PARLIAMENTARY CENSURE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LIX, Issue 18172, 18 August 1922, Page 6

PARLIAMENTARY CENSURE.

The action of the member for Lyttelton in making a partisan attack under cover of an explanatory memorandum to his Proportional Representation and Country Quota Bill was so clearly improper that no motion of censure by the House of Representatives was necessary to aid men of ordinary decent instincts in forming a judgment. The offence was aggravated by the manner in which Mr. McCombs misled the Speaker of the House and the reader of Bills, and by his defiant attitude in debate. The offending sentence read as follows : " Under proportional representation there would be no necessity to alter the boundaries of the Kaiapoi electorate in order to protect Reform interests, because the Reform Party would secure the representation it is entitled to in the combined electoral district of Christchurch." To argue that this is other than barefaced propaganda would be palpable nonsense. Mr. McCombs knew, as any man, even without Parliamentary experience, would know, that the place for such a remark was on the floor of the House in debate or at the hustings, and not in an explanation to a Bill. Further, Mr. McCombs must have known that such a sentence would never have passed the considered scrutiny of the Speaker or the official concerned, yet to both of them he gave his assurance that the matter was in order and thus achieved his end. Tactics of thin kind are degrading to Parliament, and it is well that the House took the opportunity of expressing itself clearly on the subject.