The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, DEC. 1, 1910. PARLIAMENT OR PARTY.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIII, Issue 14363, 1 December 1910, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. THURSDAY, DEC. 1, 1910. PARLIAMENT OR PARTY.

We believe that it was most desirable, and indeed imperative, that the report on the Hine charges, dealing 1 with matters in which its own honour was involved, should have been discussed by the House of Representatives. On that account we must coiidw.m strongly the Prime MinJstarV. unworthy tactics in postponivi# the discussion till the stn.aH hours of the morning, whea. it might well be expected that members, already wearied out by the preceding all-night sitting 1 , would be able to give but scant consideration to the findings. The report of the parliamentary correspondent of the "Otago Daily Times" shows hoAv satisfied Sir Joseph Ward would have been had no discussion taken place at all. "It was 20 minutes to 1," he wrote, " before the subject came up in the House. _ The Prime Minister said he did not wish to speak at this stage. The Speaker said the motion for the adoption of the report was in the name of Mr Hanan [Government member], but Mr Hanan remained silent/' We can agree with Mr Massey's protest that "it was a shameful thing to go on with the business

at that hour of the morning." At the same, time we must admit that, whether owing to the time when it was introduced, and the consequent jaded state of members' minds, or owing to the strength of party feeling, the discussion which did take place on the report, was little to the credit of either side of the House. Instead of considering calmly how the wrong proceedings revealed in the report could best be made impossible for the future, members on both sides treated the occasion, for the most part, as an opportunity for party skirmishing designed to put the other side in the worst position. s we

have already stated, we are not in full accordance with all the committee's finding's. It must be agreed by most people that the language used in their report makes it quite clear that the committee, which contained a majority of Government members, was actuated so far by party feelings that it took pains to extenuate as far .as possible the offences exposed in several instances, and generally- to let the persons charged down lightly. But while we believe that Mr Hine has done good service in drawing the attention of the country to irregularities which should not be allowed to be perpetuated, we must concede to Sir Joseph Ward, that the evidence brought forward does not bear out to any great extent the general allegations of Tammanyism with which lie first assailed the Government. The amount of £156 paid to Sir Wilson cursory inspection of the Flaxbourne property appears to have been at least remarkably extravagant, and the purchase of the ]\ T ai Nai estate, of whicli the Government has made no use, at £lso_an acre, after the Department's valuer had valued it at only £BO, and reported that it was Unsuitable for workers', homes, was also most peculiar. It cannot be denied also that Sir Joseph Ward, as a former member of.the feeddon Government, must take his portion of responsibility for the actions of that Government, but on the whole, as we have said, the accusation of Tammanyism -was not borne out. Instead °t Trran --^ u "' over the report as it affected parties, the House would lave done better to consider at an earlier stage the recommendation of the committee that legislation should be brought down to prevent the future acceptance of commissions by members on the sale of estates. Another matter which ought to be amended, as the result of the inquiry, is the system of keeping departmental hies. In connection with the Nai Xai purchase,' several impor+ant copies of letters bearing on the purchase were reported to be missing. When the "E." A. Smith" case was before the House some time ago it was also stated by the Prime Minister that no copy ot a certain letter known to have been sent by tlie High Commissioner was discoverable, although it is the practice for such letters to -be sent in duplicate. While ttie departmental files are kept "in tj " s ™anncr, it is surprising that othoial inquiries into acts of ihe administration or departments should yield such valuable results as have been yielded in the r.i>*t and as we believe will yet PTO ve to have beon yielded by the Hine Lonnmssion.