PARLIAMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXV, Issue 10902, 5 November 1898, Page 5

PARLIAMENT.

( t [BY TELEGEAPH.-PBES3 ASSOCIATION.] ( LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL. * Friday. { The Council met at eleven a.m. SECOND READING. j The Reserves, Endowments, and Crown 1 and Native Lands Exchange Sale Disposal { and Enabling Bill was read a second time. i SHEARERS' ACCOMMODATION. \ On resuming in the afternoon it was de- • cided by 17 votes to 10 to agree with the ' amendments made by the Government in J the Shearers' Accommodation Bill. LOCAL BILLS. . \ The remainder of the afternoon was devoted, to the discussion of local Bills, a j number of which passed through their final ( stages. j The Council adjourned at half-past five j p.m. till half-past seven p.m. ( The Council resumed at half-past seven , p.m. i * MASTER AND APPRENTICES BILL. ' t The Minister for Education moved that l the Master andApprenticea Bill be considered t in committee, urging the Council to give it . i sympathetic treatment, even at so late a i 1 stage in the session. i ' The measure found support from Messrs. . i Twomey and Rigg, and was sympathised i with by Messrs. T. Kelly and A. L. Smith, s and opposed by Messes. MacGregor and Mc- ) Lean, the latter moving as an amendment, c that the committal be postponed for three < ( months. On a division, Mr. McLean's: t amendment was carried by 11 to 8, uhe Bill j . thus being killed. I i The voting was as follows:— 1 For the amendment ; Messrs. Richardson, , Baillie, Bonar, Barnicoat, Swanson, Jen- (1 s nings, Kenny, Ormond, Oliver, McLean, i and Williams. i Against the amendment: Messrs. Harris, t T. Kelly, W. Kelly, Rigg, Tomoana, A. L. t Smith, Bolt, and W. C. Walker. , i AMENDMENTS AGREED TO. I It was decided by 13 to 9 to agree to the al- : terations made by the House of Representa- ] tives in the Juries Act Amendment Bill, I ] and also in the Lav,' Practitioners Act Amendment Bill. The Council then adjourned at half-past eleven p.m. till midday to-morrow, 1 HOUSE OP REPRESENTATIVES. Fill DA Y. The House met at half-past two p.m. ! A PUBLICAN'S PETITION. I '. The report of tho Public Petitions Com- , mittee on the petition of A. Crossey, licen- , see of tho Ranfurly Hotel, Wellington, who asked for redress on the grounds of injury j to his business through undue police sur- . veillance, was brought up by Mr. Joyce. \ It was to the effect that Crossey be allowed ( to withdraw his petition as requested by , him. Mr. Joyce read a letter Inspector Tunbridgo had sent to the committee, in ■ which ho justified the steps he had taken . for tho police supervision of the Ranfurly Hotel during prohibited hours, and said his actions were quite warranted by the cir- . cumstances. Tho report, with the letter, was ordered to be printed. GOVERNMENT VALUATIONS. The Public Petitions Committee reported that they had no recommendation to make on tlie petition of E. J. Riddiford, of Lower Hutt, who asked for compensation for the j expenses he had incurred in disputing the i valuation of the Government valuer. | A short debate ensued, in which tho I Minister for Lands defended tho officer whose valuation had been objected to. Mr. Monk moved as an amendment, "That this House is of opinion that the ovidence given beforo the committee shows reckless and oppressive action on tho part of the supervising valuer (Mr. Kennedy McDonald), and in disapproval of Ids methods, recommends petitioner's claim to the consideration of the Government." Tho debate was adjourned. TECHNICAL EDUCATION. In reply to a question, Mr. Seddon stated j that ho would not place on the Supple- j mentivry Estimates the £25,000 vote for technical education, which was struck off the Public Works Estimates The fact of j its being struck oft gave him £25,000 extra for roads and bridges, and other works. i NEW ZEALAND CROSS. | In answer to another query, Mr. Seddon said the position with regard to the payment of the pension in connection with the > New Zealand Cross awarded to Mr. H. Wrigg would not, so far as the Government was concerned, be prejudiced owing to the report of the Petitions' Classification Committee on the question not being brought down this session. He did not know what power they had to suspend payment, but he would look into the matter. MR. G. HUTCHISON AND THE PREMIER. Mr. Sligo brought up tho report (which appears in another column) of the member for Patea Allegations Committee. Mr. Sligo moved to lay the report on the table, and that it be printed. This was agreed to. The Minister for Lands moved to the effect that the allegations of tho member for Patea made against the Premier lie expunged from tho bound volumes of Hansard, and also all subsequent'references to the allegations. He thought that after the report of the committee no objection could bo raised to this. Captain Russell said it was with extreme pleasure lie had hoard that the Premier was exonerated from the charges made, but lie could not see his way to agree to interfere with Hansard. He could not see that such a course would do any good. No doubt the allegations were injudiciously made, and Mr. Hutchison himself was probably now sorry he had made