THE SECRET DEBATE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9074, 7 June 1888, Page 3

THE SECRET DEBATE.

TO THE EDITOR.

Sir, — have waited for some days in the hope that some abler pen than mine would protest through your columns against the suppression from Hansard of a report on the debate on the Bill introduced by Sir George Grey to repeal the C.D. Act. I can only account for the suppression in two ways, either or neither of which may be right. Was the debate not fit for publication, because of the obscenity introduced into it by some of the members; or, was the report suppressed because some of the members did not wish their constituents to know which side they supported. If the latter, then the precedent is a very dangerous one; for it may be repeated in any debate on any other question, and may sap the honesty which should be characteristic of an assemblage of representatives having the welfare of more than half a million of people in its keeping. Time was when no reports of Parliamentary proceedings were permitted, but those days are, happily, gone by, never, I hope, to recur. If the reason for the suppression of the report was the obscenity introduced, then that obscenity was discreditable to the New Zealand Parliament, and the people ought to know which of the members was guilty of it. Mrs. Josephine Butler addressed some 3000 men on this subject in London, and that lady said not one word during her long speech which would gratify a prurient mind. Clergymen, doctors, officers of Her Majesty's army and philanthropists have discussed this question in public without introducing any indecent expression. Are we to believe that the Parliament of New Zealand comprises members with such grovelling minds that they could not treat such a subject from a moral and physiological standpoint, and couch their ideas in such language as would not be offensive. lam sure that Sir George Grey did not transgress in this respect, and I, and thousands of others, I believe, would like to know who did.— am, &c., Auckland, June 5. Wm. R. Cook.