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Grey River Argus, Volume XVI, Issue 2052, 6 March 1875, Page 2

There has been a rumpus in the Provincial Council, which might have ended in a tragedy. Every one has heard the anecdote told of the, Speaker of the House of Commons who, when asked what would be the consequence of his " naming" a member, replied— " Heaven only knows !" And the same mysterious power could ; alone judge of the terrible consequence lof committing "contempt" against the Westland Provincial Council, but apparently Mr Speaker and Mr O'Donovan

think it something very awful indeed. Mr O'Donovan takes a great interest in the tramway question, and not content with speaking in the Council on the subject, he must needs write to the papers. In the course of his letter he criticises certain actions of the Council, whereupon Mr Speaker, with Bismarckian wrath, charges him with having been guilty of an act of contempt against the Council. Mr O'Donovan in vain disclaims any such intention. " May " is invoked ; Mr Speaker rakes up a medieval rule which has long since been obsolete, and although " May" says it is so, poor Mr O'Donovan had to sit down under the fearful charge. But, like the Jackdaw of Rheims, he didn't seem any the worse. This was three or four days ago, and on Thursday Mr O'Donovan endeavored to make another explanation, when having plainly proved that the Speaker had made a " great mistake," the following scene occurred : — "Mr White rose to a point of order. "Mr O'Donovan continued to speak. " The Speaker : The member for Okarito must sit down. "Mr O'Donovan did not resume his seat. " Mr Guinness and others drew attention to the fact. " The Speaker : I have already told him to sit down. " Mr O'Donovan continued to stand. " The Speaker put his hat our. "Mr White and a number of other members, including the members of the Government, left the chamber. «' Mr O'Donovan resumed. The Speaker wanted to place him in a position which had been occupied by a member of one of the highest legislative bodies — the Legislative Council ; and he should understand that he had made a most serious charge ; he, if any man, should know what it was to put a member through swch an ordeal, because he had himself experienced it." " What tomfoolery !" everyoae may well exclaim , and all about nothing. Mr O'Donovan neither committed an act of " contempt " nor of disrespect to the Council in his letter to the newspaper. Every word printed could have been said in the Council Chamber without transgressing the Parliamentary proprieties. It is not as if, supposing his own conduct was the subject of Parliamentary inquiry, he endeavored to prejudice that inquiry by published statements ; it is not as _ if, being a member of a Committee, he improperly divulged the proceedings of that Committee. In either of these cases, or in some possible others, letters in a newspaper would certainly be highly improper and insulting to the Council ; but to say that a member of a legislative body is debarred from writing to the Press upon any subject that may happen to be before it is simply childish nonsense. How many members of Parliament in England and elsewhere are editors and public writers, and how common it is to find letters from membeis of Parliament in the London papers upon the questions of the day. If the members of the Council would endeavor to maintain the proprieties within their Chamber it would be better than by making asses of themselves about questions of " contempt."