PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

Timaru Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 2767, 6 August 1883, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NEWS.

(From oub own Cobbhbpondbnt.) Wbllinoton, Aug. 3. It may safely be said that all interest in the iOision has leaked out, and its duration limply lepends upon how much now legislation Ministers think the colony will stand. Every thing it in their hands, and they can do what Ihey like. The debate on the Property Tax Bill was a type of tho whole session, dull and ipiritlots. It nit at one time expected that Ibis property tax busineit, or the Native L»nd Company, or lomo other affair, would make Hie political world lively ; but while one died ere it saw tho ligbt, the other lived but a short sickly hour, and was then ignominiously muffed out, leaving tho Government apparently upon a tower of strength, from which it seems at present impassible to hurl them. It is, however, never safe to speak poiitirely of the strength of the Ministry, after tho crushing defeat of Lord Beaoonsfield at the lust eleotions in Great Britain. That muit always be a warning to overconfident prophets. The report of a Select Committee that was appointed to enquire into the ventilation of the chamber, bat been laid upon the tableIt appears that this Committee simply caked the architect, Mr Turnbull, what bo thought about the matter, and also to give the. affair some color, got Dr Gillon to give some evidence, and referred to these two gentlemen as " experts." Beyond the fact that one ii a kind of architect and the other a young doctor, it is difficult to see how they are experts in the matter. Anyhow, these tiro " experts" recommended an expenditure of £500 in the matter, and tho Committee passed on their recommendation to the Government. There is a eorfc of opinion about that unless the whole ramshackle building is placed under a glass shade it always will be draughty, and that they might as well try to keep out the draught* by double looking the doors as fuddling about tho plaoe with £500 worth of pipes, etc. A return of the cost of the electrio light has just been laid upon the table, showing the total amount to be £2196 11s, made up as follows :— Fittings, £1135 10s; paoking, freight, etc, £85 10s lOd ; engine-house, £675 j erecting steam engine, £70 ; extras to ditto, £44 12s 7d i fitting up gas engine, £87 18s lOd ; timber, labor, etc., £97 18s 9d. The first item includes £350 for a 16-borse power gas engine and £290 for the dynamo. It almost takes away one's breath to contemplate this list of wasteful extravagance. That th< engine-house — a little bit of a place aboul 30ft by 20ft— should cost £676 seems abso lutely absurd. True, it is thickly plastered aver with stucoo, which stems to be the onlj idea of the man the Government employs ai iti architect, but even that could never hav< run up the ccat as it seems to have done. Tb steam engine, I believe, is only borrowed unti the gas engine has been got under control which has, I am told, been at last accotn plithed. I must, however, acknowledge the

when the light is steady it is a rery good light, but I cannot eee how it muoh outshines tbe old gas. Papers containing copies of correspondence on the direct 8 tea in terrice subsidy show that the Gorernment haTe accepted for a year, from let November next, a tender of the New Zealand Shipping Company for a four-weekly service each way, to be performed in 45 daya. Tho Government is to pay for this service a sabiidjr of £20,000, £16 for every adult immigrant and £9 10s for children.