Wellington Independent FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1871.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVI, Issue 3348, 17 November 1871, Page 2

Wellington Independent FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 17, 1871.

The me is no doubt that it is our duty this morning to give our readers a fair review of the session which was terminated yesterday by theexceptionably able speech delivered by his Excellency the Governor. We confess this, and at the same time our utter inability through absolute weariness to deal with the subject, and the manner its importance demands. A session of some ninetyfive days, with an average of daily sittings of nine hours and a half in the House of .Representatives, while no doubt trying to the energies and physical endurance of honorable members, tells still more upon the fourth estate, who verily have to bear the burden and i heat of the day, in placing the public in possession of at least a resume, however imperfect, of each day's proceedings, and who are theoretically supposed to be all eyes, ears and discretion. If a literal mistake is made iv the digest of a speech the honorable member for Mudskin, we will say, rises indignant in his place and denounces a profligate press. The leader of the Opposition makes what he and his admirers think a telling speech. It is not ieported owing to circumstance or accident. This is at once seized upon as a Ministerial move. A determination to suppress the truth, and we are called all sorts of names, and generally consigned to regions not of the blessed. If we have failed to recognise the talents of the Opposition, have not been able to see in Mr Collins a colonial Sheridan, or in Mr Creighton an antipodean Joe ' Hume ; if by the logic of facts we have generally concluded that the opponents of the Government havedisplayed no positive quality whatsoever, but have exhibited the absolute culmination of extermination, to which want of knowledge of discretion, and tact can possibly bring a political party — : it is not the fault of those who have to the best of their ability reported the proceedings of Parliament. It is one of the last resorts oi a defeated party, to abuse the press and endeavor to make out that, had their eloquence been inflicted on the country generally, instead of to the select ciicle of the parliamentary admirers public feeling would have been aroused upon their behalf the prcsure of their constituencies brought to bear upon the mass of representatives. The fact of the matter is that had our resources enabled us to publish in full the debates of the session, — not as corrected by honorable members, but as really exhibited, the country would need no guiding by leading articles or otherwise as to the verdict it would deliver. The Opposition did not displace the Ministry : " Sarve them right !" The discussion upon Wednesday evening upon tho third reading of the Appropriation Bill, was very instructive in its way. Venom and spite could no further go than the utterances of Mr Rollcston, Mr Gillies, and a few other of their friends. They had nothing tangible to hang a case against the Government upon, so without scruple they resorted to personal abuse and misrepresentation. To resume our subject : a full report should be their political extinction. These men, and men like these, revel in the freedom of irresponsible declamation. They know they can cook up their speeches to suit any taste in the miserable humbug of reports, yclept Hansard, which no more reflects facts than does the ivory rninatureof an attenuated spinster represent the awful reality of her maiden grimness We do nothesitate to say hat under the present system the " Parliumentry reports" are simply licensed misrepresentation. Still the worst speaker of the House shines brightest in its pages. We have done our best ; it may be better to furnish something like an intelligible report of what has actually taken place ; and we can only regret that our available resources have

not enabled us to place before the public something like a fair digest of the proceedings of both Houses. The money wasted upon Hansard, we venture to suggest, would be much better expended in enabling the newspapers to publish each morning full reports of the proceedings of Parliament, exercising their own discretion in excising rub bisli, and giving honorable members that prornineoce before the country which they have attained in the House. To read Hansard anyone would suppose that Bryce, Mervyn, Shepherd, and Murray, were leading members, instead of being absolute, and we might say, idiotic nuisances. It is time that such a transparent humbug cannot exist, and the colouy befooled no longer with so flattering a travesty of Paliamentaiy proceedings.