PAYMENT OF MEMBERS BILL

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 6 November 1901, Page 3

PAYMENT OF MEMBERS BILL

The Bill Passed.

(OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

■Wellington, This Day.

The stonewall which began at 2 o.m. when the Premier somewhat indiscrcly fathered a clause instigated by .Mr Hornsby with the view of punishing those members who had opposed tho Payment of Members Bill, lasted till eight o’clock in tl e evening. The trouble began in earnest when the Minuter of Railways declared about 11 a.m. that his side of the House were as determined to resist the stonewall as the stonewallers were to promote it, and that the proviso would be passed before the pjtting was at an end,

Then Messrs J. Hutcheson, Pirani G H. Russell, Atkinson, Massey, Collins, and others prepared themselves for a "fight to a finssh.” At the luncheon adjournment both sides presented a bold front, but the opponents of the proviso practically gained first blood.

Immediately on resuming a motion to report progress was proposed by Mr Massey, with the avowed intention of killing time. The Bill was only defeated by two votes. Seeing that the motion was proposed by the Opposition Whip, and that ho had declared his aim in moving it was to kill the Bill, the Government found it necessary to back down, more particularly since Mr McNab and another supporter of the Bill had announced their intention of opposing the third reading if the proviso was added to the measure.

The whips were accordingly instructed to soc that this did not happen and with the rejection of the proviso the stonewall came to an end. This was at Bp. m. and the third reading of the bill was agreed to without debate.

Then to the amazement of the jaded pressmen who had been at their posts since 230 on the previous afternoon, the Premier announced that after a ten minutes adjournment ho wished the speaker to take the chair and begin another day’s work. When Mr Guinness re-oc-cupied the chair, the male occupants of the crowded galleries heard prayers read probably for the first time, as the rule is not to admit strangers till this formality is ended.