North Otago Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1896

North Otago Times, Volume XXXVI, Issue 8507, 29 June 1896, Page 2

North Otago Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. MONDAY, JUNE 29, 1896

Ths effort of ths Government to hide away their own iniquities m connection with the banking legislation, apd bring prominently under the Rontgeg rays of a packed committeethe sins of their political opponents has landed them m a position that brought fear and trembling into the Ministerial structure, and that they were happily relieved from on Friday night by the motion of Mr Kelly that the debate be adjourned till Tuesday. By that time it is egppoted the Premier will have had time to round op the sheep that comprise tho flock of which he is both shepherd and watch dog. The Premier opened the debate by proposing the motion whfch we have already published for the appoint? ment of a Committee to enquire into the position of the Bank of New Zealand, the Bank of New Zealand Estates Company, Auckland Agricultural Company, and the Colonial Bank of New Zealand, both prior and subsequent to the legislation of 1893, 1894, and 1895. The acope of a Committee of this sort ifl, M Dominie Sampson would say, "prodigious 1" There is no limit to what it might do or what it might not do % but the country is not to be seduced from the belief that the Committee is set up practically to hide the connection of the present Ministan* with the later banking ousiness, and to expose the connection of political opponents witti the Bank of New Zealand. Por this purpose the Ministry named a Committee almost , wholly composed of Ministerialists. The report of such a committee might be easily conceived. It might be written before the committee begin their business; for if it followß the example set by all former political committees it will act on strictly party lines, and that would mean that a report favorable to tho Ministry and damaging to their opponents would be presented to the House. Of what value would it be? We do not deny that the Bank o. New ; Zealand has been used to assist rascality j years ago, and if it would do any good to ' rake that up, and punish the offenders, no reasonable opposition could be made to inquiry. Even, however, were good to result from auch m inquiry a political committee is not the proper body to empower with this duty. From the Erst mention of the setting up of this Committee we have been against it. Tho Premier himself might as well be erapotrorad to mako tho inquiry and report to fcinjself on the villainy of his opponents and the parity of himself and his friends. The PivMßto pleaded that unless the House anointed the Committee it would not be doing its duty to the colony ; but we should say it would best be doing ita duty to the colony by leaving such a Committee alone. A Parliamentary Committee, he safdj WW the highest tribunal m the land, and, he might have added, the least satisfactory. The Premier was followed m the debate by Captain Russell, who pointed out that the effect of the report of the Committee might be anticipated rom the fact that it would composed of seven Ministerialists, two Opposition and one Independent — or seven to three. If colonists can expect any practical result from such a Committee they haye more faith m politicians than we feel inclined to jwrpdit them with. The Hon. John M'Kejasae, as m duty bound, also urged the appointment of the Committee chosen by the .government, and said as the result of inquiry they had found that they ; had paid 1*205,000 more 'for the Estates 'Company than wbjb expected.' We cannot sty that we exactly grasp the .moaning p! thli unless it be tiu-.!

the Hott. Jtotoi hia awoke to the fact that the Government have been " had " on some point that did not strike their united intelligence whon Mr John Murray wheedled them into tbe belief that they would save tho colony from a cataclysmic convulsion if they only saved the Bank of New Zealand. Mi : Buchanan said they would never have heard of the Committee had it not been for tho decision of Mr Justice Williams, which had so fatally struck the Ministry. Sir Robert Stout fired a broadside into the Ministry, and when he had finished tbey presented a sorrier appearance than did the French fleet after the battle of the Nile. Such an inquiry aa that asked for, he said, would ruin the Bank, and that, he should take it, was the very thing tho Premier wjw aiming at. The proposed Committee was a despairing effort of the Government to shield, themselves from thoir own action. Mr Montgomery was favorable to the appointment of a Parliamentary Committee, but he did not think it wise to disclose private names and , private accounts.' Mr Duthie said Mr! Seddon had deliberately deceived Parlia- 1 ment over this matter, and m conse- 1 qnence was on his trial. It wonld thus appear from Mr Duthie's remarks that the Premier wished to protect himself by appointing his own jury. The Hon. W. Hall-Jones found himself m rather a peculiar position, for while he condemned the banking legislation of last session as member for Timaru, he found himself compelled as a Minister to agree with all that had been done. He thus completed tho process of turning his coat. Dr Newman struck the keynote of public hostility to the Banking legislation when he a_ked why Messrs Watson and Mackenzie, heads of a totter* ing bank, had been appointed to tha highest positions m the Bank of New Zealand. Thia is a question that has been agitating the public mind,, and, rightly or wrongly, they have come to the conclusion that it was because ot their connection with tho late Colonial Treasurer. This, we presume, is one of the sea**'' -«i** tlio Parliamentary Committee is expcoioJ to thrust into obscurity ; but if there is one thing that the people of the colony will insist on it is the reason why those two gentlemen were appointed to the highest positions m the Bank. Mr.G. W. Russell belabored tho Government unmercifully, and moved an amendment confining the scope of the duties of the Parliamentary Com-, mittee to the individual circumstances connected with the two million guarantee, to the appointment of Messrs Watson and Mackenzie, to the amalgamation, and especially to the correctness of the last balance-sheet of the Colonial Bank. If the Committee travelled beyond this they would do the Bank incalculable harm. Mr Collins, one of the staunchest supporters of the Government, astonished the Government I by the boldness with which he as .erted that '"it was a disgrace to appoint a man to the presidency of the Bank of New Zealand who was concerned m the preparation of a false balancesheet." At last Mr Seddon capitulated under the stress of the fierce cannonade he and his colleagues had been exposed to, to the extent of saying that the names of the proposed Committee might be left till later on, The debate went on, and the further it went the more frightened became the Ministry at its tone of hostility, and when Mr W. Kelly moved its adjournment the Premier seized the opportunity as a drowning man does a straw, and floated into safety — at least till tomorrow—on the salvation this offered from oomplete shipwreck. The division was 32 to 28, but m reality the majority was only 2, for Mr Mltohelson, who had paired, but was locked m, had to vote for the Government. This concluded the first phase of what is held to be one of the most discreditable episodes m colonial history.