PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Hastings Standard, Issue 64, 10 July 1896, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

IN HOUSE AND COUNCIL. [By TixF.oß.mt.] fFn»» i>ur SjH't-ial < 'f>r>r*ji<t)i>fc>it. > "Wellington", this clay. Local Bills had the afternoon to themselves in the llon.se yesterday, but no principle was at stake in any of the measures which wen> advanced a step. In the House last evening the Minister of Lands denied a statement contained in a leading article in the Evening Post that he had been invited to attend the Horowhenua Commission, and added that as the writer knew that to be the case he must be a base liar. The Speaker ruled that such language could not be used in the House either in respect to persons inside or outside of the House, and requested a withdrawal. Untruthful " was accordingly substituted. The feature of the afternoon's discussion in the Council on banking matters was the speech of the Minister of Education, who indulged in a strong special pleading on behalf of his late colleague, the Hon J. G. Ward. The debate was resumed by the Hon Mr Kelly, who said that personally he had no objections to the selection of the Committee by ballot, and the Premier had told him that Government would accept one Committee. The Hon Mr Pharazyn said he had no objection to any of them, but he considered that in the interests of the colony a more independent one could be selected. Then followed the Minister of Education with the assertion that the Hon Mr Qrmond's speech was most ungenerous to Mr Ward, whose position had never yet been fully before the country or any Judge, and while not wishing to introduce personalities, he felt called on to say a word in defence of Mr Ward. This he did, and went on to say that the Hon Mr Ormond should have been more careful and more generous than to tax him with imputing motives. If Mr Ward was to be judged by motives of benefit to himself he had singularly failed, and the result of the banking legislation instituted by him was that he had been landed in trouble at the hands of a political party in this colony who must be identified with the Hon Mr Ormond. Because Mr Ward represented a policy and a Government fatal to many of their monopolies, especially in the way of cheapening money, he had been" hunted to his ruin for political purposes. Had Mr Ward not been a public man and a politician of the " wrong color," he (the Hon Mr Walker) guaranteed his account would have been taken over by those people who were now hounding him down, and the Colonial Bank would not have lost by it. The story of the Ward Farmers' Association was the most remarkable, he said, he had ever known, and how a Court had been induced to take up, the attitude it had done, he could not conceive, and he could only compare it with the treatment by law of Mr Justice Williams of the New Zealand Loan and Mercantile Agency Company when a compromise was asked. The circumstances were very similar, and one Cabinet Minister had to resign, but the Judge in England Jul not go qpt of his way to ruin the unfortua»te„Bbar«hold«a. He i

altogether failed to see why in tie name of commercial mora-ny, as it was called in Bunedin, I*: intcll t f the unfortunate shareholder* in me Colonial Bank should bo ruined. As to the selection of the Committee, the Hon Mr Walker expressed himself as willing to accept one elected by ballot. The Hon Mr Reynolds, who is an ex-Director of the Colonial Bank, thought the committee suggested could not get such an enquiry as was demanded by the country, and said that whatever Sir Walker's opinion might be it was the opinion of even the shareholders in the Colonial Bank that Justice Williams did his duty. Replying to the Hon Mr Walker's statement, [the Hon Mr Ormond denied that he had introduced personalities and asserted that all lie had asked was that the acts of the exTreasurer as ft public man should be looked into. The Hon Mr McGregor took exception to the judgment of a Judge of the Supreme Court being canvassed in the way it had by a Minister of the Crown in that chamber. The Hon Sir G. Whitmorc objected to raking up the transactions of those who were long since dead, while The Hon. Mr Stevens urged that with the interest the colony had now in the bank it would be a matter of in terest to know al 1 about the purchase of the Colonial Bank, and the Committee should obtain evidence to see if there was justification for paying £75,000 for the goodwill. The motion to set up the Committee having been carried, and a ballot having been called for, voting papers containing the names of all the Councillors were handed round. These were collected by the Clerk of the Council and counted with the assistance of the second clerk, with the result that the following Committee were elected in the order named : Hon. Messrs Stevens, Ormond, Pharazvn, Arkwrigbt, Bonar, Ivelly, Shrimski, and Richardson, together with W. C. Walker (who as the mover of the motion) did not have his name submitted to the ballot. The Hon. Mr Shrimski thanked the Council for the honor done him, but asked to have his name removed as he had been opposed to setting up the Committee all along. As the Committee is now constituted it comprised five members supposed to belong to the Ministerial side, and live pronounced opponents of the Government. The Council had its first evening sitting of the session yesterday, when the banking business was again in evidence. After discussion, clause 2, allowing the inquiry to go back as far as 1888, was struck out by 22 to 10. The remaining clauses were passed without amendment, with the exception of clause 4, which was enlarged in the direction of allowing unofficial negotiations between the banks and members of the Ministry to be subject to investigation. The st r ond reading of Mr Joyce's Intbuate> Institution Bill was carried without division, as was also Major Steward's Shearers' Accommodation Bill. Mr Collins's Divorce Act Amendment Bill was also read a second time on the voices. Progress was reported on Mr Riccarton Russell's Canterbury College Bill. The Female Law Practitioners' Bill and the Deceased Husbands' Brother Marriage Bill passed through Committee unscathed. There is some talk of having a meeting of the committees of both Chambers on the banking question, with a view of coming to a satisfactory understanding as to sitting jointly. The Government say that clause No. 1 is sufficiently wide to enable all questions being enquired into, and some of the Council fear that advantage may be taken of its scope in order to go into matters which existed prior to the immediate introduction of the first banking legislation.