BITTER INVECTIVE.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 227, 25 September 1929, Page 7

BITTER INVECTIVE.

N.S.W. PARLIAMENT.

ABUSE OF PREMIER. MR. BAVIN UNDER THE LASH. (By the "Star's" Special" Representative.) SYDNEY, September 19. In over 20 years' -experience of Parliamentary debate, I have never known anything to approach in bitterness and venom the attacks made in the New South Wales Legislative Assembly against the Premier, Mr. Bavin, by the Labour Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Lang, and some of his followers, since the House assembled on Tuesday of this week. Nor have I ever witnessed such an attitude of calm forbearance' under attack and such mildness of demeanouf in reply, as that displayed by.Mr, Bavin, despite the abuse showered upon him. Even fair-minded opponents of the Premier must be disgusted with the. splenetic outbursts of- Mr. Lang and his crew, and sympathise with Mr. Bavin, only recovered in health after a long trip abroad, and now—a sensitive-man, despite his detractors —palpably disi tressed by the unkind storm which rages about his ears. New South Wales politicians, I thought, had in no way improved since I last sat In the gallery of the Mother State's Parliament, when I listened, after an absence of several year.*, to the row that followed immediately after the opening of Parliament. The Jarvie Affair. First came the reverberating thunder of the Jarvie affair, which it may again be necessary to briefly outline. Jarvie, a member of the State Parliament, discussed the matter of a bus route, in the interests of a bus proprietor constituent, with the late Chief- Secretary, and on leaving placed a case oi pipes on - Mr. Bruntnell's table, 'With an envelope saying they- were, from the bus proprietor; On being opened the envelope was found to contain £200, and proceedings were taken against the bus- proprietor for attempted bribery; but by-this time the Chief Secretary had died. Jarvie denie.il all knowledge of the. notes in the envelope. Iα evidence, , - it - was stated that the bus proprietor had actually given Jarvie £500, but that the money was for the funds of the. Nationalist party. Further, it was alleged that Jarvie stuck to £300 and that it was later recovered from him at his Jiouse by the bus proprietor, after the affair had become public. A jury acquitted the bus proprietor. Tlieii a Royal Commission said the severest things in'its report of the complicity of Jarvie in the matter, following on -which Jarvie and the bus proprietor were placed on trial together for conspiracy, when,. after some hard contradictory swearing, both were acquitted. On Mr. Bavin's return ■from' England, he declared that the Verdict of the jury did not get over the scathing report of the Royal Commission, and he requested' Jarvie's resignation from Parliament, so that the electors of Ashfield could express their opinion of their member. Jarvie refused, and as soon as the House met the Premier moved the suspension of Standing Orders to consider that portion of the, Royal Commission's report dealing with the member for Ashfield. Disgraceful Hullabaloo. Immediately there was a hullabaloo from the Labour benches. The truth of it is that the Labour party had seen 'in' this a fine opportunity to upbraid the Government.for the company it kept and demand the expulsion of Jarvie. But the Premier had forestalled them and he was at once accused by Lang of rank hypocrisy (Lang always does impute the most sinister motives to his political enemies) and of. asking Parliament to do the dirty work which the Government should do itself. Two supporters of Lang—Lysaght and Lazzarini—followed with the accusation that the Premier was "a rotten-hearted friend," that he sought only to save himself and his party from the odium of the report, and that the motion was moved only to allow Jarvie to make dastardly attacks on people outside.the House. To which Lang added that Jarvie had his resignation in his pocket ready to hand in after the debate—and that the .Premier, knew it. The first part of this state-ment-was true; Jarvie did have his resignation in his pocket, but as for the second, the Premier denied that he had any such knowledge, or that he had bargained with Jarvie in any form. One would go far to find a parallel to the bedlam that accompanied these accusations and their rebuttal. Certainly New Zealanders, accustomed to- -.the general decorum of the Dominion Parliament, would be petrified with amazement at hearing such language used in debate by legislators. But the. speech of Jarvie in : his owrr defence—passionately, theatrically avowing his innocence before God and Parliament —was listened to in a cold and stony silence. It was only when he advanced dramatically to the Speaker and handed in his resignation and the Premier had risen to move its acceptance that the Labour benches burst into a, storm of derision and insult, one mem-' bcr. Mr. Davies, declaring that Ananias was an honest man compared with Mr. Bavin, and another alleging that the Premier had a typewritten copy of the resignation in his own pocket. ' "Humbug and Coward." Bitter as was the invective'against Mr. Bavin on this occasion, however, it was mild compared with what followed the next day, when Mr. Lang moved his amendment of no-confidence to the motion for the Address-in-Reply. .Sunn indecency and dishonour as demonstrated by the members of the Government, said the Leader of the Opposition, had never been known in public affairs. Headedby Mr. Bavin the Government had "dribbled on, a muddy streamof repudiation, hyprocrisy and inaction," having '■sneaked into office on a campaign of defamation and misrepresentation without parallel in its virulent .malignity. , " "These are the words of the arch-type and everlasting pattern of a'humlmg and coward," declaimed Mr. Lang, referring to a recent utterance of the Premier. And out of the uproar emerged the quiet voice of Mr. Bavin: "This , is the. second day of the session and you have not left unsaid .an opprobrious epithet you'can apply to me." • ""' Now, said. Mr. Laiig, the Government proposed to act on the report of the Coal Commission, the ehairrupn of which was the judge who' found that' Ma {or Jarvie was "a liar, a conspirator,' a briber, a perjurer -and a criminal." ami whose finding wp.s repudiated by the subtle scheming of the Premier, 'what hope was there of any good from the Coal Commission's report? The Government would do nothing te settle the strife on the coalfields.