THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1904

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume IV, Issue 1123, 19 October 1904, Page 2

THE Waihi Daily Telegraph WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE WAIHI MINER

WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1904

Horn shall the fross tlw Feopla's Right maintain Uniweil by influonoo and unbribod by gain; Here patriot Truth lior glcriona pieoopta dra» l'lodcod to Religion Libortj, and law

Twice last week the Opposition stonewalled. They sat all night and up to the time that business men went to their lunch next day. They said it was a question of principle and sturdy British spirit, and all that sort of thing. It is reminiscent of the small boy who smarted under a fancied parental slight and said, " I won't have me dinner, so thero. 1 ' We doubt if any one would trouble much if the members of Parliament

went out into a paddock, and stayed there for sixteen hours ou a question of principle. It would not coat any. body except the politician anything. It members wanted to exhibit their extreme impatience to go home by sitting on a fence in the rain for twenty-four hours, it would be no. body's business. But seeing that Parliament in soßsion costs £3OO per day, the stonewalling absurdity costs money. An unkempt, unwashed, morning politician is not as a rule nice to look at. lie is doing nobody any good, and is getting paid for being an uninteresting spectacle, and the laughing-stock of the country. The mother of Parliaments bad fits of stonewalling. Gladstone is said to have stonewalled once for nine hours, and with all due respect to the memory of the great statesman, he was probably an insufferable bore. And now it seems that because the Commons does this kind of thing, the New Zealand Parliament should follow suit, especially "on a question of principle." But the Commoners are not paid, stonewall or 110 stonewall. The New Zealand members are paid well, and as a matter of principle thoy ought to do something better for their money than sitting up all night out of sheer spite, and talking nonsense. Politicians, as a rule, strive bard for their place, and thoy begin i arly in each sossion to indicate that it is time they were going to their homes. But on a " question of prinoiple •' they are content to put iu a profitless

stonewall period, thiiß deferring the departure for which they yearn. They protest against" legislation by exhaustion," preferring to exhaust themseJeves by twaddle that iB not legislation. They call upon the country to pay the bill, and are yery high-principled men indeed. It would be interesting to know more about these questions of principle, and what is gained by sticking up for them, Also, whether the country would not rather see such principles go by the board than that legislators should fatigue themselves by talking rubbish when they ought to be in bed.