt by the frequenters of the galleries as by all lovers of faulty and personal representation.