POLITICAL NOTES.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXXI, Issue 4419, 27 July 1901, Page 4

POLITICAL NOTES.

An Attack on the Police. Most - , ■j'.cop’e >vill join in the expressions of surprise to which the Minister of Justice gave utterance in the House of Representatives yesterday, in connection with the ' violent, unjustified and altogether deplorable attack made upon Mr Tunbridge, Commissioner of Police, by the junior member for Wellington, Mr George Fisher. Fortunately, Mr Tunbridge has earned suoh a high rcpu-, tation for efficiency, firmness and fair-, ness, that aspersions from even a greater authority than Mr Fisher can hardly injure him.' The completeness of the Hon Mr McGowan’s answer to the garbled charges, and the prompt unanimity with which members of every shade of public opinion stood up to champion the responsible official so wantonly attacked, ought to satisfy every reasonable person that the accuser was entirely - wrong, both in his facts and his methods. Any politician with a sens© of responsibility would have mad© himself sure of his ground before he, under the protection of-Parliamentary privilege, grossly libel, led a man who is not able to say or do anything in his own defence. Mr Wil* ford was- more temperate in his statements,, but even hi admitted that, supposing disorganisation to exist, a Royal Commission. 0 r a Select Parliamentary Committee ,was not the proper tribunal to deal with the matter. The Premier’s dignified attitude has much to commend it. “No political interference with the police,” is bis watchword. Mr James Allen’s suggestion to excise the “vile attack” from the reports of th© Parliar mentary debates is impracticable. Members who abuse their privilege, and may afterwards regret having done 6 0, should not even be allowed to tamper with th® reports; let the record remain, to their ultimate shame and ' confusion. -Mr Fisher is the man, b© it remembered, who presumes to tell Parliament that he, and he alone, will determine what sort of libel laws shall prevail in New Zealand. He has outraged his constituents by his wanton attack on a most able, courteous and efficient public servant. They have the power to call him to account, and they ought to exercise it. There seems to bo a substratum of truth in the allegations concerning want of harmony in the police force of Wellington ; but we feel assured that Mr Tunbridge, if given a free hand, will remedy the matter much better than could be done by any form of Parliamentary inquiry.

Promise and Performance.

It is with a deep sense of disappointment that we have to comment upon the early fall of Parliament from the condition of grace to which it for a brief period attained-in the matter of its hours of sitting. * The resolution to sit .on “ Government days ” from 10.30 a.m. t 0 10.30 p.m. was eminently sane and practicable, and was promising to yield the best of results; but suddenly Parliament has stultified itself by breaking its own rule and has gone back to the bad-old habit of late sittings, which have twice this week been prolonged until after 3 a.m. The dog returning to his vomit and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire are the only similes that fittingly describe the position. There is absolutely no excuse for the action of the House of Representatives in agreeing to the suggestion, of the head of the Government to force through the Land for 'Settlements Act Amendment Bill by means of two prolonged sittingsHad there been anything of urgency i" the case the suspension of the rule could have been justified; but the Bill in question would have got through nv ordinary and legitimate methods; and it is surely a confession of weakness, or

of a desire to avoid discussion, when resort is had to physical methods. Ihe result of these two late sittings has been to disorganise all the work of the House. It is to be hoped that members will show some self-respect and consistency by refusing to be again placed in such a humiliating position as they now occupy. A. further self-denying ordinance should be passed, in the shape of a resolution not to sit on any occasion after midnight, except when matters of extreme urgency have to be dealt with. Resolutions are of no use, however, unless they are kept. '1 no country looks to its representative men to show a’ worthy example in business methods and in faithful observance of the rules they make. Further exhibitions of culpable weakness and bad faith such as have taken place this week can only result in the people viewing Parliament with contempt. Tho, public may contemplate with indifference the prospect of politicians being reduced to a condition, of physical and mental pulpitudo by their own. misconduct; but they have a right to demand that the country’s business shall he transacted in a rational and well-ordered manner, and they ar© not likely to tolerate for any lengthy period thos© tactics that result in waste of time and money and in th© passing of measures without proper consideration.