them. Mr, McNab considered it would be a mistako to strike out anything, seeing that tho charges made had, in the unanimous opinion of the members of the committee, been disproved. Moreover, if agreed to, it would only affect the bound volumos of Hansard, and the unbound copies would still contain the charges in full. Mr. Fisher differed with the last speaker. If tho charges appeared in the bound volumes n! Hansard they were op record, and could be quoted for all time by unscrupulous persons who chose to make use of them. Mr. Scobie Mackenzie pointed out that Hansard was a record of what was said in the House, and the charges having once been uttered, must remain on record. This was the position he took up. Was it right that this one special thing should be selected to be expunged, when much more objectionable things were loft on record for all time? The debate was interrupted by the halfpast five p.m. adjournment, Tho House resumed at half-past seven. : The business on the Order Paper was: postponed, in order to permit of the resumption of the debate on the Hon. J. McKen-1 ae's motion to expunge the member for j . Patea's allegations against the Premier from | the bound copies of Hansard. j ' Mr. Scobie Mackenzie, 'continuing his re-1 ' marks, said rather than expunge the alle- j | gations from Hansard, it would be better , for those who sympathised ■ with tlie Pre- . mier (and he was one of them in this inr stance) to take some other means of nulli- ■ fying the effect of the member for Patea's i accusations. 1 Mr, Ward said there was nothing improper in Mr, Seddon haying had business | relations with Chinese in the ordinary course J of his business as mining advocate. • A , similar charge might he levelled against any I legal gentleman. He asserted that on i every point the committee had been unanil mous in removing a most undeserved stigma i from the Premier, and upon that ground he j j urged that all reference to the allegations' should be excised from the records of Han-1 1 sard. The House, lie was sure, would not j 1 toierato this attempt to bespatter the repu- j \ tation of tlie Premier and his family, merely i . for tho sake of party politics. He reviewed ' some of the evidence given before the com- ; mittee, and pointed to it as completely ex-1 . onerating the Premier from the base charges hurled against him—charges which, if they bad been true, must have necessitated Mr. 1 SeddonV permanent retirement from public 1 life. Common sense showed that if there ; had been anything whatever in the charges 1 Mr. Seddon would have been confronted ! with them long before they were formulated i by Mr. Hutchison. In fact, they would , have been made us? of every time Mr. Sed- ! don took part in an election on the West i Coast during the last 16 years. 1 Mr. Duthie thought nothing better could ' , have been devised to clear the Premier in ' , the eyes of the people of the colony than ' the report the committee had brought down . .to the House. ,I'ho matter should have j been allowed to rest there, for he was sure

no good could result from the acrimonious -, debate which had arisen. At. the same J time he must defend the member for Patea, against the misrepresentations of members on the Government side of the House, and, I as the Minister for Lands would not withdraw his motion, he proceeded to review the whole matter at some length, with the object of allowing that Mr. Hutchison had good grounds for assuming that the charges he made against Mr. Seddon had some solid foundation. He thought it questionable 1 whether Mr. Hutchison should have made the charges, but he must admit there was some colour for them. The report was a ■ lair attempt to clear the Premier from what ] was a gross blunder on the part of the mem- « 7 for Patea, but for the reasons he had 4 advanced he contended the allegations ' M. b ° expunged from Hansard. < Mr. heddon said there was no generosity 1 in the speech of the last speaker, who had f endeavoured to create a suspicion in the , minds of whoevet might read his speech. Mr. JJuthie admitted an error had been committed in making the charges, and he (Mr. Seddon) therefore asked win- should the record of them remain for all 'time for anyone to use who came afte: him. The morning after Mr. Hutchison had made these serious charges he went to the printing office, and struck out, on his own motion, the very paragraphs that the House wis now asked to strike out. He then wrote to the Hansard superintendent stating what lie had done, and telling him to seo the Premier. His (Mr. Seddorj) reply was that he would be no party to the deletion, fearing he might be accused of dung so because it was correct, and ,he i therefore left it to Mr. Hutchison himself. Later on another altercation took place, ] and the member for Patea- then told the t Hansard superintendent to allow the para- , (graphs to remain in the report of his speech. Mr. Seddon went on to say that '< unless the charges were expunged from the records they would remain for all time as a reflection, not only on himself, but on the : colony, of which be had been Prime Minister for six years. The charges having been disproved they should be removed from the Blue