Oh that we two were Maying.

Hastings Standard, Issue 126, 21 September 1896, Page 2

Oh that we two were Maying.

THE MINISTER OF LANDS ANXIOUS TO MEET ME G. HUTCHISON. AND HIT HIM ON THE HEAD. A SCENE. (By Telegraph.) [Special to Standard.] Wellington, This day. A fracas occurred on the rising of the Bank Committee this afternoon. As the Committee were about to disperse a warm altercation arose between the Hon. John McKenzie and George Hutchison. The Minister, irritated beyond measure «it a doubt being thrown upon his veracity, threatened the lawyer with a spanking. The limb of the law retorted defiantly that he " would say it again." Off went the Ministerial coat and in another moment there would have been a hand to hand encounter had not the Premier resolutely inserted his broad shoulders between the gladiator and his tormentor. FURTHER PARTICULARS. (From our Special Correspondent.) Wellington, This Day. While Mr Hutchison was examining Mr Vigers to-day Mr Hutchison remarked that if the Judge of the Supreme Court at Dunedin was present at the Committee meeting the Minister of Lands would insult him. The Minister of Lands (threateningly) : "I should like to hear Mr Hutchison make that remark in the lobby, and I would make very short work of him." Mr Hutchison : "I will make it anywhere." The Minister of Lands: " Then you will get a smack over the head." Mr Hutchison : " A case of assault, eh ?" Several other unseemly wrangles occurred. The Hon Mr McKenzie spoke of Mr Hutchison's diseased imagination, while Mr Seddon said the member for Patea had lost every shred of political reputation. At the close of the proceedings, and when they were outside the Committee room, Mr Hutchison went up to the Hon J. McKenzie and repeated the remark, when the latter took off his coat, and would undoubtedly have struck Mr Hutchison but for the intervention of Messrs Graham, Steward, and Ward, who had some difficulty in restraining him.