The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1891.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XL, Issue 9194, 23 September 1891, Page 2

The Taranaki Herald. PUBLISHED DAILY. WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 1891.

The Speaker of a Legislative body bas a difficult task to perform. He must be familiar with the precedents and forms of Parliament, which is a work of time with the ablest of men. He is expected to uphold the dignity, to interpret the rnles, and to preserve the proprieties of the House. He is supposed to be uniformly courteous, and to be without a suspicion of partiality. He must never lose his equanimity, and must never be at a loss for a sound opinion. He must hare the ability to understand the elements which make up the House and tact enough to manage the members. Hq must not only be acquainted with the rules and precedents which are supposed to govern no email portion of the conduct of Parliament, but must always be ready with new rules and precedents of his own. The order of Parliamentary business is a matter which has been decided for the Speaker, but to no small extent the liberty of Parliamentary discussion is a matter which the Speaker must decide for himself. The law of Parliament demands courtesy between man and man within certain limits; it also defines what is courtesy and what is not: but the settlement of the majority of the difficulties that arise in the House must depend upon the judgment of the Speaker himself. It must to no small extent rest with him to decide what licenses of speech are permissible, and what are not permissible. The great demand of modern time bas been for increased freedom of discussion, and the responsibility of stopping it when members get warm in their argument is one of the greatest difficulties a Speaker has to perform. At such timeß he must know no one, and his decisions must be free from the slightest suspicion of bias or favouritism to one side of the House or the other. His duty is rather to extinguish the fire than to fan it into a flame. It requires a man with some degree of firmness, but at the same time tact, to occupy such a position, and Major Steward, we find, possesses neither.

Major Steward has no doubt before this felt he was not fitted for the position he occupies as Speaker of the House of Representatives. His weakness of character on more than one occasion during the session has been very marked in his decisions : but there was no mistaking it over the MoKenzie-RichardooD

affafr, the dfeotMsion on which ha allowe d to drift and drift until it ended in the Hont Mr Bryee being wrongly censured by a party vote. Had Major Steward shown greater firmness, and decision, and impartiality at tho outset of that very discreditable business it would not have ended in so serious a manner. As an luß1 u 8t Q llce of tne man y strange decisions of the Speaker, we may mention one where a member, named Hogg, used the expression "that Mr J. Scobie Mackenzie had spoken several times, and his conduct was scandalous." Mr Rhodes took exception to the word "scandalous," but tho member for Mount Ida said « he did not complain of the language of the member for Masterton, as he considered it an honor —a positive honor— to havo his conduct dubbed • scandalous' by tbe hon. member:" Ihe Speaker ruled that Mr Scobie Mackenzie was out of order, but it does not appear that he upbraided Mr Hogg for using the word "scandalous." On another occasion a member, speaking of an assertion made by another, and to which he took exception, said, "Itis an improper statement. I will not call it an untruthful statement, though it is untruthful." This was not raled to be unparliamentary. We could, had we space, give many other instances of the curious decisions given by the Speaker, but it is unnecessary. Major Steward Bhould have followed in Sir Maurice O Rorko's footsteps, and never have allowed himself to be trapped as he evidently was over the resolution which censured Mr Bryce and led to that gentleman tendering the resignation of his seat in the House. There is hardly a difference of opinion about that Bad^bußiness, the general verdict being that the Speaker was chiefly to blame for all that nappenedv

