THE HUMOURS OF PARLIAMENT

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVI, Issue 254, 24 October 1905, Page 3

THE HUMOURS OF PARLIAMENT

THE WRONG BOX,

OPPOSITION

MEMBERS IN-

DIGNANT.

b» Telegraph— Parliamentary Reporter.)

WELLINGTON, this day

Yet another question of breach <> privilege was raised in the House 01 Lptfeentatives last night by the Leader of the Opposition. -Mr Massey said that lust Friday afternoon a number of rolls of paper were placed in the boxe3 0 f certain members without the knowledge or consent of Mr Speaker. Th.-y consisted of 23 shee.s of closely printed matter, and on not on,.' of them was there any imprint, but he had no hesitation in saying that it had been priated at the Government prin.ing o.hee. He asked the minister in charge of that department if it was by his direction t]jat the imprint was not added. jfr E. M. Smith: What is the document? Mr Massey (warmly) : It is electioneering matter. Evidently intended for the use of supporters of the Government. It consists of extracts of speeches of my own given without the context, B nd these extracts are so twisted and distorted that I am made to say things I have never said.

__r Massey went on to state that the papers mentioned contained an alleged extract from a speech of Mr Dut..ie. I_at member had looked up Hansard of the d a * e mentioned, and had discovered that he had not delivered such a speech. The same thing applied to Mr Lang. Bight through the whol? 23 sheets two out of every three sets of figures were •wrong. In the same space he had never j feen such a tissue of misstaiements, and te would like to know who is responsible for it. He would rather reirain in Opposition for the whole tern; of his natural life than descend to such tactics. He moved '"that a breach of privilege ha 3 been committed by placing the flocuments in the letter boxes of members -without the authority and consent of Mr Speaker." Mr Speaker said he presumed Mr Massey was referring to document 0 which he (the Speaker) had found in his pigeon hole. He did not know ihe exact position in the matter. He had often been asked to sanction letters being placed in members' boxes, and he had invariably done so unless he found that the document was libellous or defamatory; He, however, knew of no order or rule which absolutely prevented members so distributing documents. The Premier: I think we should know whose box it was in. Mr. Massey: "I will tell you. These papers were put in the box of Mr. James Allen,' member for Bruce. Y/>u should be. more .careful." (Laughter.) The Premier: ''I have no doubt Mr. James Allen has got what belongs to Mr E. G. Allen. (Laughter.) To whom were they addressed?" Mr. Massev: "You know all about that." , The Premier asked if there were no extracts from his own speeches in the documents, saying that it was not fair that only Mr. Massey's, and not his own, should be printed. (Government laugh ter.). The whole thing, he continued. was childish. Mr, Harding: '"It's scandalous." The Premier went on to say that if Mr. Massey would believe that what had been done constituted a breach of privi lege he would believe that the moon of green cheese. Mr. Hawkins declared that the leaflets constituted a distinct breach of the law and of the privileges of the House. If nobody else did so he would go down to the Commissioner of Police next day and ask .him to tsike action on the issue of leaflets without an imprint. He was satisfied that they were illegal, and, father, that the great bulk of the material contained in them was false. For instance, Mr. Duthie was said to have opposed'the Land and Income Assessment Bill in 1901. As a matter of fact, Mr. Duthie did not speak on the bill that year. This material was supplied to members to' assist them to fight the elections, and he asked whether this was fair and legitimate fighting. Again, a speech of several pages by Mr. Duthie was condensed into four lines, and any man who attempted that Mr. Harding: "Should be shot." The S_a. Hall-Jones (Minister in .charge of the printing office) said it light ease members' minds if he stated that he did not know where the leaflets printed. He had not seen them, ue had not given any instructions or spoken to the Government printer about taem, nor did he know what they were. Mr. Taylor: "They are cheap stuff." The Hon. Hall-Jones expressed the *iew that the Leader of the Opposition's WraplahU in this matter was that this Valuable information was not given to . Mr. Jas. Allen said that, being ineor«ct, the leaflets had provided the OpPosition with the finest electioneering StOff they had ever had. In the first met there were, he did not know how many, mistakes, and he intended to tell «c public that this was the sort of s * ttff that Government members were supplied with. On one sheet was a statement attributed to Mr. J. W. Thom■a»m 1894. He was not in the House ..J* / ear# lt was Mr - R - Thompson ■■marsden), a Government supporter, who made the statement referred to. On anJ™* page Mr. M. J. S. Mackenzie was oO, 6 "n d t0 when Mr ' R - McKenzie, antf ner *Government supporter, was meant. £6 complained that he leaflets were disputed by an officer of the House at We direction of the Speaker. _la_ e tinier gave this an emphatic de_Mr. Alison said that the information .*■» printed for the benefit of Government supporters at the expense of the " Ju r V Taylor declared* that the leaflets 3 ed libel *" against some of our ■fcttT 8 * public inon - one of the P a 2 es ""*» that Mr. Rolleston had moved an ■_mrs? nt to kill the 01d A £ e Pensions wi°p/ Lan g complained of the way in fori j speech of his uad been q uoted ■anfl \l doeument > merely lines taken here S_r-rt c from "Hansard." It seemed J*}, Gov ernment were at their wits' know what to do. flLi/i.v vis mov ed the previous ques™Mthe closure.) &g* Premier; "Hear, hear." iit wiil, Allen raised the point of oris ie P rev '°us question could Th OV D d ° n a point of P- e S rivilethin i. mier remar l<ed that the same hi Tv done through Mr. Allen's ISS (Mr - Ma ssey) over the Dr. Gibb .-Sf" of privilege discussion, tod , p , revious question was then put 'th. l. ared carried by 32 to 24, and We subject thus dropped.