APPOINTMENT OF THE LOCAL INDUSTRIES COMMITTEE.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 9759, 26 July 1893, Page 2

APPOINTMENT OF THE LOCAL INDUSTRIES COMMITTEE.

The following report of a discussion on the appointment of the Local Industry Gominitta*, we take from tho Auckland Star. — Mr Bruce made a long dissertation on the cause of the labourer and the old j question of country versus town. Rogard- ( less of the old adage that God made ono and man tbe other, the member for the Peninsula implied that tho work of the mortal was equally as important as that of the Deity, and that whatever might be said to the contrary, the greatnesd and prosperity of the colony was quite as much due to its cities as to its green pastures, cornfields, fljeks and herds. Genial sailor farmer Bruce, although his f>ee nature could hardly have endorsed this view, did not contradict. He was in a political mood* " The country has already committed itself to protection," were his first words. He followed with a short lesson for the benefit of the member for Taranaki on the folly of bolstering up an industry in the way E. M. desire i to do. There was no need, he assured E. M. for that gentleman to go to England to awake British capitalists to the miueral wealth of the Taranaki shore, or to come to that House and ask the assistance of the Government. If the industry was a payable one, capital and labor would flow in of themselves. The House had already had two causes of the Austrian influx placed before them that afternoon. Mr Bruce now brought forward a third. The great cause of it was not Dr Scherzer'e book, nor was it the Melbourne consultation prize that attracted tho foreigners to the colony. No !it was not either ot these; it was quite another thing alt gether. It was the great Comeivative party who had done it, the party to which he belonged. In proof of what be said, Mr Bruce pulled from bis pocket a leaflet which he said was a political manifesto issued at a recent election Amid laughter, thy member for Rangitikei read aloud a sentenco or two of terrible significance from his insignificant do.utnent, which assorted beyond all contradiction that it was the .Conservatives who had flooded the gumfields with Australia. Gentle Mr Willis, of Wanganui, rose Boniowhat timidly to his feet, when Mr Bruce laid the leaflet down. He asked the Speaker if he might make a persona explanation. "Certainly," said Mr Speaker. "Then, ' Baid Mr Willis, " I have reason to believe that the honorable member for Rangitikei is referring to the Wanganui election. Now Mr Speaker, I wish co say tbut that manifosto was merely an electoral reply," The House roared, but Mr Willis did not see the point, and repeated in a half explanatory and half deprecatory tone, " merely an electoral reply, sir, to a taunt that it was Liberals who were flooding the guuifioUls." Then Mr Bruce went back to the original question. The member for Waitemata had told the House that nothing had ever come of such Committees as Mr Reeves was moving for. Tho member L>t Rangitikei repeated thsso words, and added, looking towards Mr Palmer, " you may bet your bottom dollar (language quite Parliamentary in Wellington) that nothing would ever come of Buch a Committee. 1 ' Mr E. M. Smith, who had been silent all this time, rapidly recovering his equani mity. which had been a little — a very r little — shaken by Mr Earnshaw's mode of treatment, now foit that he was himself again, and rose with a most grand'loquent sentence on his lips, about the time when he had had the honour to ask the Government to set up tho proEent Commission. He, etc., etc. — to put in one sentence what bo expanded into a dozen— he hud suggested certain natneß to stand on the Committee (groans), and had the Government taken his advice (loud, ironical cheers) the dis cuHsion which had taken place that afternoon would never have occurred. The member for the Peninsula, he said, had charged him with thinking of no place but Taranaki. " Sir," cried the little man, " 1 have brain power sufficiently expansive to embrace not only Taranaki, but all New Zealand, from east to west and north to south." Having impressed the House with the vannoss of an intellect that could eko such a grasp, E. M. bdged a complaint against Mr BucklanJ, who, he said, always took good care to follow him and attack him when he had no power to retaliate. If, ho added, the member for Manukau had only preceded him in the Financial debate, lie would have dressed him down. "But why should we follow such trivialities," disgusted electors will exclaim , That you may get thoroughly disgusted, is the answer. However, we must leave E M., who is not a bad sort, but, liko half or mora than ha'f around him, was never meant by high heaven to legislate for his fellow men. Yet, Mr Smith has energy to a very large extent, and for parochial parties there might bj much worse men, and ho thinks quite as much of Taranaki as ho does of hiimelf, so let the inhabitants of that grassy country rejoice, for he will never let the Garden of New Zealand be forgotten though the statesmen of the colony should neglect the resources of tho colony generally, and Mr Smith Baid that this was the only country but what knows how to develop its resources. These were his vords. Tnranaki Mill never be noglected while E.M, rema ; na on those red morocco benches. What had become of Mr Reeves' notice of motion for a Committee to consider how the inanjfactureß and industries of tho colony might be encouraged all this time ? Forgotten 1 apparently so, but as tho gttysers had now all blown off, Parliament, which had s-it watching the displays, had now got to the serious business of the motion, which took up about two moments, j Mr BtickUnd and Sir J. Hall's nauiei wore, at thoii request, deleted from the list of tho Comuii tee, and Mr Wilson was put on The comment is needless, ns they say.