THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 14289, 27 February 1912, Page 6

THE NO-CONFIDENCE DEBATE.

Apart from Mr Massey's brief statement at the opening of tho sitting, tho debate last night on the No-confi-denpe motion was marked by nothing of tho slightest public interest. It was again made perfectly obvious that, for reasons of their own, the Government wished the useless debate to be continued, and therefore member after mombor on that sido of tho House rose and helped to kill time. The Opposition members to a man "sat tight and said nothing"; no blame for the shocking waste of timo that has occurred can be placed on their shoulders. The new members, who had heard about the way in which Parliament fritters away the time, havo been afforded a fine exhibition of tho system at work, and some of them have expressed their disgust very plainly. As Mr Atmore, tho new representative of Nelson, said on Friday, in telling the House what he thought of the situation, it was simply a matter of putting the question to the vote. "The country wished to see who " was to be entrusted with the reins of " Government." The country has been wanting to see that sine© the middle of December, but the Primo Minister, for all his boasted willingness to "trust tho people," has not yet been ablo to see his way to trust tho people's representatives to settle the question. Yesterday the Minister for Agriculture "prolonged the agony" by delivering a speech which ranged from invectives against tho Opposition to particulars about the quantity of milk given by a certain cow —possibly the animal with an absolutely phenomenal, not to say apocryphal, yield, which he dragged, by the horns into some of his election speeches in Taranaki. Mr Lauronson's contribution was in his most characteristic vein, and one or two others of the rank and file filled up tho dreary pauses with speeches that added as little to the information of memberas to their entertainment. Everything must have an end, and the close of the debate is expected to bo reached tomorrow night, when the division on Mr Massey's amendment will decide the question that the country has oeen asking for ten weeks past. In spite of tho Government's strenuous efforts to turn their minority into a majority, we believe tho verdict of the House, as was that of the country, will be against them. .