SATURDAY, 26th JULY.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXVIII, Issue 3897, 26 July 1873, Page 2

SATURDAY, 26th JULY.

Questions .of " privilege " have on various occasions been raised in parliament, and, considering the result with regard to them, it has been very difficult to distinguish what ia a " breach of privilege." If a member holding his seat is tempted by any means to give his vote in a particular direction, it may be considered to involve a breach of the privileges of the House ; but it has not yet been decided whether any temptation offered to a member to resign his seat for a pecuniary consideration comes within the category of those breaches of privilege of the House which may be visited by punishment of some kind or another. We have been induced to maka these remarks because of a statement which, on the authority of the " New Zealand Herald," was made by Mr J. S. Macfarlane, one of the candidates for the seat Tor the Bay of Islands. It had been suspected by the electors of that district that some pressure had been brought to bear upon Mr M'Leod, the late member, to induce him to resign his seat ; but until the disclosure made by Mr Macfarlane, no one had any idea of the extent to which this pressure had been applied. The following quotation from the speech delivered by Mr Macfarlane at the nomination speaks for itself:— ." It has been stated that I had put the screw on, and forced Mr M'Leod to resign, in order that 1 might get the seat. Now, the fact is that I advanced him £300 on the condition that he should resign, as I considered that his being in the House was an injury to the province. A friend of Mr M'Leod, a man who appeared to be anxious to assist him, came to me, and I took certain liabilities off his hand on ennd i.t i nnt h at -MjuMlLeod should resign, for the payment|of which he will never' be asked by me. If lending a man £900 be screwing him up, then I am the guilty party." It would appear from this that we are rapidly approaching that state of political intrigue and bargain which has for several years been the reproach of the United States of America, and against which the good sense of the people of that republic is now revolting. If it were a breach of the privileges of the House to bribe a member for his vote, it is a fair inference that it is a breach of the privileges of Parliament, and certainly an offence against the honorable administration of our electoral system, that a bribe — for it amounts to neither more nor less — should be given to an existing member to resign his seat in favor of the person giving the bribe.