THE PARLIAMENT DEFIED.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9944, 25 January 1898, Page 4

THE PARLIAMENT DEFIED.

We have alluded more than once to the foot that the Parliament of New Zealand is denied information about the affairs of the colony. One glaring case was the refusal of the Government to lay the despatch of the Secretary of the Colonies in reference to the Asiatic Restriction Bill before Parliament. The Queen refused her assent to the Bill, but the despatch conveying this refusal was not presented to Parliament. It seems to us that the Queen's reasons should have been | communicated to Parliament, and ! why this was not dons has not yet | been explained.

To show, tiowever, how the Parliament has been defied we give a list of returns ordoved by the House of Representatives to be laid before it, which returns the Ministry have refused to give. The list is as follows, with the date when ordered, and the name of the member on whose motion the return was ordered :—

13th October—Mr Guinness : Lines of railways authorised, completed, and estimated cost of completing unfinished lines. 27th October—Mr Lewis : Railway service, applications for employment bherein. 4th November—Mr Buchanan : Advertising, amount paid bo each newspaper. sth November—Mr Monk : Kaipara railways, freight received for .timber. 19th November —Mr Pirani: Telephone Bureau, cost of establishing aud maintaining free connections.

19th November—Mr Larnach : Telephone Bureau, capital cost of lines and connections.

10th December—Mr Geo. Hutchison: Travelling allowances of members of Executive.

10th December—Mr Symes.- West Coast settlement leases, rates paid by Public Trustee.

10th December—Mr Kelly: Factories, cities and boroughs, names of and salaries paid to inspectors. 20th December—Mr Geo. Hutchison : Opossums for acclimatisation societies.

None of these has been given. The returns as to advertising and the travelling allowances of Ministers should have been furnished without a motion. But what can be said of a Parliament that passed an Appropriation Bill without seeing that the orders of Parliament in this respect had been obeyed ?

There were various other returns that were only laid on the table the day Parliament adjourned, when they could not be read or used by members, such as Mr. Massey's return on the cost of the State farm, Mr. Kelly's on ths persons employed to complete the electoral rolls, &c. The fact is, we repeat, that information of the most important kind is continually denied" to Parliament because its publication would be damaging to the Ministry. Even when the information is given we have no assurance it is always correct. It will be remembered that Mr. Seddon wasv paid over £500 for his trip to Hobart for expenses. Part of such expenses was said to ba for the hire of offices in Hobart. Regarding the expenses the Hobart Mercury —certainly nota Now Zealand Torypaper—says:— "To Tasuaanians who received the

New Zealand Premier and noted the order of his coming and his going, the stated expenditure of £518 in honouring the island with his presence comes as a mild surprise. Certainly the public saw very little of the pomp and circumstance of his embassy, neither did the duties of his two secretaries appear of a nature that bore any impression of importance, save of the make-bslieve sort. Some inquisitive people might also be inclined to ask where was the office situated for which rent was paid, and at how much per diem ? " We do not see why properly audited vouchers of both his Home and Tasmauian expenses should not have been submitted to the Public Accounts Committee. The New South Waleg Premier attended i the Hobart Conference witbout the aid of secretaries, and his expenses were not a fourth of Mr. Seddon's. Mr. Gladstone, in a recent utterance, has pointed out the need of extreme economy in managing the public finance. Wβ wonder what he would say if he knew of our waste and extravagance. It seems to us that next session it will be the bounden duty of the Opposition to pass no Bill, either Imprest, Supply or any other Bill, till the Parliament is afforded the fullest information about the affairs of the colony. At present the Parliament is defied. The Ministry only put such returns on the table as pleases themselves. Everyone must know why the following, amongst other returns, were refused, namely, the return of advertising and of ministerial travelling allowances. These returns would have been awkward to explain away, and hence they are kept back. Will the members of the House permit such conduct in future ? We hope not. We know that Christmas was near, and that was, therefore, some excuse for agreeing to the Appropriation Bill before the demand of the Hou3e had been complied with, but the like circumstances cannot arise again, and we trust no Ministry will ba allowed on any other occasion so to defy Parliament.