THE SCENE IN THE HOUSE

Press, Volume LII, Issue 9229, 5 October 1895, Page 6

THE SCENE IN THE HOUSE

Whatever may be the technical rights or wrongs of the difference between Captain Russell and the Speaker last night, fair-minded people will agree that if the demands of justice and propriety were alone to be considered it was the Hon. John M'Kenzie who should have been called to account for his coarse and unseemly attempt to intimidate members of the House from criticising the Government policy, and not Captain Eussell for resenting his threats. That the troubles «of the Bank of New Zealand were largely in , creased if not brought about by Mr. M'Kenzie's land legislation is no doubt an unpalatable fact to the Government which has had to guarantee the Bank, but it is the truth nevertheless, as we have repeatedly shown in these columns. No one can dispute the fact that that policy put a penal taxation on holders of land, while at the same time it made land practically unsaleable, and that under these circumstances the Estates Company was bound to come to grief. That the Government, which started out with the high and holy mission of " bursting up the big land owners," should have to take over the largest land-owning corporation in the colony to save it from bursting up is a specimen of poetical retribution which they evidently don't like. The Hon. John M'Kenzie found ifc so painful a subject that he could not trust himself to argue about it in a rational manner, and sought relief in the piece of vulgar bullying which aroused the righteous indignation of the leader of the Opposition, as it must have done that of every man of any spirit in the House. There is no escape for Mr. M'Kenzie from the dilemma laid down for him in Capt. Russell's question. Either his hectoring " bounce" means that the secrecy of the Bank has been violated, and Government intend to take advantage of it; or else Mr. M'Kenzie is prepared to use the mere gossip of irresponsible persons as a weapon with which to intimidate members of the House who venture, in a perfectly proper manner, to criticise his public policy on public grounds. Apparently we have not yet reached either the limit of the Ministry's power of insulting Parliament, or —which we regret still more—of the meekness of the House in enduring such insult. We regard Mr. M'Kenzie's insolence as a disgrace to the Ministry which gives it countenance and a disgrace to the House which swallows it so tamely.