The Hastings Standard Published Daily. FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1896. FINISH THE BUSINESS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 88, 7 August 1896, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily.

FRIDAY, AUGUST 7, 1896. FINISH THE BUSINESS.

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

At last there seems some prospect of bringing to a finish a piece of business that has kept the country alive, but which has had uncommonly serious effects. The business of the Banking Committee of the House of Representatives has been one prolonged political skirmish, at one moment assuming the aspect of a burlesque, at the next somewhat of a tragedy. Mutual recriminations, insinuations of a contemptible kind, innuendoes pointed with malice, everything and anything damaging to one another has been paraded by the members of the Committee, and the work has been neglected or blocked. Scarcely a sitting is held without a discreditable " scene," and after more than four weeks spent, the evidence of a single witness has not been completed. Is it worth while to continue the farce with all its bitterness and damaging effects ? It is very much after the amusement indulged in by some schoolboys who delight in throwing stones at a helpless frog. Excellent fun for the youngsters, but excruciating torture to the frog. The Committee, like the school boys, are amusing themselves at the expense of the bank, and if great care is not taken it may end very seriously for the Bank of New Zealand. From the very commencement the House was warned that, in seeking for information in the private affairs of private individuals, there was extreme danger. Responsible officers of the Bank have acknowledged that the institution has already suffered, and it is time therefore to desist. The Committee can never hope to bring in a report daring the next twelve months if it were allowed that time; the longer it sits the more damage does it do to the institution with whose interests those of the colony are inseparably bound; and while its labors must prove abortive, the cost to 'the colony of the inquiry will be a very real thing. Mr McGowan's proposal to stop the inquiry may not be well timed from a political point of view, and may not be acceptable to the Premier, who, no doubt, desires to keep faith with the country ; nevertheless it is a motion that should be welcomed by the House

■whose duty it is to safeguard the interests of the colony. The inquiry is jeopardising the position of the Bank, and so striking a blow at the colony; that being so, the inquiry should be stopped, and stopped at once. The Legislative Council, by "working mb rosa and doing its work, will be able to give the country a very good idea of who is to blame and who not to blame for the unfortunate banking business, and this, to our mind, is an additional reason why the Committee of the House should be dissolved. The Committee can do no good, and has done much harm, and will do more if permitted to continue.