GOVERNMENT IMPEACHED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12908, 3 July 1905, Page 6

GOVERNMENT IMPEACHED.

WHOLESALE CONDEMNATION OF THE ADMINISTRATION. A LIVELY NIGHT IN THE HOUSE. ) . BOTH SIDES "TAKE OFF THE GLOVES." s A STORMY SESSION FORECASTED. THE ALL-NIGHT SITTING. [bt telegfai-h.— special CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington, Saturday. It is a veiy long time since there has been such stirring times in Parliament during the opening week as during the week just ended. The proceedings yesterday especially were reminiscent of the old fighting days. As the day wore on, the attack which was successfully developed by the Opposition on the " Imprest Supply " debate, was continued with increasing vigour by the Taylor party. The speeches delivered earlier in the day by Mr. Massey, Mr. Hemes, and Mr. Jas. Allen were very telling ones. Later on came Messrs. Bedford, Fisher, Hawkins, Duthie, and Taylor, the most damaging speeches being those delivered by Messrs. Bedford and Taylor. The galleries were crowded during the greater part of the evening, and the keenest interest was taken in the proceedings. The political temperature rose to fc-ver heat, and the culminating point was the electrifying speech delivered by Mr. Taylor. The Go°vemment received little support from its followers, in replying to the charges made, and the brant of the reply fell upon the Premier, who was looking -somewhat ill at ease and very flushed. It was evident, however, that he was not in such good form as usual, and it was generally admitted that the Government had never in the whole course of its existence been so severely handled as it was last night. There is every indication that the attack will be renewed at intervals throughout, the session with undiminished vigour. CHARGES BY MR. BEDFORD. Mr. Bedford, who has joined the "third party," styling themselves the "progressives," uttered a strong condemnation of the Seddon Administration in his speech on the Imprest Supply Bill yesterday. He congratulated the Government on the probability of an early reconstruction of the Cabinet, because, he said, the Premier must have realised for some time past that the country was now tired, indeed, it was growing intolerant of the inefficiency that characterised the administration of many of the Government Departments. The country would rejoice at a change in the personnel of the Cabinet, and if all the administrative abuses could be mercilessly disclosed the country would still more rejoice at the annihilation of the Ministry. Mr. Bedford contended that the inefficiency was not confined to the weaker members of the Government. There was just as deplorable inefficiency on the part of the chief members of the Ministry as on the part of weaker members, and he was one of those who believed that in November next the people would not be quite satisfied with the'removal of one or two members of the Cabihptjjnrt they would show in a large number at any rate, that they desired U complete change. In regard to the Premier's surplus thoughtful people were beginning to realise that to a certain extent it is manufactured by charging to loan account items that should be charged to revel) we. '■■'•"'» Mr. Bedford briefly touched on the administration of the Education Department, which, he said, showed a more lamentable lack of direction and control than any other. It was in a state of chaos, and the teaching profession was in a state bordering on revolt. .

THE GOVERNMENT AS EMPLOYER.

An Hon. Member: Who is the Minister in charge of it? Mr. Bedford: The Minister is the Premier. He is Colonial Treasurer, he is Minister for Education, and he is Minister for Labour. Mr. Bedford went on to say that this was a Labour Government, but many labourers in the Government Departments were not treated as well as labourers employed by private individuals. In the Railway Department there were mat receiving not more than 6s a day, and a great number receiving only 7s, when, if they had access to the Arbitration Court, they would be getting at least 8s a day. And yet we had a boasted surplus and a Premier perambulating the country and saying he did not know what to do with the money he had got! He (the Premier) had such a redundance of money that he was going to increase the old age pensions, reduce the duty on tobacco—(laughter)—and do a hundred more equally foolish things in the effort to find an outlet for the expenditure of his surplus. He was in despair of finding means of diminishing his surplus, and so he proposed to reduce the duty on tobacco. (Laughter.) WHERE THE WAGES WENT. Mr. Bedford called the attention of the Premier to the standard' of living to which many men in the Railway Department -are reduced as the, result of very low wages. He had in his hand an account of expenditure by a man in the Railway Department in Dunedin, getting 6s a day. The man got in wages for the month £7 4s. He was a teetotaller and an abstainer from tobacco. For a month his expenditure was: ■ Grocer, £2 10s; rent, £1 8s; coal, 8s 4d; meat, 20s; lodge contribution, ss; superannuation fund, 7s 2d; union contribution, Is; a total of £5 19s-6d. That left a balance for the month of £1 4s 6d for boots and clothing ; yet the man had a wife and four children to support, and declared that he had to live in a two-roomed tenement unfit for habitation because his wages would not permit of his doing otherwise. "A wage of £1 16s a week," said Mr. Bedford, "is not sufficient to provide any labourer with the ordinary necessaries of life in this colony when he has a wife and four children to support. It I is not a living wage when we consider the I cost of living at the present time." The I higher paid men had received increases, but I these poorly paid men had received no in-1 creases.