Books, as evil disposed persons might quote them on the public platform, and he would have no redress. He showed in de" tail how the report was borne out by the ' evidence, and he regretted that lie had practically again to defend himself from a re- ' peated attack by the hon. member for Wei- 1 lington. ( Mr. Guinness contended 'that the impu- i till ion cast by Mr. Duthie was unfair, and i Iviser than that made by Mr. Hutchison, i Ho spoke strongly in favour of the motion, . and said, as the result of the investigations ' of the committee, the Premier stood with- 1 out tile slightest blemish upon his character, i Mr. Sligo pointed out that tlie commit- ] tee had dealt with the charges free from • party bins, and honcstlv. The proposal ] of the Minister for Lands to delete the charges from Hansard savoured of folly, j while the report of the committee and the , debate on it remained on record!. The ! Premier might well have been content with the report. Mr. Pirani said 110 good would bo done by taking the course proposed by the Government. Mr. G. Hutchison hoped the Government would yet see that the course they were pursuing was neither judicial nor fair. After hearing the report and considering the matter he was prepared to take a certain course, which lie hoped would have ended it. He was prepared to give up much to relieve the Premer from the charges made against him, but no such opportunity was afforded him. Tho more the Ministry tried to rub out his previous speech the more they would rub it in. He wished to say" that his original charges were not directed against the private, but against the public character of tho Premier. The report, it must bo remembered, was based upon an ex parte case, as he refused to appear because lie objifcted to the constitution of the committee. The evidence ho had seen was ludicrously one-sided. The whole tiling had boon left to the Premier, and he asked whether that could be considered fair. (Mr. Seddon:l would rather you had been there.) Mr. Hutchison said, nevertheless, as far as he could see, the committee could have arrived at no other conclusion. He had never intended to reflect upon the Premier's dead relatives. Ho had wished ii'idi'Uto from his speech the reference to that matter, but before that was done the Premier made a violent attack on some of those: a.v-ocia.ted with him, and he (Mr. Hutchison) then said it was vain to think of faking anything out. Mr. Allen moved as an amendment, "That all volumes of Hansard containing the speech of the hon. member for Patea in the Financial debate on August 23 last to be hereafter issued should contain an inset after tho said speech, bearing the words, ' For report of committee in reference to allegations by the hon. member for Patea against Mr. Seddon, seo page — of the appendix to Journals of the House.'" Captain Russell supported the amendment, and urged that there was no precedent for 111 J course suggested by the Minister for Lands. On division the amendment was negatived I by 32 to 21. Mr. Rnlleston said there seemed to be a J desire on (lie part of the Minister for Lands [ to punish Mr. Hutchison without consideration of the circumstances. It would be a sorry tiling if Mr. Hutchison were to be jumped upon, and a mark set against him in the records of the colony. Mr. Massey and Mr. Carson spoke against Mr. McKenzie's motion. The Hon. J. McKenzie, in tho course of his reply, said as long as be was a member of the House be would not allow any of his colleagues to bo attacked without coming to their defence. He declared that no man with any spirit could have accepted the suggestion of Mr. Duthie, and withdrawn the motion. He regretted file personalities whic'h had been introduced into this debate, but he had been in no way to blame for them. The Government members on the Allegations Committee had acted most fairly throughout the inquiry, and he said mis without the slightest fear of contradiction. The whole thing was nothing more or less than a conspiracy against tho character of the Premier, and if the matter were taken to the courts of law Mr. Seddon would be entitled to recover heavy damages from those who were responsible for making the charges. He deeply regretted his colleague had been so assailed, and he would not consider himself worthy of a seat on the Treasury benches if he had not taken up the position he had done. On a division being taken at a-quarter past one a.m., Mr. McKenzie's motion was carried by 35 to 21. MINING BILL. A message was received from the Legislative Council stating that an agreement had been arrived at by the conference of the two Houses as to the amendments made in the Mining Bill by the Council. I PUBLIC REVENUES BILL. Mr. Seddon moved the second reading of tlu Public Revenues Act Amendment Bill, , which ho explained was necessary, partly in order to extend the currency of the Treasury Bills, which expired on March 31 next, and partly to remove some other dif- | Acuities that existed. Clause 6of the Bill dealt with the railway accounts, and allowed an expenditure above the appropriation to the extent of the excess of revenue over the estimate. The Bill was under discussion when the telegraph office closed at two a.m.