"HANSARD" AS HISTORY.

Timaru Herald, Volume LI, Issue 4930, 1 September 1890, Page 4

"HANSARD" AS HISTORY.

A curious illustration of the way (Hansard) " history is uiado " with the aid of hon. members " corrections " (a3 m tlie cnao of Hutchison's notorious speech), is afforded by an incident m tho debate of the sth Aug. As reported m that publication, Mr Hislop had said m his speech on the Hutchison charges that those statements wore " slanderous." Being called to order by the Speaker, tho Minister for Education substituted " untrue." On this the Speaker again interfered. What Sir Maurice O'Borke actually did Bay, as distinctly heard jn the House and gallery, and as recorded by.. the! Hansard reporter, was this, " lhat word is hardly Parliamentary." This is how it appears m a Hansard proof. What the Speaker is made to say m the "corrected" Hansard is as follows : — " That word is still more unparliamentary, and cannot for a moment be tolerated. The Minister of Education must be more guarded m tho language ha uses towards his fellow members." Thus the single line which records what wna really said was wholly ohanged m meaning, V hardly Parliamentary " being altered into " still more unparliamentary, " and all that elaborate addendum about it not being tolerated,, and about the necessity of improvement m Mr Hislop's behaviour is purely imaginary, and was never uttered at all. I hear that Mi-. Hislop iB highly disgustod that ho should be represented as having been scolded m this manner, and as having tamely submitted to it. I fear Hansard will be classed among the apocryphal books after this session's disclosures as to the way its records are manipulated by hon. members. At present it would seem that its mission is to record not what members actually say, but what they wish to be supposed by the public m general, and by their constituents m particular, to have said.— {Press correspondent.)