PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 2113, 1 July 1881, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY ITEMS.

[Br TBtBSBAFH.] (Fbom our own Correspondent.) Wbilinqton, June 30. There was great fun m \he Home this afternoon when Sir George Grey's .Local Government Bill camo on for 6rst reading. Just SS had been predicted by Mr Wakefield a fortnight before, Sir George bad no Bill. Ho brought up onlj a blank eheet of paper and gravely moved that it be read a e^coDd day next Wednesday week. Everybody mid then that his Bill was a myth, nnd there was much laughter m which Sir George joined heartily. Sir William Fox, with a very good imitation of solemn intcre-t, rose, to express the hope that this important measure would bs placed m the hands of members ot the earliest possible moment. The Speaker, with, a broad grinon his fuco, nssured the House it would bo printed as coon as the frumer of it (Sir George Grey) furnished thn Clerk with a draft of it. Mr Rolleston eaid he thought n Bill dealing with euoh a vital question of policy certainly ou»hl to be distributed among Members without delay. The Speaker ugain explained thut unlil Sir George Grey supplied tho text of tho Dill it could not be printed. The question then dropped amid renewed laughttr. This Bill of Sir George Grey's, which was to settle the destinies of the colony and make everybody happy for all lime, ii of course a pure delusion. Nobody expected anything el<e, so nobody is deceived. It, is simply regarded as a joke. I hear Sir George Grey is blameil, nevertheless, for pretending to have tho welfare of the people at heart and making impassioned speeches nbout the necesiity for self-government, when all the while he is only poking fun. Agood number of Members have gone to the Dunedin Exhibition, and the House is very quiet tliij evening.