The householders at Pungarehu have elected Messrs T. Harvey, G. Hemingway, D. McNeil, and M. J. Macßeynolds, a Committee for the aided school there. The Town School Committee notified the Education Board to-day (Wednesday), that the headmaster of the Central School had expelled a girl from the school for a continuance of bad conduct. .' At the Auckland Trotting Club's meeting on Saturday next, the local trotters Charlie aod Fibre, and ponies Lady Onslow and Rodney, will compete. Their chances of success are decidedly open, as the company they will meet is exceptionally good. Notice is given in our advertising colums of events at the Auckland Spring and Summer Racing meetings, which require attention on Friday next. Maire, the well-known hack, was shipped to Auckland on Tuesday night. The old fellow will be put in the pale list The five mile bicyole race will be run to-morrow evening at 4 o'clock, the course being six times round the block from Dr. Leatham's residence in Courtenay-street, into Devon via Eliot-street, and into Courtenay-street via Liardet-street, the finishing post being near Mr Butterworth's Old Curiosity Shop. The starters will be J. Ramson (scr), H. Inch (15secs), J. Bennett (lmin 20secs), G. Hendry (3mins), and C. Lever (smins). F. Moore (3mins 30secs), and J. Searle (6mins 30secs), have fallen out. The race will be fought out between Ramson, Inch, and Bennett. The Pall Mall Gazette haß discovered that the death of "Rolf Boldrewood," which recently spread through the entire English press, and drew a critical and not entirely eulogistic obituary note from the Speaker, to be without foundation. Tho Pall Mall Gazette was the enterprising paper in which the rumor was first started. A gentleman on the staff of the Pall Mall Gazette, it appears, heard of Mr Boldrewood's death from a lady, who had been told by a lady, who had received the statement in a letter from a lady in Melbourne, who had been informed by another lady in that city. Mr Brown need not be disquieted at tho mistake. The circulation of his novels, which are now advertised as " works of ihe late * Rolf Boldrewood," has increased marvellou-ly since the news of his death waa reported. It is said that the telephone is about to have a new application— that of foretelling storms. Another discovery has been made as to one of the properties of this means of transmitting sound. By placing two iron bars about 25 feet distant from each other, and then putting them in communication on one side by a copper wire covered with rubber, and on the other side with a telephone, a storm can be predicted at least 12 hours ahead through a dead sound heard in tbe receiver. According as the storm advances the sound resembles tbe beating of hailstones against the windows. Every flash of lightning, and, of course, every clap of thunder that accompanies the storm, produces a shock similar to that of the blow of a stone cast between the diaphragm and the instrument. The Swiss consul at Melbourne recently communicated with the Chief Secretary intimating that the Federal Commissariat of Emigration— a branch of the Federal Department for Foreign Affairs— at Berne, had requested him to forward a report on the dairying industry in Victoria, as a certain number of expert cheese makers aie anxious to come to the colony. With a view of enabling the Consul to furnish the report, Mr. D. Wilson, the Government dairy evpert, was asked to supply the required information, and he has done so. It appears that there are 400,000 milch cows in the colony, their approximate value for milking purposes being £4,500,000. The annual production of butter is 55,000,0001 b, of cheese 18,000,0001 b, and the total value of the two products about £3,000,000. There are 120 butter factories and creameries, and 20 cheese factories. Last year the colony exported 1 ,000 tons of butter, and imported 72, '8101b. of cheese, valued at £3,173, ftom Italy, Switzerland, and Goimany. Mr Wilson stateß that as there is but a small proportion of the population that consume the cheese made in the countries mentioned he does not think that foreign cheese-makers would find profitable employment here. He is, however of opinion that there is an opening for a few first-class experts capable of manufacturing preserved or condensed milk of which there is a large consumption in the colony. A good Btory has been published of Signor Arditi, the well known composer and conduttor. It appears that when on a concert tour in Warwickshire he was prevailed on by certain members of the party to undertake an excursion to Warwick Caetle, the ruins of KenHworth, and the various other objects of historical interest with which the neighbourhood abounds, and when at length Signor Arditi was already getting fatigued with his labors he and his compmions arrived at Stratfordon»Avon. Vain was the attempt to stir up anything approaching enthusiasm in the mind of the conductor, who viewed the birthplace of Shakspeare and even the monument erected to his memory, with unconcealed indifference ; in fact he* seemed to possess but slight acquaintance with the name and achievements of the famous bard . At length, with the oDJect of stimulating his interest, one of the party suggested "Shakspeare,iyouknow. Maeßtro; • Amletto,' • Romeo c Giulietta ;' don't you see ?" This was effectual. " Ah, yes," he said. " I quite understand ;'e write ze libretto for ze operas of Thomas and Gounod,"