PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 10496, 24 October 1905, Page 4

PARLIAMENTARY NOTES.

HOUSE PROCEEDINGS. THE POSTAL OFFICIALS. (Per Press Association.) WELLINGTON, this day. The House resumed at 2.30. Sir Joseph Ward replied oi): the motion that the report of the Commission on the case of the Christchurch postal officials do lie oa the table. He declared that no harslmess bad been shown towards these officials, and they had not been prejudiced by the Government. He was glad to hear during the debate tliat morning that the impartiality of .the Conimiisioners had not been m any way questioned. It was regrettable, he thought that the debate had not been deferred until the Government had been able to go carefully into the report and evidence. He (Sir Joseph) had not yet had time to read tlie evidence. With re. gard to what Mr Fisher had said about political questions having been put to the Cammission, he wanted to make it clear that no such instructions whatever were given to the Commission! by any member of the Ministry. If there was any alleged wrong-doing m any public department, the proper course * for the official who found it to pursue was tocommunicate the facte to his superior officer, and not to an outsider. Any person should be able to use any of the Departments of State without being afraid that his private business would be disclosed. He went on to quote from the evidence to sljow that! the theory that the four officials were not thoroughly conversant with the regulations would not hold water. With regard to a telegram sent by Williams, as telegraph official at Dunedin, to Mr Fisher, that wag merely the sending of a question as to whether Ml* Fisher's reflections on the service referred to Dunedin. That wa s a different thing to committing a breach of the regulations. He added that the Electric Lines Act Amendment Bill had nothing to do with the officials who had been tlie subject of enquiiy, it was not retro-active, and would uot m any way interfere) with any officer who had* committed a breach of existing regulations. The report was ordered to lie on the table, and be printed,, \ j

