A STONEWALL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3006, 25 October 1911, Page 5

A STONEWALL.

SIR JOSEPH WARD AND MR MASSEY CROSS SWORDS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, "October 12. A good deal of the time of the House was wasted to-day by Mr Ell, who started an ineffective stonewall on the Wellington City Empowering Bill. In this bill there was a provision universally agreed to by the people of Wellington to make a small charge for witnessing games on certain recreation grounds made at great expense by the City Council. The proposal was to make a charge on 30 -days in the year. The circumstances in Wellington are entirely different from those in other cities such as Christchurch, where recreation gounds can be cheaply made on level lands.

Mr Ell waxed very wrath at the proposal, and spoke at length against it several times. This caused Mr Hemes to wonder what a well-meaning faddist like Mr Ell cost the country on such occasions. ' After the adjournment Sir Joseph Ward made a speech in which he suggested a compromise by allowing a charge on 20 days in the year. Sir Joseph Ward wandered from the bill to have his usual fling at the Opposition, whose representatives, he said, were getting c* machinemade speeches. Mr Massey, in reply to the Prime Minister, said they had recently the extraordinary spectacle of one branch of the Legislature closed down to allow a Minister of the Crown to go electioneering at the public expense. They had also the spectacle of another Minister of the Crown absent from his place in order that he could go electioneering. Sir Joseph Ward : Who was that ? Mr Massey : The Minister of Agriculture,

Sir Joseph Ward : He waa only absent from Friday night till Monday night. Where, he asked, Massey? Ho also had gone electioneering. A Voice : And Mr Allen? Mr Maeeey : I am not a Minister of

' the. Crown. We have a perfect right io go, because we pay our own expenses. Sir Joseph Ward said the two Minf istere had gone at their own expense, and I they were entitled to go. One had lost his seat, and the other had decided to come down and contest a seat in the ordinary course of things from the Upper House. That Ministex had taken advantage of the opportunity to go to Parnell to deliver a speech. Both these Ministers wuld be returned by large majorities—(Opposition laughter)—and the Opposition did not like it. i Mr Massey : Don't be too sure about it. * - ■& : ~/:/- *<•

Sir Joseph; Ward said that in his opinion they would both be returned. Mr Massey YoU; will find they have no room up there for southern rejects. Sir Joseph Ward : That is rather poor. If the hon. member will come down to my electorate I shall regard it as one of the golden opportunities of niy life, and' I would not call him a reject from the north, ti The sooner we get; the national spirit the.better it will be for the country as a whole. I am not going to say in any boasting way that we are going to get back with an overwhelming majority, but I; think the people recognise when they have got a good thing, and will not put it aside for a bad thing. Mr Wilford here innocently inquired " What about my bill ?" amid a general shout of laughter.. The House had apparently forgotten all about the bill. Sir Joseph Ward answered the question. -" YourHbill," he said, "is only a secondary matter when we are dealing with a matter of greater importance."— (Laughter.) \ • ' After a forcible and lucid speech-by Mr Wilford, Mr Ell was badly beaten by 46 votes to 17 on his amendment to limit the charging days to 10. It was decided to allow 20 charging days in a year on condition that not more than 10 of the days be Saturdays, and the bill then passed through committee.