TOWN EDITION. Evening Post THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29,1881. A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT.

Evening Post, Volume XXII, Issue 77, 29 September 1881, Page 2

TOWN EDITION. Evening Post THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 29, 1881. A DANGEROUS PRECEDENT.

? If the history of the past session of Parliament is to be recorded as a precedent, a serious danger to good government is involvod. It is the fashion to speak of the Bession as " barren," but this is promptly disproved by reference to the list of bills passed. Yet three months after the session had begun, or three weeks before it closed,

the imputation of utter barrenness could not ' have been truthfully repelled. The first three months were unprofitable in an unparalleled degree ; the last three weeks were as unprecedentedly productive. Now we dismiss from present consideration the question whether the postponement of all business until the la?t, when it could be rushed through unopposed and at express speed, were the resnlt of " accident" or " design." We dwelt at some length in a previous article on this aspect of »he case, and pointed out the curious dilemma to which it led everybody who impartially considered the course of events. Bnt without at all implying that the very singular manner in which important public business waa transacted on this occasion was dne to anything else than a gradual, and perhaps accidental, culmination of inducing causes, we must nevertheless direct earnest attention to the fact that there is a future possibility of similar results being designedly produced. We may have in power an unscrupu'ous Government determined to pass certain bills of an objectionable character, or anxious to rush through supplementary estimates containing various questionable items. Their course is now clear. It has been distinctly shown by the experience of the past session; Flood the House with bills. Set the teetotallers and the moderate-drinkers and the free-trade-in-liquor men all by the eai s ; they will be good for at least a month ot temperance discussions. Introduce the Bible-in-Bchoolß question, and Protection versus Free Trade, and the Population Basi3 of Representation, and a few other debatingclub subjects— keep all these going judiciously in turn, treating one or two as Want-of-Confidence motions, and it will not be difficnlt to amuse the House for three months or bo, without letting members do anything of a very definite character. Then let Borne exciting climax be led up to and a final division be taken amid a tempest of excitement. It may safely be assumed that after such a climax there will be a reaction. Members will feel weary, jaded, and bored ; very disinclined to trouble themselves with the dry bones of practical business after all the appetising and pleasantly exciting elements have been eliminated. It ia then that " little bills," pregnant with formidable consequences, will tear through the House like a whirlwind. It is then that millions will be voted in minutes, and shady items of unauthorised expenditure will be passed through unquestioned. We had a good specimen of what Parliament can do in this way, when it gives its mind to it, on the last night of the Estimates. Then a million sterling was voted away in seven minutes by the clock. It is true one reduction was made, and that affords a capital illustration of the utterly reckless and inconsiderate manner in which the Estimates were dealt with, like all other business toward the close of the session. The item of .£9B for cutlery, &c, for Bellamy's, was Btruck out, everybody obviously supposing it referred to a proposed future expenditure. Nobody seems to have taken the trouble to ascertain the truth, but, as a matter of fact, the vote asked for was really to defray the cost of goods ordered last year, and purchased many months ago by the Agent-General. We do not know on whom this expense will fall now that Parliament has refused to vote the money, but we imagine Ministers will be personally liable until the sum is voted, unless it is taken out of " unauthorised expenditure."- Wo simply quote these instances in illustration of tho reckless manner in which Parliament can conduct business when members are in a hurry to get aw ay. Iso tar as we are aware no particular harm has been done in this case, because most of the bills which were rushed through tha House were necessary and useful measures, or at least unobjectionable. At any rate there were very few positively harmful things done. However widely we and others may differ from the present Government on particular questions of policy, there is a general recognition that as a Ministry they aro honest and conEcientiouß, that they are sincerely desirous to do their best for the good of the colony, and that they are not at all tikely to stam tneir hands with any gross jobs. But what security have we that future Ministries, nay, even that the very next Ministry, will be composed of men of equally high personal character ? None at all. It is a lamentable, but generally admitted fact that the quality of our Parliament, as a whole, is steadily deteriorating with each successive general election. The Parliament which was dissolved in 1879 was the worst New Zealand ever had, and that which is now in articulo mortis is the worst of all. Some may comtort themselves for awhile in the hope that there will be some improvement in the Parliament about to be elected, but we are not sanguine. Brazen impudence and hollow claptrap are too often the passports to Parliament nowadays, and tha next House of Representatives may compare unfavourably even with its predecessor. In that case we may see some strange things done, and we therefore deplore all the more deeply the establishment of bo dangerous a precedent in regard to the mode of conducting business as that left us by the late session. All important business might be artfully delayed until it should be ascertained that the House had arrived at the right stage of temper to permit everything to be " rushed through." A convenient Speaker and Chairman of Committees might use the waste of time as a justification for bringing the "iron hand" to bear in repressing debate and crushing opposition With such facilities at disposal, and justified by established precedent, wnat evil might not a reckless, corrupt, or unscrupulous Ministry be able to work? The peril is a very real and serious one. The conduct of the House of Representatives durmgi the last session is wholly indefentible. If members chose to waste the first three months in idle chatter and senseless tomfoolery, that was their own look out. Their constituents had a right to expect that they wonld nevertheless* devote adequata attention to the publio*busines3 when they really did set to work. 1 The late session was not a long one ; indeed, it was considerably under the average length. Several much less important sessions have histed fully five months. There was no legitimate reason why members should insist on flying from Wellington when they had Bat three months. If the public business required two months more to do properly dealt with, as no one can doubt that it did, it was their plain duty to Btay and devote that time to the work entrusted toithem at their own seeking. Insteadof that they rushed through everything with, most indecent haste, utterly regardless of the public interests and even of common decorum. Their Gonduct establishes a most perilous precedent, and forms a grave scandal upon representative institutions.