THE UPPER HOUSE.

Waikato Times, Volume XVII, Issue 1413, 23 July 1881, Page 4

THE UPPER HOUSE.

" Cn iV the clever wntcr of "Passing Notfs" m the Oltn/o H'itms\, thus discourses on the"Loids" of Kew Zetland: — Although mcmbeis of the Upper House nve specially ticketed " Ifonoi.ible," I suppose membmship in the Lowet House is the. more honorable of the two. The House of licpresoiit.itivos is the place of political influence and ,u tivity, the Council Chamber is a region " m which it always seemeth afternoon,'' and Sunday at that. Compared with an M ll.li. our New Zealand Honoiablc enjoys some vciy pccuilar privilege. He gets £200 a year for life, is permanently decoiated, has no elections to fight or to pay for, no dissolutions to dread. Above all, ho has next to nothi.ig in the v>oild to do. But it may be doubted -whether all the advantages' of the Council cm compensate an intelligent man for spending his time iv such a place, hi nominating him to a heat in this limbo pah inn the Governor might say to him, as tho Ghost did to Hamlet— And duller sliilt (lion be than the fat weed 'Hi it rots itself in l.isc on Lethe uli.irf. Theie toe sensible men, I behove, in the Upper Chamber. I f.ir>cy I know one or two ; but the atmosphere of the place is too much for them. After a season or two on the " violet velvet lining" of those high scats, they diowse and yawn with tho lest, or find a mild excitement in listening to the imbecilities of the Hon Mr Scotland, tho Hon Colonel Brett, and other gairulous old gentlemen who find the duties nf tho Council exactly level with their powers. The Hon Mr Scotland (whom the Hon. Colonel Whitmoro in a waking moment last session desciibed as " an old woman "'} has a proper horror of " consultations" and horse racing. He would arrest and send to pnaon everybody found on a racecourse. Tins is not a bad specimen of the statesmanship current in the Upper House. On the Chinese question, again, Mr Scotland came out strong. He 13 opDOsed to any attempt to keep the Celestials out. Levy a poll-tax of £10? he said, indignantly ; " why a Chinese Ambassador to England might come here, and to stick him up for £10 would be treating him worse than a dog — than 19 dogs, in f-ict, for 19 dogs could free by paying £3 10s. We had done more harm to the Maoris than tho Chinese would ever do to us. Suppose the Maoris hid imposed checks on our landing heic ?" Dr. Pollen, who followed on the mime side, endeavored to reassure the House on the subject cf Chinese diseases— leprosy in particular. There was nothing to f eai , as " tubercular leprosy was not contagious " Captain Frasor was quite of a contrary opinion, aud expressed to his fellow senators his views on Chinese vegetables : — "They •were so vile that germs of disease, not to be killed by boiling water, were to be found in the vegetables they grew in their refuse. Boiling oil alone would kill these germa Let Europeans be careful, therefore, of eating Chinese-grown cabbage." Colonel Brett asked whether the Chinese were any dirtier than Scotchmen and Irishmen " or other barbarous nations" (the Colonel, of course, is an Englishman), •who never washed themselves from year's end to year's end, whilst the Chinese ■washed themselves as often aa possible. On the whole the discussion in the Upper House on the Chinese question was exactly •what one might expect to hear in the back parlor of a country " pub."