HOUSE OF GOOD REPORT.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 10659, 12 May 1906, Page 5 (Supplement)

HOUSE OF GOOD REPORT.

MR BALFOUR ON THE PURITY OF THE COMMONS.

Mr Balfour, who was present at the Mansion House at a banquet given to' the masters of the City livery companies, gave the House of Commons an excellent testimonial. "Bad as the present House is m its political opinions," he said, "there are .no signs of the decadence which the prophets of evil were so ready to put on record. N

"Of course there are tips and downs, but I do not believe that the level of speaking ih the House of Commons has diminished. I do not, believe that the House of Commons' manners have deteriorated.

"My conviction is that if any one studies m detail the annals of the past as far as : they have been preserved to us, he will find a larger number of what were called scenes that he will find at the present time.

"I am confident that th.c character of the House of Commons, the purity of its motives, itjs absolute superiority to anything m the hature'of a pecuniary bribe, its power bf speech, fts tolerance of difference of opinion, its general good manners towai-ds even those who represent but a small minority, .still exist, and will remain when tho present House has gone to its placfe to be judged by its historian according to its performances. "I believe we may look forward to a long succession- of Hpusos varying m opinion, now representing one of tho great parties of the State, now another, and all carrying on untarnished and undiminished the greatest traditions that the world has to show."