PARLIAMENTARY PAIRS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 5597, 25 May 1905, Page 6

PARLIAMENTARY PAIRS.

Special io the “limes/DUNEDIN, Alay 24. Before his public address this evening, I directed tho Premier's attention to an interview in to-day's Christchurch '"'Press," in which Mr Lewis had complained that while the Opposition had behaved magnanimously towards the Government side in the matter of pairs, members on the Government side had refused pairs to the Opposition. In this connection, the member for Courtenay had justified the absence of the names of Messrs Massey, James Allen and himself from the division list on the Public Revenues Bill towards the close of the session of 1900. Mr Massey, it was explained by Mr Lewis, had been called home to what was expected to be the death-bed of a member of his family, and got no pair; Mr James -Allen had to leave owing to an illness, and got no pair; and finally, when Mr Lewis became ill. it never occurred to him to ask for a pair.

Asked if the position had been correctly put, the Premier replied"Mr Lewis has entirely drawn upon his imagination, He has attempted to excuse the absence of his name from that much discussed division list. He was not in Wellington when the Public Revenues Bill came before the House, having left for his home before his public duties were ended. It was never represented to mo that pairs had been refused to Messrs Massey and Allen, nor does it seem likely they were, since our whips never had instructions to so act. One instance will suffice to show that, tho Opposition ore not so chivalrous as Mr Lewis wishes to make out. Last session, during my illness, on more than ono occasion when I wanted to go home, they refused to give me a pair, and in one caso when an Opposition member did courteously give mo a pair, their whip caused him to break it." To my question, whether this was on the /occasion of a crucial division, Mr Seddon yeplied affirmatively. "No reason was assigned beyond the bald excuse that they did not intend to give a pair to anyone on the Government side; The less Sir Lewis has to say on the ethic© of pairing and tho 'Premier's smartness' in relation thereto, tho better for himself."