WELLINGTON NOTES.

Waikato Argus, Volume II, Issue 113, 30 March 1897, Page 4

WELLINGTON NOTES.

[raoM OUII OWN C!.tKBESI>O2fDENT|. Wellington, March 23. FINESSING. Our artful Premier is puzzling his friends and being laughed at by his opponents through his prolonged endeavours to look as if he did not care r brass farthing whether ho went to England or not. He must call Parliament together before he leaves, and this necessary part of the business he is putting off as long as he can. There have been several Cabinet meetings, the two last Sundays having been ocanpied that way, but no notification has yet been made to the officers of Parliament as to v. hen to be prepare'!. All that Mr Seddon will tell them is that " they will have notice enough." One gentleman who is as near knowing Cabinet secrets as anyone here said to mo to-day : " This Ward business has driven about four more nails in Seddon's coffin, and what I expect to see him do is to delay calling the House together until within about four days of the steamer he goes by is to leave. Then he can say : ' Here I am prepared to sacrifice myself to uphold the dignity of New Zealand against all other countries to leave for a time the control of the colony in the hands of my excellent colleagues ; to entrust tho important interests of the German syndicate and the Realisation Board to my juniors, and to sacrifice for some months the delights of bossing everybody and everything and take command of the flower of our army and a score of the native race which I love so well. If I do all this I must do it on my own terms or I won't go.' " A threat such as this ought to bring Parliament to its knees, but there are obstructive people, such as Scobie McKenzie and George Hutchison, who will raise constitutional questions and suggest unkind influences, and, maybe, hint that as we could very well spare the Premier while it is desirable to retain the Treasurer in the colony, that it could be arranged for the courteous McKenzie or the invertebrate Jones to assume the brevet rank of Premier for tho occasion while Mr Seddon sticks to his post with the title of Acting-Premier. Then could he devote some of his spare time to assuring the country that notwithstanding the nasty things Mr Liquidator Cook has been affidaviting about his friend the Honorable Joseph George Ward that ho still insists that the statements made there about bogus bills and vanished balance-sheets are clearly outside the order of reference. Another course of action was suggested to him to-day. The veteran, Captain Jackson Barry, who, by the way, has just published a very interesting autobiography of his experiences among whales, cannibals and the British nobility, wrote to Mr Seddon officially stating that as it •was clear that he (the Premier) could not and did not wish to go Home, and as none of the other Ministers possessed the dignity or knowledge of good society to fitly stand in the presence of royalty that he (dipt. Barry), as the oldest of civilised colonists, and one who had already acted as an emissary to England, where he had hob-nobbed with nobility and been written to by Her Majesty, was willing, for a consideration, to devote himself to the duty and go. It is understood that the proposal will form the subject of a Cabinet debate to-morrow. And really, it makes one shudder to think what we would do without Mr Seddon for five months. Everything was flat and without life or interest during his absenco of a few weeks in Australia, and it appears also that everything went wrong in the State machinery while he was away. As an instance of this the following harrowing story of income petence may be of interest: —A statue of the late Mr Ballance is to bo erected on the lawn in front of Parliament House. Some six weeks ago, during the Premier's absence, I noticed the Hon. John McKenzie with about a dozen local politicians surrounding him carefully examining the grass. It looked to me as if some agricultural experiment was on, but I was told it was the Ballance Memorial Committee selecting the Bite. For a few weeks men were employed excavating and concreting until a basement arose of very respectable proportions. Evidently there is something not pleasing in the shape or situation to the artistic eye of Connossieur Seddon. for I observed two men with picks this morning demolishing the structure. This, of course, provides employment and is good for importers of cement, but it is questionable if the shade of the departed statesman looks down on --''such a waste as a fitting tribute to his memory. THE SUBURBS ELECTION. Ever since fhe bowled out Tommy Wilford was removed from the arena of politics for bribing Mulvaney and inciting the Premier to also break tho law —a proceeding which the Hon. "Jellyfish " Jones says he would follow if he had the chance —Messrs Wilson and Kirk have both publicly announced and privately assured their friends that neither would retire for . the other, but fight to a finish. We know all about this sort of independence ; the true Liberal has a lot of backbone on the platform, but he comes to heel as soon as his owner calls, "Come behind, sir." In this case there was a little difficulty because Kirk was Mr Seddon's fancy, and Wilson was the white-haired boy with McKenzie. This and other differences between the two great men concerning their claims each felt he had to go home and be knighted, led to a coolness, not to say a breach between Ministers, which threatened for a time the peace of the nation. But wiser counsels prevailed, and quite a novel process of electing or selecting a candidate to carry the Liberal banner to political vietory or the grave has been adopted. A Court of Arbitration has been set up, and the curious part of it is that the candidates ha've not been allowed to choose their own arbitrators, but the rival Ministers have taken this upon themselves. Mr Seddon selected Mr Beauchamp, a merchant, who nas recently developed Liberal tendencies, and Mr Andrew Collins, a. J.P. and baker. Mr McKenzie's two are his son-in-law, Mr Cameron, and the senior member for Wellington, and the referee is Mr Quick, a lawyer. It is not known what the course of procedure is—there is a rumour that the two Ministers will appear as advoeates, and that tho machinery of tne Banking Committee, on which both are well posted, will be adopted. If so, let us hope the enquiry will not take fifteen weeks, as that derided tribunal did. liepresentative Government has come to a pretty pass when electors lose all right to choose the trustees of the taxes wrung out of them, and Ministers fall out übout their personal favourites. Anyhow, the recent developments in the Ward affairs have given such a nasty jar to

sham Liberalism that it is hardly likely either of them will come anywhere near winning. THE WARD DEBACLE.

And what can one say more about the shameful tale of deception, bogus bills and dire ruin to hundreds than is told in the affidavit of the liquidator and which has been perused by your readers ? It shows that while the exTrensurer was boustingof his personal wealth and holding up to the detestation of the world his political opponents as " lags," " miscreants," and " brothers of murderers," that he had started his precious group of companies—his association, his coal mine, his freezing works, his binder twine works, and what not—when up to his neck in debt, with every security he possessed mortgaged, and that the very shares he took up in his own company were paid out of the pockets of the ill-fated Colonial Bank shareholders. That ho should have kept afloat so long can onl) be attributed to the political help he had from his colleagues, Messrs Seddon and McKenzie, whose motto has for the last three years been. " Save Ward at any price," and in this they were loyally supported by the dumb dogs who aided them. When the game was in full swing, Mr Ward published his own trade journal, a sort of magazine of 32 pages, callod the Southland Farmer. From its pages I cull a few flowers to show how superior he was as a literary man to a treasurer : •' I have never had, in connection with my own operations, the use of capital which has not been fully secured to those from whom I cjot it."

"It has been my privilege to bring into life, and put on a stable footing, no less than six independent businesses and industries, and I am proud to know that everyone of them has succeeded, and that they are proving lucrative investments to those concerned therein." "No time like the present; past opportunities are lost; future ones may not occur. Take shares with us at once."

" Share your business with us; we will share our profits with ycu, providing you join us." "Are you a shareholder ic the J. G. Ward Farmers' Association, Limited ? If not, it will pay you to become one at once."

"We are always going ahead. Join us anci keep to the front." "The best iuvestmeutyou can make at the present time is to take five shares in the J. G. Ward Association, Limited." "Consign skins to Ward, lnvercargill," and so on. The consignees just now are probably consigning Ward to somewhere else, mentally.