The Hastings Standard Published Daily. MONDAY, JULY 13, 1896. THE COUNCIL AND THE BANK COMMITTEE.

Hastings Standard, Issue 66, 13 July 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

MONDAY, JULY 13, 1896. THE COUNCIL AND THE BANK COMMITTEE.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance. For the future in the distance, And the eood that we can do.

The whole tone of the debate and the mode of procedure in the Legislative Council is charactistic of the chamber. The Legislative Councillors see no terrors in the general election ; they h&va no need to nose before the

electors ; no need to curry favor with one side or the other. They are free from those worries and fears which members of the Lower House labor under, consequently their work is performed without partiality. The tone of the debate in the Legislative Council was free from all personality ; the speeches were moderate and effective, being largely built up of commonsense. The setting up of a Committee by ballot stamped the members of the Committee with the hall-mark of impartiality, and we therefore think the report of this Committee will be accepted at a higher value by the public than the necessarily biassed verdict of the Committee set up by the House of Representatives. The Legislative Council in being able to take an impartial view of the probable effect of Clause 2 of the Order of Reference, very properly, as it appears to us, deleted the same. The desire to pry into the past history of the Bank of New Zealand does not arise from a wish to do what is right in the public interest. Looking into the coffins of political opponents brings us to a low grade in politics ; but this would be pardonable if any good purpose was to be served. A Parliamentary Committee should inquire into the purely political aspect of the question, and it cannot be held that turning over the bones of dead men is right. The excision of the second clause by the Council gets the whole affair into a tangle. The two Committees will act jointly so far as they can, leaving the Committee of the Lower House to the apparently congenial task of finding out the past iniquities of certain deceased politicians. This will necessitate two reports, assuming that the Joint Committee agree to a report, and that the House Committee goes fully into the ancient history of the Bank and makes a special report thereon. The composition of the Joint Committee shows the two parties to be fairly even, and if the inquiry is to be on party lines there should be some fine fencing, and the level-headedness of the Legislative Council representatives should prove beneficial. The admission of the public and the press to the Committee room will, we think, tend to kill any undue display of partisanship, but they will need to be very careful to avoid the penalties of the lop-sided libel law which obtains in this colony. The sooner the Committee proceeds to work the better, for the suspense inseparable from such an important matter is irksome and dangerous.