Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1871.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 18, Issue 1173, 16 November 1871, Page 2

Hawke's Bay Times. Nullius addictus jurare in verba magistri. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1871.

A paragraph in Tuesday's Wellington Independent, headed il Parliamentary Furniture," discloses a singular state of affairs in connection with the past practice of the House of Assembly regarding public property. It .>eems that at the close of each se.-sion the furniture of the House lias l»een left to take care pf itself, or, in plainer terms, tq be stolen, and that at each re-assembling of Parliament the country has been put to the expense of replacing the whole of such property. Such annual charge must amount to a considerable sum. In the present instance it seems that the Speaker enquired of the Government whether something could not be done to put an end to so anomalous a state pf affairs, and it was suggested that the Speaker himself should'undertake- the duty of looking after the public property. Our own view of the case is that such duty attaches to the Speaker as a matter of course iti virtue of his office, and that the former Speakers of the House of Representatives have been guilty of neglect of duty in suffering public property sq mysteriously to disappear, and putting the Colony to the animal expense of its replacement. It is no wonder, that the Colony is poor, and the people crushed by taxation, while, valuable property has been so wasted. Another consideration occurs, and it is, -if such abuses as the above pome to public knowledge, what is the amount of waste and loss which is constantly occurring, and qf which the Tiu ( blic are kept in ignorance 1

The following is the paragraph from the Wellington Independent, above referred to :-- " Previous to closing the business of the House the Speaker inquired of the Government what they intended to do with the furniture of the House, suggesting that it should be placed in the charge oi" some person to be responsible for it:-* forthcoming at the next session. The advisability of such a precaution was very necessary, many members complaining of the annual outlay on ■this head, nobody being able to answer the question as to what became of the furniture used in passed sessions, which, as one member said, disappeared in a mysterious way never to re-appear. A suggestion which will very likely be acted upon, was that the property should be vested in the Speaker of the House, so as to save the country the expense of a new outfit for the next session."