A CHARGE OF TREACHERY.. Mr. Bedford next proceeded to criticise the Colonial Secretary's Department. He drew attention to the 'case of a Southern registrar who had been convicted of wilfully and knowingly violating his duty, and yet he was not removed from office till after' he had officiated at a general election and at a licensing election. . This led Mr. Bedford to cite the case of a registrar on the West Coast, whom he named. In this case the Government had been guilty of a gross breach of duty, and indeed, of treachery, to the interests of the colony. This man' was still in office, but he must be removed; if not, the country ought to be roused to indignation at such a case. In 1890, the man. as was shown in the Gazette notices, was dismissed from the offices of resident magistrate, coroner, warden, judge of the Assessment Court, returning officer and justice of the peace. He was°also removed from his position as a member of (he Harbour Board. With these facts within his knowledge, Mr. Seddon was approached by deputations in 1896, and he then declared that the man was not exactly dismissed, and the man was not again in office as returning officer, though the Government had repeatedly had their attention drawn to the case. DEPARTMENTAL CHAOS. The Justice Department was also attacked by Mr. Bedford, especially in regard to allowing a licensed hotel to remain at Dimollie in defiance of the expressed wish of an overwhelming majority of the people there, and also against the recommendation of the mine manager. In concluding a forcible speech, Mr. Bedford said: "Every Department, more or less, is in a state ef chaws, and it is

time the country realised that not only must it sacrifice one or two members of the Ministry, but that it must practicaly get rid of all of them. I do not think there is any otgjjr possible way of cleaning up the country's affairs."

RAILWAY DEPARTMENT DEFENDED. Sir J. G. Ward replied to Mr. Bedford's charges against the administration of the railways, and defended the Department against the allegation of paying the railway men inadequate wages. He enumerated a number of concessions made to the men, and referred to the classification of the employees. The Government had done an enormous amount for the railway men of the colony, and hoped to do more. There was no superannuation I scheme in this world that could compare | with that of New Zealand. ! HIGH PRIEST OF TAMMANYISM. Mr. Hawkins renewed the attack. He said Mr. Bedford need not worry about the reconstruction of the Ministry, as the country would reconstruct the Ministry in November next. The. importance of the coming elections demanded that the best men should be appointed as registrars of electors, and in this connection lie made some strong comment on certain officials occupying that position. He did not believe that the Colonial Secretary was responsible for the appointment of such men; but that they were the results of the Tammany methods pursued by the head of the Government, the arch-high priest of Tammany in New Zealand. There were sufficient now in the. House to say that those men should be removed, and if they were not removed before the end of the session there would be trouble, whether the Government liked it or not. Mr. Taylor, in his speech, dealt with' the appointment of the returning officer referred to by Mr. Bedford, and went on to allude to the case of a police sergeant who, he said, was dismissed from the force as a result of the inquiry made into his case by the Police Commission. "The Premier," ha said, "knew well enough that he dare not have granted that man compensation for loss of office while I was in the House, but I was not here the following Parliament, and he then put "a sum on the Estimates—l think it was £128."

