The Hastings Standard Published Daily SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1897. SWEET SILVERY SPEECH.

Hastings Standard, Issue 446, 9 October 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 9, 1897. SWEET SILVERY SPEECH.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

The debate on the Address in Reply has at last been brought to an end. There was an impression both inside and outside the House that the time limit introduced in 1894 would 'curtail the chattering of members, but experience has proved very conclusively that the very reverse is the case. Every member seems to think that he is bound to say something whether he has anything to say or not; indeed we fancy some members believe that not to engage the attention of the House frequently and often is to display a dereliction of duty to their constituents. The honorarium of £2O a month must be earned and the electors must be fooled, and so the interminable talk goes on. There has been quite a gust of guttural gibberish blowing in the House for the past week. " Pigs grunt about everything and nothing" says a proverb, and members of Parliament in a manner resemble these animals. Can anyone give a satisfactory reason why the debate on the Address in Reply should have been spun out a fortnight ? If an amendment of an adverse nature to the Government was intended to be proposed we could understand members working themselves up into a state of excitement, but no such amendment was proposed, although on Tuesday last there were strong rumors afloat of an intended want of confidence motion. However, Parliament is supreme and M.H.R.'s must be accepted as being little tin gods, free to do as they please. The theme of all the speeches from the Opposition side and from the cross benches tenanted by the members of the Middle Party has been " political corruption." It has been worked up in every conceivable manner, and Ministers have had to listen to not a little twaddle. The most effective speech on political corruption, or rather on maladministration, was that delivered by Mr T. Taylor, and his references to the administration of the police department was echoed by other members. The police are usually credited with running people in, but now we fancy we can see them being the cause of the Government being run out. As we said ths other day, the Seddon administration will not be defeated on any straight-out issue, but a side wind will drive them out of office. Mr T. Taylor has announced his intention of moving for the appointment of a Royal Commission to enquire into the police administration, and such a motion would be equivalent to a vote of censure. If <iame4 the Government would be bound to resigß office. Will such a motion be carried ? If tbose who have taken part in the debate on the Address in Reply vote as they have spoken it is pretty evident that a majority would record their votes against the Ministry. But politicians are shufflers and acrobats and there is no trusting them, for they will talk on one side and vote on the other. Another very prominent topic of the debate was Bushy Park, but those who fancied capital could be extracted from this were rudely disappointed by

the member for Wakatipu, whose utterance.o on the matter are entitled to belief, seeing that he is a member of the Assets Realisation Board, nominated to that position by the Bank of New Zealand and untrammelled 'by the Government ; furthermore he sits on the Opposition side of the House, and is by no means predisposed towards the Government. Mr Eraser knocked the Bushy Park scandal into the proverbial cocked hat. The Police and Bushy Park were the chief dishes served up in the debate, although there were innumerable other subjects touched upon by the various speakers, and what benefits have accrued to the country by the "dreary dip of dilatory debate" is beyond human calculation. It is. however, no use fulminating against members for exercising their powers of speech. It is a habit they have got, and habit is second nature. The leaders must bang at one another, and the rank and file, each of whom 110 doubt believes that some day he will be Premier of the colony, must pave the way by keeping well with the gallery. The debate on the Address in Beply is the M.H.R.'s methods of talking t,o his constituents ; to some it is the opportunity for venting spleen and slandering those . outside the House. Now that the House has indulged itself in noise and nonsense we may look for the Financial Statement, the Public Works Statement, and the Estimates, which are after all the essence of Parliament. A no-confi-dence debate is in prospect, and may be expected to come on at any moment. The Awarua scandal is developing, and will, before many days, become highly sensational. The Address in Eeply is done with, and that is a relief for the time being.