NEW SOUTH WALES PARLIAMENT.

Press, Volume LI, Issue 8789, 10 March 1894, Page 7

NEW SOUTH WALES PARLIAMENT.

SEVERE CRITICISM OF MEMBERS. Si T DNEY, February 23. The attendance in the Assembly on Wednesday evening rivalled that of a few weeks ago, when Mr Hough, the editor of the Evening News, was summoned to the bar to be questioned regarding the authorship of charges brought in his paper against members of the Legislative Assembly. The attraction on this occasion was a proposal to deal with the assertions made by Mr Hindle, who was the prime mover in the Copeland incident, in a sermon delivered by him in a little country town on Sunday. Mr Hindle is member for Newtown, and is well known in political circles for his religious tendencies and his avowed intention to act as censor when any moral lapse is committed by his fellow-legislators. Much stir was occasioned when he admitted having alleged that some of our legislators were drunken blaokguards, and announced that he had been informed that three of them were the most corrupt men in the country. He also clinched the statement by saying that he could prove his assertions. - The Premier rose from the Treasury benches, and in grave tones submitted a resolution to the effect that in the opinion of the House the statements made by Mr Hindle in the speech delivered by him on Sunday were a gross libel upon the House. Referring to the statement that the House contained drunken blackguards, Sir Geo. Dibbs deprecated self-righteous exhibitions, and said that the private conduct of members was a matter for the people who returned them, and not for the House. Mr Hindle had made worse assertions in saying that there was & great deal of underground engineering and selling of votes in Parliament. If this could be substantiated there was no necessity to make the statements in a sermon, and they should be stated on the floor of the House. Mr Hindle, in replying, proceeded to speak on the Copeland incident amid a fire of interruption. He said that conduct like that of Mr Copeland's justified him in saying that there were in the House some notorious blackguards. Mr Copeland had said to him ** You scoundrel, I'll wring your neck for you." (Mr Copeland—"And I wish I had done it.") Mr Hindie then quoted from Hansard cases in which Mr Graham and another member (who had been ejected from the Chamber during the existence of the present Parliament) had used very strong expressions to the Chair, and he claimed that these justified his remark that the House contained drunken blackguards. He then asserted that druukea members had been brought into the Chamber to vote once by a Minister orr.be Crown. This, he considered, justified his remarks that votes were bought and sold. He would not retract a word he had uttered. In the debate which followed Mr Hindle was subjected to some severe verbal caatigation. Great warmth was shown by several members, who condemned the use of the Church for political purposes, and claimed that Mr Hindle had utterly failed to prove his charges, and had shown an absolute lack of that Christian charity which religion should teach. Mr Copeland, in a strong speech, expressed contempt for.Mr Hindle, and denied that he had ever been drunk in Parliament. On a recent occasion he was not intoxicated, but bad been overcome with passion at Mr Hindle's action. Sir George Dibbs'* motion was carried by 61 votes to 20. The Premier then moved "That the Speaker be directed to severely, reprimand Mr Hindle," stating that he thought it better to take this coarse than the extreme of expulsion, but as this motion could not be received without notice, the Premier said he would let the matter drop.