THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1897.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 10414, 12 April 1897, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1897.

Though Parliament meets again for its formal adjournment to-morrow, the work of the session is practically ended. It has transacted the business for which it was summoned to a short session, and it will be generally admitted by the country that it lias done so satisfactorily. The criticism and the occasional passages o! arms were in the nature of things, but as was generally hoped the groat subject of doing honour to the Queen, and emphasising the desire of the colony to show and to cement the bonds of unity within the Empire, was lifted out of the sphere of party politics, and treated as a question of National interest in which all parties are alike concerned. This has been strongly evidenced in the fact that in the crucial question of the sending of a contingent, the Opposition loyally came to the help of the Government, and saved it from the consequences of the defection of some of its own supporters. This was no more than was to be reasonably expected, but it furnishes an answer to the unworthy suspicions that were cast upon the Opposition before the meeting of Parliament, to the effect that its anxiety to assist in forwarding the misaiou of the Premier to England, was with the object of laying & trap for the Government, Although the members of the Opposition exercised their rights of free criticism of the whole proposal, even a shadow of disingenuousness on the part of the Opposition has not appeared throughout the whole transaction, and the result has confirmed the assurances that those who —however personally snd politically opposed to Mr. Seddon—had from the fint expressed their acquiescence in his being given the honour and eclat of sharing in this magnificent pageanthad utterly sunk all personal and party consideration and feelings in the desire that the colony should be represented in the most effective way in the great spectacular demonstration of Imperial unity, , . . . .

At the game time no one will mi»understand the nature of the truce, or suppose that the''important questions at issue, between the Ministerial and the Opposition party are otherwise

but in a condition of suspended animation. During the session, brief as it has been, indications were not wanting of the change that has come over the relative strength of partics in the Hoiue, as the result of the late general election. The election of Chairman of Committees, much more than the selection of Speaker, is usually accepted as defining the position of parties, and on this occasion it seems to have bee.n especially so.. In the division on this raetter, which had immediately succeeded a caucus of Government supporters, and apparently after a vigorous effort of the Ministerial whips, the Government candidate was only carried through by thirty-live against thirty-two, or a majority of three, such a small majority in a division so large, and on so critical an occasion, is significant, and indicates that in succeeding sessions a tnucli more effective curb will bo put on rash legislation, than could be effected by the utmost efforts of the Opposition in the last Parliament, and that the method of calling on Ministerial supporters to press through measures by mere force of numbers may be regarded as a thing of the .past. When the possible change of sides on any question, of two or three members, may present the contingency of a Ministerial majority being in an instant converted into a minority, the views and opinions of individual members will count for much more than we have been accustomed to see in recent sessions, And altogether apart from the possibility of the Opposition passing over to Ministerial benches, the deference that must be paid by the Government to the views of its more prudent and cautious supporters, cannot but have a salutary effect on the course of legislation, The short session, apart from its furtherance of the principal object of its meeting, has served a good purpose in thus indicating the position o£ parties, and no doubt during the recess the Government will be guided by what has transpired in framing its policy, while even its own supporters, or so many of them as do not intend to be blindly led, will see in the position encouragement to believe that they shall be enabled to Impress their particular opinions on the conduct of legislation. How this may operate was sufficiently shown in the action of certain of the Government supporters in the voting on the subject of the contingent to be sent to England. It is true this was left an open question both by the Government and the leaders of the Opposition, but the warmth shown on the subject by some of the strongest Government supporters, who are opposed to the contingent, evinces a spirit of independence, on a proposal known to be of the greatest interest to Ministers, that seems to foreshadow considerable freedom of action during the coming sessions of Parliament.

It is to some extent regretable that a seeming difference of opinion should have taken place over the adoption of an address to Her Majesty, which was intended to supplement the action already endorsed by Parliament in approving of the mission of the Premier to London. The address is a surplusage, and neither called for in the circumstances nor apparently in accordance with the action of the other colonies. But if intended it should have been spared the appearance of being marred by a division on the subject. It is true this is minimised in the fact that the division of opinion appears to have been mainly,ifnotsolely,onthevei'biageofthe document, which is about as inept and uncouth as it well could be. It is said that five or six University men were engaged in compiling it, which furnishes an additional illustration of the coin mon proverb about too mauy cooks In these cases the work is usually entrusted to one hand, and a very clumsy htind it must have been. Like the royal and vice-regfil speeches in opening Parliament, such a document may be regarded as beyond criticism so far as the graces of literature are concerned. But apart from its literary style, it is a singularly stupid production, its expression of colonial sentiment being as inappropriate as its diction is rugged. It was maladroit that these defects were not repaired before its appearance in Parliament, but such as it is, or however amended, the address to the Queen should have been publicly adopted without the appearance of dissent,