ADJOURNMENT OF COUNCIL.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 4, Issue 172, 5 January 1860, Page 4

ADJOURNMENT OF COUNCIL.

[Extracts from au ,ar ; ticie .i tv the Indepejident.]

In order to- enable -our readers ,tp understand the true bearing ~of; the proceedings of last evening it is necessary to point out, that when the.motion: for; adjournment was made, the Provincial Secretary reminded the Council that, a few nights .previously they, had passed an. Appropriation act . for the last two mouths of 1859, the Estimates for which had only been handed to the Superintendent on the previous day—that on. the List evening they had passed the ludemnity bill, which the Superintendent bad not then roceived, and that they were about to; pass another Appropriation aet for. three months of. 1860, which he would not receive f r atdeast a day or two, and that as the Superintendent was vested by the Constitution act with authority to return bills To the Council with amendments, it was depriving him of -this right—or in other words, preventing him from discharging this part of his duty by adjourning, and thus ouly leaving him the alternative of accepting the bills as they were, or rejecting them altogether. He (the Provincial Secretary) therefore proposed, as an amendment, that they should adjourn until Tuesday, so as to give the Superintendent time to consider, the bills, and return them if he should think it necessary to do so. Other members of the: Government followed, showing the inconveniences that-would necessarily result from the. long adjournment that had been proposed, and asking the Council to pause before deciding ■on such a step. As might have, been expected, every effort was useless, and only showed that to attempt to influencersuch a Council by reason* was like attempting to. hew blocks of marble with a razor, and the Council adjourned for tbrjee months, after a brief debate, in which the language of the Government was calm, distinct, and outspoken, and that of the Opposition violent and “ ungentlemanly ” to such a degree, that one of the number three times used an expression which he almost boastfully designated as “ very .vulgar,”, and the leader did not scruple to speak of the manner of one of his opponents as “ cocky,” and the arguments as ** all my eye and Betty Martin.” Not less significant was the peroration of the would-be Chancellor of the Exchequer. Allen, in moving the third reading of the Appropriation act. He took the opportunity to assnre the house that he had no personal motives in what he was doing or,bad done, but had been in . all things actuated by the strictest sense of public duty. Now, were it not for a proverb which affirms that “ a guilty conscience accuser,” we should he utterly at a loss to know what such a disclaimer of . personal motives, such an assertion of pure patriotism and devotion to public duty,

(“ And the trumpets and chorus shouted anon, Tantara-ra, tantara-ra,”) might mean in the performance of such a simple act of routine as moving, “ that this bill be ' now read a third time.” But the honorable gentleman (“ for they all are honorable men”) was evidently still writhing under the unexpected lashing he received on the previous evening from his quondam ally, Mr. 7’oomatb, and therefore though apropos to nothing, he took the last chance of self-laudation which, for some time at least, he could expect to have. The effect of this abrupt and uncourteous termination of the session is much more serious than may at first appear, and we deeply regret that unoffending individuals'will, as usual, be the sufferers. Tlie Provincial Treasurer informed the Council that the Superintendent would not be advised to assent to the Appropriation bills in their present form, that if no time was givea him to propose amendments, he would be again compelled to incur the responsibility of carrying on the Government without the necessary sanction of an Appropriation act —and that after the pains and penalties with which he had been threatened, he must be expected to keep that responsibility within the narrowest limits possible, so that any items of expenditure not ordered by himself or his officers would not be paid while this personal ' responsibility continued. The Radicals have thus at last ‘' stopped the supplies”—not from'the Government, for this is beyoud their power, but from those persons (ourselves among the number) who have executed orders received from the Speaker of the Council, which that gentleman has no power to pay, and.payment for which cannot now be expected from the Superintendent. Happily the members themselves are in the same category, as far as payment is concerned ; but there is this essential difference—clerks, printers, and others, have duly earned the sums they claim, but what the Council has done to entitle its members to payment we are at a loss ;to conceive. It has “ stopped the'supplies ” from the public, by preventing the passing of those measures which-would have put money in-the public* chest, and thus enabled useful public works to be carried om It has engendered distrust and fomented ill-feeling, and besides this what has it done? We had almost answered “ nothing,” when we remembered that at the last session almost the only act that was passed was one to enable beer (or members, we are not quite sure which) “ to be drunk on the premises,” so this session an act anent Publican’s Licenses is about the “ be alt aind the"ehd all,” and the Council maty now be regarded as dismissed to their hybernation with a kick instead of a compliment, and with the promise of just as much of the in pace as they deserve—which is not saying much for their prospects during the long vacation.

The Doncaster St, Leger has been won by Gamester.