Scintillations and Parliament.

Observer, Volume XV, Issue 822, 29 September 1894, Page 6

Scintillations and Parliament.

(Special to the Obsebveb.)

It is significant and instructive that most of the recent divisions" show from 20 to 24 members against the Government where, previously, there were only 14 and 16. And yet Ministers do not learn wisdom from this sigh of the times, and no tact seems to be used to. hold the party together. One day last week, the Minister of Lands resented some opposition offered by Mr O'Regan to one oi his favourite Bills, and insolently recommended him to go over to the other side of the House. But it would be a bad thing for the Government if O'Regan did go into absolute opposition. He is a brainy young fellow, with heaps of intellectuality, and a tongue whose persuasiveness is suggestive of the blarney stone; Unquestionably, he is one of the coming men of the House.

Another such is Mr Buick. The independence he has displayed Jihis session has astonished those who have looked upon him as a servile and docile follower of the Government, and has afforded him, moreover, an opportunity of showing that he is a young man of considerable depth and great earnestness, and one possessing a good mental grasp of the politics of the country. Buick is more moderate and less impulsive than O'Regan, and if we have another Liberal Government in his time I shall not be surprised to see Mr T. L. on the Ministerial benches.

Mr Bevan, who is representing the West Coast shareholders of the Equitable Insurance Company, in the Parliamentry enquiry into the allegations "they have made against the directors, is a former member of the House. He is an eloquent speaker, somewhat ornate and polished in style, and is still remembered as the man who seconded Scobie McKenzie's Address-in-Reply motion when the Stout-Vogel Government was in power. That was, of* course, when Scobie was a trifle democratic and before he jumped the political rail. Bevan will be an awkward nut for the insurance directors to crack.

The height of absurdity has surely been reached by a clause in the Shops Bill compelling all offices to be closed at 5 o'clock. This is a measure of relief to the hardworked bank or insurance clerk who saunters down to his office between nine and ten, enjoys himself over the morning paper for an hour, mashes the girls on the mock between one and two and puts in the afternoon in various ways. It would be a pity, of course, to subject him to any intellectual strain after five o'clock..

The Hon. E. Mitchelson has been much concerned lately about the North Island Trunk Railway, for whose present deplorable position he is very much to blame. To him and him alone, Auckland owes the loss of the Stratford route, and to the ' do-nothing-for- Auckland ' policy which he followed when he was Minister for Public Works. We are indebted for the fact that the money ear-marked for this railway has been spent in other direc* tions, and that we may never now see the line completed.

Mr Mitchelson wants the. money taken from the North Island Trunk Railway for purchase of native lands replaced by the monies now being raised for the purchase of more native lands. But there is not the remotest likelihood that the Government will do what he wants. The Minister of Lands has point-blank refused, and has shown that Mitchelson's own Government nobbled £120;000 of that money, and the Government in which Mr J. A. Tole was our representative £100,000. So it seems that Auckland has been very nicely milked while her representatives were looking on. While £220,000 was stolen from the North Island Railway fund, £32,000 was expended on the Otago Central Railway beyond what was ear-marked for the purpose. Cunning Otago !

Hotel-keepers may be happy. The Legislative Council has excused them from closing on the shops' holiday, though it is diffiicult to understand why a shop must close and a hotel may remain open. However', possibly it is for the best. The working man or shop assistant might not know what to do with himself . or his holiday if the hotels were closed to him.

Taranaki Smith is agitating for a Colonial Exhibition in Wellington in 1900. It is, of course, Auckland's turn, and Sir Julius Yogel undertook that the next exhibition should be held-in Auckland. But Wellington will get it. Wellington gets everything, and deserves to. She has clever and wideawake members, and none of them 'have time to be seated on the steps of the throne.