OPPOSITION METHODS

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXII, Issue 7016, 3 January 1910, Page 8

OPPOSITION METHODS

CRITICISED BY HON. G. FOWLDS. riIESS ASSOCIATION. AUCKLAND, December 31. The Hon. G. Fowlds, Minister of Education, arrived in Auckland this morning from Wellington. Seen by a reporter, he said the stonewall oyer tho Reeves vote of £4OO as financial adviser was the silliest thing in the annals of New Zealand Parliaments. A good many members ,did not seem to realise that tho money had been earned, and therefore must be paid, unless the Dominion was prepared to repudiate its just obligations. “ The suggestion by Mr Massey that tho money could be paid out of unauthorised expenditure was tho most improper suggestion. that I have ever heard made by a responsible man, 11 said Mr Fowlds, “ and if that course had been pursued Mr Massey’s voice would have been the loudest in condemnation, and with some justification. The course adopted by the Government in submitting the matter for the reconsideration of Parliament on the Supplementary Estimates was the only proper constitutional course to follow. This view was amply confirmed by tho ruling of the Chairman of Committee and the Speaker, to whom the question was referred. The bringing of members back from all over Now Zealand was perfectly unjustified. The old animosity against Mr Reeves as the author of advanced labour legislation of New Zealand was no doubt mainly responsible for the fiasco.”