EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXIII, Issue 7330, 3 October 1898, Page 1

EDITORIAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Opposition evidently do not lika the charge of obstructing the passage of the Old Age Pensions Bill, and one of their trumpeters at Wellington has be6n detailed to proclaim a denial throughout the colony. 'The Opposition deny, that there is any attempt at stonewalling except when the Premier asks them to work at such unreasonable hours as 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. after an all-day sitting;" So runs the answer made to the charge. But it is no answer at all. The only answer of a satisfactory character that could be given would be to devote the earlier hours of the sitting to the consideration of the measure, and that is precisely the answer the Opposition decline to give.' On tho contrary, by their conduct they persist in demonstrating the truth of the charge they indignantly repudiate. About this I there cannot be a shadow of a doubt, i Whatever of doubt there might have been j in regard to the matter must have been completely set at rest by the proceedings I in the House on Wednesday and Thursday I afternoons. On Wednesday the Premier intimated that, in order that the Old Age Pensions Bill might be proceeded with, Ministers did not intend to answer the few questions on the Order Paper that: afternoon, and after a protest from the Leader of the Opposition, the Premier gave a promise to answer questions next day. This was accepted by Captain Russell, and the House went into Committeeon the measure. Thus the Opposition were afforded the opportunity they professed to desire of considering the Bill while members were fresh and in a fit state to do the important work before them. What use did they make of the opportunity ? No sooner had the House got into Committee on the Old Age Pensions Bill than Mr George Hutchison, one of the leaders of the party, moved that the Chairman should leave the chair. He professed to take this course as a protest against the refusal of Ministers to answer questions, but when it was pointed out by the Premier that the motion would, if carried, kill the Bill, he blurted out that that was the end he would try to attain at every opportunity. Now, as the Opposition generally profess sympathy with the object of the measure and a desire to give it consideration, it might have been assumed that they would have repudiated Mr Hutchison's sinister action. But they did nothing of the kind. With a useless discussion upon the motion for the Chairman to leave the chair they frittered away hour after hour, with the result that, in addition to the afternoon, a larger part of the evening sitting was wasted, and that only four clauses of the Bill were got through. As to the propriety of Ministers declining to answer questions, that is a matter we are not concerned with at present any further than to mention that it was made a pretext by the Opposition for wasting time and so obstructing the passage of the Bill. On Thursday the Premier adopted the very opposite course to that he had pursued on the previous day, bnt the result was very much the same. Ministers promptly answered the questions, and the House had a chance of considering the Old Age Pensions Bill in the light of day ; but the Opposition, who are ever professing a desire to have the measure considered while members are fit to give cloße attention to it, declined to go on with it. It may be incidently mentioned that Mr George Hutohison, who was so anxious on the previous day to have questions answered, was not in his place to ask any of the questions he had on the Order Paper, and so exposed the utter humbug of his protest which was made the means of wasting time. As we have said, the House might have gone into Committee on the Old Age Pensions Bill on Thursday afternoon, but It was again prevented from doing so ; for the Leader of the Opposition, professing to be dissatisfied with the answer given by the Government to a question bearing upon the subject of purchasing the WellingtonManawatu Railway, moved the adjournment of the House, and so opened the floodgates of irrelevant talk and caused the waste of the afternoon. Oa Friday the same sort of thing was repeated, advantage being taken of the consideration of an Imprest Supply Bill to Indulge in a public works debate. For this there was not the slightest warrant, as the whole question will be opened up in the course of a few days. Now, if this sort of thing cannot properly be described as obstruction of the Old Age Pensions Bill we should like to know by what name lb ehould be known. The fact of the matter is that the Opposition have resolved that the Bill shall not pass, but the majority of the party have not the courage to openly declare their hostility to it. They therefore resort to. all manner of subterfuges for retarding its progress in the hope that time will not allow of It passing, Their fair words are utterly belied by their foul deeds, and no amount of denial can efface the conviction in the public mind that their whole policy in respect to the measure cannot bear any other name than obstruction.