BY WHOSE AUTHORITY?

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 633, 9 October 1909, Page 10

BY WHOSE AUTHORITY?

. AN ILLUSTRATION* EXTRAORDINARY. , A ready and .resourceful member 6{ Parliament is Mr. Mander, representative for Marsden. As 6aon as the Imprest Supply .debate began last, evening Mr. Mander opened out in ' a forceful speech against the proposed deviation of tho North of Auckland railway. Other members itook up the-question from other points of view, and tho Hon. It. M'lConzie defended his action in the matter with general statements of much vigour. 1 ■ Tho House then wont into'Committoo of Supply, and was .about to go into Committee" of Ways and Means. Tho North of Auckland rail, way was forgotten, till suddenly. Mr," Mander' was on hiß : feet, and the House found itself listening to a torrent, of roply about a certain tunnel. Then Mr. Mnnder said ho would produce » man, and on his merely touching au unsuspected cord upon the waif, an onormous home-made map, in boautiful reds and blues, unrolled itself. Mr. Mander' said he had prepared this map because tho Minister' for Public Works had been unable to .provido one for him.' Ho had developed it from a small newspaper map. with tho aid of a magic lantern. . He ohallengcd tho'Minister for Publie Works to prove his statements as to which' was the' better : route by. meaus of maps and engineers statements, instead of simply Inv. ing down his word upon the subject. " t. «L Solttg to liavo Mothar go at it," utfd Mr

Mander when his time whs up, "and I shall' light as, loitc os I can stand on my legs against,this deviation/' It was a preposterous tumj that;_ after all the engineers had given their opinions in frtvour of a certain route, a Minister should go through the'country ones and say tno line must po another way. • • -S'' asked by whose an. thority,Mr. Mander had been allowed to dam. age the, walls of the 'House with nails and scrowa..• \ y ; • ~»■ authority .of the , Speaker," replied Mr-Qutnnes?,-and members laughed heartily at the unanswerable retort.. The l'rimo Minister i stated;, ...outside the House. that liG hfid not seen , a map so used m Parliament befofe... .