MR, TAYLOR'S WARNINGS.After further references to the licensing question and the conduct of the returning officer in question, Mr. Taylor went on to say: "I wish the Ministry to understand clearly from me that my gloves are oil', and that between now and the general elections they will have to mend their ways and keep decent company. So far as the public servants are concerned, there will be little peace for them up till the end of the session." Dealing with the question of Cabinet reconstruction, Mr. Taylor said : " I tell the Ministry now it is generally believed that the Cabinet is going to be reorganised, and that pretty speedily, not because the Right Hon. the Premier particularly desires it, but because he dreads the possibility of a large section of his own party becoming so powerful at the general election as to reorganise him out of existence if he does not put his house in order." THE NEWTOWN SPEECH. Ho alluded to the action of the Premier last year, in deleting the references to the land question from the copies of his Newtown speech which were circulated in the Pahiatua electorate prior to the by-elec-tion there. "His candidate," said Mr. Taylor, " was a freeholder, and a renegade freeholder— man who, as a member of this House had been a strong leaseholder but he had to be built to order for Pahiatua requirements, because it was supposed to be a freehold constituency, so they had to make the policy fit the man, after having made' the man fit the constituency."

Proceeding to speak of the Upper House appointments, Mr. Taylor said: "He has practically in its present form corrupted the Legislative Council; ho has also corrupted it—"

The Speaker: The hon. gentleman must withdraw that remark. I cannot allow any member to say that another member has corrupted the Legislative Council.

Mr. Taylor: Then I withdraw it, sir. I will say that he has appointed a man to the Council of whom the Trades and Labour Council declared that if other men of the same character were appointed, it would lead to the destruction of the Chamber. The series of appointments he has made has become, such a matter of notoriety that public opinion has commenced to look with contempt upon his appointments to another place, and the Premier now admits that he has brought the Chamber to such a level in public esteem that he will make no more appointments' to it; he will let it die a natural death.

THE SCIENCE OF CABINET- ' ' MAKING. Touching on the Premier's. science of Cabinet-making, he said "that Mr. Seddon had taken care, with one 'exception, that every man who went to the Cabinet should be of such a calibre that there would be no danger of his challenging the right hon. gentleman's personal power or defying his personal wish. There was one exception, that of the present capable Minister for Railways; but," declared Mr. Taylor, it was well known that the late Sir John McKenzie appointed Sir Joseph Ward when the latter rejoined the Cabinet. The Premier, by his lust for power, had brought his executive and party into such disrepute that there was more danger to it now than there had been since 1893." THE POLICE MORALE. Referring to the police force, Mr. Taylor charged _ the Premier with calling back into seniority men who had been dismissed for gros.s exhibitions of public drunkenness. In connection therewith, ■■ he said that Commissioner Tunbridge had resigned because " he • was too much of a man to be a pup." By such incidents as these the Premier was lowering the moral tone of the whole Assembly. They had to thank the Premier for nothing in regard to licensing legislation, as all that he had done in this connection had.been forced from him. THE PREMIER'S WIRES. Mr. Taylor went on to say, " I am going to know before the end of the session by what authority tho Premier's secretaries transmit telegrams running into 4000 or 5000 words of party speeches to certain newspapers of the right colour. I am going ' to have an answer, and I want to know also why any member of the Minister's family, I apart from the Minister himself, should dare to prevent me getting access to our telephone system, and which I am prepared to pay for at tariff rates, whilst it is being used by them without paying anything for it. I tell you, gentlemen sitting on the Government side of the House," continued Mr. Taylor with great warmth', " that you may remain silent, and may crawl into favour under the governorship of that man. I say it is a disgrace to you, and to the country, and that you are false to your democratic duties if yon submit to this." Mr. Taylor proceeded in a similar strain, and his speech, which was generally regarded as one of the strongest ever delivered by him, was brought to a close by the passage-at-arms with the Minister for Justice, as already reported. THE PREMIER'S REPLY. The Premier, who had looked troubled and careworn during the lengthy succession of attacks on his Administration, rose to make reply at half-past one a.m. He soon made it evident that, so far as he, too, was concerned "the gloves were off." "Other people," he hotly exclaimed, , " can take off the gloves, and when I take off my gloves the people to whom I "take them "off must look out." He fiercely denounced those speakers who had so warmly attacked him as "an excrescence on public existence," and, as a crowning epithet, applied to them the term of "the political scavengers of the House." He said, glaring across the House towards Mr. Bedford, that certain prohibitionists were endeavouring to get men out of their own party appointed as registrars and returning officers, with the view of controlling the elections. He denied that Sir John Mckenzie had anything to do with the return of Sir Joseph Ward to the Ministry. "The vacancy was there," he said, " and it was understood at the time that Sir Joseph Ward left the Ministry that j when he was prepared and willing to come ] back tlw place was there for him. |

