THE HON. MR LAHMAN.

Grey River Argus, Volume XIII, Issue 1575, 22 August 1873, Page 2

THE HON. MR LAHMAN.

. The. following is from the Hansard report, of the proceedings in the Legislative Council on August 5 :—-

The Hon. Captain Eraser asked the Hod! the Colonial Secretary/Whether any reply has .been received, , to a letter addressed to Sir-G. F. Bo wen by the Hon. the Speaker of the Legislative.Council, under date 24th October, -1872, relative to a report of the- Legislative Council on the Westland -investigation V He had not much expectation of receiving a satisfactory reply to hu question ' from the Hon. the Colonial Secretary, [as that honorable gentleman having so recently joined the Government, would probably not be acquainted with the matter to which his question referred. But there was another honorable gentleman in the Council, who was one of the Governor's responsible advisers at the time when the subject in question was before the Council, and he called upon that honorable member to remove from the minds of the Council the impression which prevailed, >that an act of discourtesy had been shown to the Hon. the Speaker individually and the members of the Council collectively in ■ a reply not having been sent to the Hon. the Speaker's letter to His Excellency the Governor. ' The Hon. Dr Pollen thought the honorable gentlemen's question mighty very properly be answered by the Hon. the Speaker himself. He understood the position of the case to be this : : Certain honorable members of the Council addressed & letter to His Excellency the Governor, which was forwarded- by the Hon. the Speaker with a resolution of the Council, and as the Hon. the Speaker had received no reply, it was to be presumed that no reply had been made.;; That was the only answerhecould.give to the question in its present shape. . The Hob. Mr Waterhouse, as far as the the question applied to him, would state that the letter was not a letter embodying a resolution of the- Council^ but one signed by a number of members of the Council in their individual capacity^ arid 'addressed to the Hon. the Speaker, by whom it was forwarded to His Excellency the Governor. It was never referred to Ministers for their opinion, His Excellency probably deeming, as the matter was , one in which it was impossible for him to take any action, no Formal reference was necessary. However, he wished r to call attention to the fact that the letter of the 23rd October, signed by the several honorable members,'was signed by them in their individual capacity, and. not in .their collective capacity as sitting in the Council. The Hon. the Speaker said he might perhaps be considered guilty of a derelic? tion of duty did he not explain that in sending the resolution of the Council to His Excelleucy the Governor, he used the fol- - lowing words: — ' . "Legislative Council, Wellington, N.Z., " 24th October, 1872. " Sir,— ln accordance with a resolution passed by the Legislative Council this day, a copy of which ia herunto annexed, I have the honor to forward to your Ex-

cellency the documents therein referred to, and would beg specially to call your Exc3llency's attention to the matters therein contained ; and further to forward a copy of a letter received fi»m certain honorable members of the Legislative Council on the same subject. — I have, &c, "J. Richardson, Speaker. " His Excellency Sir G. Bowen, G.C.M.G. " Government House, Wellington." There were two distinct actions. He did that which he was bound to do, viz., forward a resolution of the Council to His Excellency ; and he also accompanied it with another document, signed in. their individual capacity by honorable members, which he felt should not remain in his possession. It was somewhat analogous to a resolution passed by the Council, and it was his bounden duty— and subsequent reflection had led him to suppose he made no mistake in the action he took on that occasion — to lay it before Hia Excellency, j As he had directed special attention to | the resolution, he might, perhaps, be' allowed to say he thought his letter was at least entitled to an acknowledgment.