AUDIT COMMISSION. The M to Z Public Petitions Commiti toe reported on a petition presented praying that a full public enquiry into the alleged improper payment to Captain . R. J. S. Seddon, that as a Royal CommisI sion had been set up the Committee bad no recommendation to make. [ Mr Taylor em id the Commission would i not allow full and unrestricted access to the official record's, and there was therefore no prospect of proving whether the [ lour Cbristcburch officials were right iv , tlieir statements or not. These officials f were by the decision of the Audit Com- • mission, once more foiled m theil* efforts i to get at the nifonnation they required, s The Executive should remove all grounds for the belief tlmt concealment was desired. He moved to refer the matter [ back to the Committee. Mr Seddon reviewed the position at , length, urging that the Government had . granted all tliat the petitioners bad asked, i iiud declaring that there had been no alt eration of tlie order of reference of the . Audit Commission. Every payment made . to Captain Seddon was under enquiry, and nothing could be wider than that. Tl>e people must realise by now tliat the .enquiry was full and complete, t Mr Fisher said bo had now got to cs--5 tablish for the people of New Zealand the [ defects m the audit system, and be did [- not think it was right with that burden . on his shoulders that he should have to . pay the expenses of the witnesses be i decided to aummon to give evidence be- , fore the Audit Commission. > After further discussion the motion to f refer the report back to the Committee i was lost on the voices, and the report was r ordered to lie m the table. ' OTHER BUSINESS. 1 Leave of absence was granted as fol--1 lows : Mr Sidey, three days, and Mr ! Laurenson, two days, on account of fami ly illness ; Mr Houston, fourteen days, • vi ii account of ill-health, and Mr Withe- ! ford for the remainder of the session, on ' account of urgent private business. ' "The Railways Committee referred to the ' Government for consideration the petit ion of Samuel Vaile, of Auckland, who r asked for a trial of the stage system on some sections of the New Zealand rail. - ways. 1 Mr Massey moved that m the opinion | of the House the time has arrived when ' the 6tage system should be given a trial 1 on one of tlie railway sections of the col--1 ony. Mr Massey's motion was lost by 35 votes to 18, and the report of tho ' committee w<u> ordered to he on the table. The House rose at 5.30. \ A TRIVIAL COMPLAINT. , The House resumed at 7.30. Mr Mas- . sey raised a question- of privilege. Some . time on Friday, he sarid, rolls of printed matter had been placed m the private , boxcsij of several members, without the- . sanction of the Speaker. That constitu- | ted a breach of the privileges of the . House. Further than that, the printed , matter did not bear any imprint, and he , had no hesitation m saying that it was .. printed at the Government printing office. - The documents consisted of electioneering . material, evidently collected for the use of • supporters of the Government, and they . were a tissue of falsehoods and inisrepre- [ sentatioh. He moved that breach of the ; privileges' of the House had been commiti- . ted by placing these papers m members' a boxes without the authority of Mr ; Speaker. Mr Speaker said there was no standing r order or rule to prevent matter of the . kind complained of being placed m mem. . bers' boxe.* Mr Seddon. characterised the action of f the leader of the Opposition as childish, [ and expressed regret that- valuable time - was being Wasted m this way. The prac- ; tice complained of might be open to obs jection, and might be made the subject • of inquiry, but no breach of privilege > had been committed. All sorts of papers - were put into members' boxes. He de- - clared that Mr Massey did not know that • the documents were printed at the Go- - vernment Printing Office. Mr Hawkins said he would ask the - police to take notice of the fact that the ; papers did not bear any imprint. r Mr Hall-Jones atid he had not seen the , documents, did not know where -they i- were printed, had not given any instruct ions in regard to them, and had not 3 spoken to the Government Printer about 3 them. - 3 Mr Seddon denied that he had given - iiif-truetiins that the leaflets should be r distributed into the boxes. Several Government supporters stated - that they had not received any of the ? leaflets. t Mr Taylor, alluding to the organisation r from which these papers were supposed - to have emanated, and to the system of 1 espionage which be declared was carried - on by it, said he would like the Premier to tell the House the degree of intimacy between this organisation and the officials of the Telegraph Department. Only - that day, he said, he had been told that ' a copy of a letter sent by him to Christ- ) church on the subject of the voucher m- - eident Mas m the possession of a member - of the House. The copy did not come - from himself or from tlie recipient, and • the question was how Mas it obtained. 1 Several other members also spoke, and *" on resuming after the supper adjournment 1 Mr Willis brought the discussion to a ■' close by moving "the previous question," ; which was carried by 32 votes to 24. J CHRISTCHURCH EXHIBITION. J A.^*-* ""- 0 provide for holding an international exhibition at Christchurch" was ' brought down by Governor's message and , read a first time. \ STONEWALL AVERTED. Tlie orders of the day were reached at 10.30 p.m., the first being the second reading of the Electric Lines Act Amend, ment Bill. Sir Joseph Ward immediately moved to postpone the Bill. Some mis- . apprehension existed, he said, m regard to the provisions of the Bill, and he : would like to liave an opportunity of con- , ferring witb some of these members who were opposed to it. He had found, for instance, that there was an impression that the Bill would interfere with the existing cable stations,' and he wished to make it known that the Bill -would apply to the cable stations only m the case of war. Further, he desired to point out tliat the Bill was not altro-active. Mr Taylor said there was an exceedingly strong feeling among some members against tho Bill. It seemed to him that the final clauses comprised one long cry for vegeance against the Christchurch postal officials. Sir Joseph Ward : Oh, no, it will not touch them at all. Mr Taylor said he was glad to hear that, and those who had intended to resist the passage of the Bill would be glad to have a conference with the PostmasterGeneral. Sir Joseph Ward repeated that it was not proposed tliat th e Bill should apply to any telegraph official who had been m trouble m tlie past. Mr Harding said it seemed to liim that the Bill was designed to set up a reign of terror for Government officials, aud he had been looking forward to another protracted sitting. Sir Joseph Ward retorted that there was no intention to put anything lite terrorism into the postal officials. Mr Moss objected to the extraordinary severity of the proposed punishment under the Bill, and suggested the best plan would be to make every offence against the Post Office a capital offence. After further discussion Sir Joseph Ward's motion for postponement of the Bill was agreed to on the voices. The amendments made by the Legislative Council m the Electoral Bill were agreed to. COUNCIL PROCEEDINGS. The Council met at 2.30. The following Bills were read a third time and passed : Native Townships, Local Government, Victoria College, Hutt Railway Improvement, and Auckland Hospital Acts Amendment. Tlie Tapanui Commonage Reserves Bill was further considered m Committee, and read a third time and passed. The Medical Practitioners Registration Bill was read a second time. Tlie Council rose at 4.15 p.m. (From our Parliamentary Reporter.) The rumors that were current during the day thrit the Electric Lines Bill Bill would have to run the gauntlet of a well-organised stonewall had apparently reached the ears of teh Government, for when the Bill was called on after the .supper adjournment last night Sir Joseph Ward immediately suggested the postponement of the Bill to enable him to confer with its opponents, with a view to removing the hos-tility. He explained that opposition to the Bill arose largely from a misapprehension and misunderstanding of its provisions, and he succeeded m satisfying some of the strangest opponents of toe Bill that things were not a s black as they were painted. Tlie postponement was agreed to, and there is now a good chance of the Bill being passed.