THE AUCKLAND REGISTRAR, Referring to the mention made of the late registrar of electors at Auckland, he said that that official had been exonerated from the charges made against him, and it was most unfair that a dead man's memory should be brought up in this way. As to the West Coast registrar, he said nothing had been proved against him in that position, and he quoted from official records to show that that official had not been compelled to resign from reasons which reflected on his character as an official. The official in question was indebted to a suitor who came before him, and he declared that there are very few magistrates who are not indebted. Mr. Alison: That's a scandal. Continuing, the Premier said that, as to the case referred to by Mr. Hawkins, the man had taken out a prohibition order against himself, and the people in the district knew him to be fair, just, and competent. Regarding Mr. Taylor's remarks on the Education Department, he said no proof of maladministration had been given. Large increases of salaries had been granted to teachers, and the present salaries were in accordance with the recommendations of the Education Committee. Since he took charge of the Department a large increase had taken place in the expenditure on salaries, school buildings, manual and technical instruction, scholarships, and so on, amounting to half-a-mil-lion sterling. The Government had been 14 years in office, and if all that could be said against it at the end of that term was what had been said that night, then ho said they had the most progressive Administration that there ever was in this or any other colony. " We are not afraid of next November, the people of the colony have not lost confidence in tie Administration," said the Premier, in conclusion. MR. TAYLOR RETURNS TO THE' CHARGE. Mr. Taylor, in returning to the attack, pointed out that the increase in expenditure in the Education Department was the natural increase, and was justified and necessary, not by way of generous treatment to school teachers, but by virtue of the fact that the attendance at the schools had been gradually increasing, and the increased expenditure was (bound to go on. He referred to the Premier's bluff, and', pointing his finger at Mr. Seddon, vehemently declared: "Mark you, this has got to stop. The House has now got into such a temper that it will not tolerate any such thing. We are his masters, and he is our servant. I have been told that the Premier is going to keep us here till the end of October, so that we shall not have more than three weeks in which to do our electioneering. Of course, he has already been round the colony, and, no doubt, considers that in that respect lie is up to date." "Let him drop the game of bluff," continued Mr. Taylor. His power in that direction is on the wane. I have had the gloves off with him once or twice before, and lam not conscious- that'l want to lie helped out of the ring." THE PREMIER'S FINAL WORD. The Premier, in his final reply, again referred to the .attacks on certain officials, rebuked members for lowering the tone of the debate by such attacks, and asked whether it was to bo laid down that the fact of a man being a prohibited person was to bar him from public employment. These diabolical attacks on returning officers had had this effect, that gentlemon who had some regard for their reputation would not act in that capacity. In an impassioned peroration, he said let his critics take their place as the " scavengers of the colony." Referring to what was understood to be Mr. Taylor's allusion to the alleged misuse of the telegraph service, he said that if be was going to be assailed in this manner he would take such steps as were necessary to protect himself ana. his family. Mr. Taylor (derisively)!' Oh! That is all bounce.

Members at this stage were fairly well exhausted, and the Bill was passed through its remaining stages without further discussion. The House rose exactly at four o'clock, and thus ended a night that will long be memorable in connection with the session of 1905.