THE KAIPARA AND WAITEMATA ECHO WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE KAIPARA ADVERTISER & WAITAMATA CHRONICLE." HELENSVILLE, FRIDAY, NOVR. 6, 1914. ASHAMED OF PARLIAMENT

Kaipara and Waitemata Echo, 6 November 1914, Page 4

THE KAIPARA AND WAITEMATA ECHO WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED "THE KAIPARA ADVERTISER & WAITAMATA CHRONICLE." HELENSVILLE, FRIDAY, NOVR. 6, 1914. ASHAMED OF PARLIAMENT

SYMPATtoLEPR TFJiL-PRBMI.gR ~"N The Echo holds no brief in particular for the Hon. Premier, Mr Massey, or any othe* Reformer or Liberal, but it holds him in high esteem for the manner in which he has during the session kept cool as always becomes a gentleman and held his own, and it sincerely sympathises with him during his many trials and the scandalous taunts he has successfully passed over. The House, during portions of the session now closed down, has been a veritable bear-garden, and a scandal to respectable repre sentatives of the people. Mr Massey has had the toughest time of his life or of any Premier we know of, and it takes a strong man in body and mind to withstand during a term of office, as he has done, such a run of unfortunate incidents. First of all, he was left without finances—no matter what " twisters " may say— then came the serious Maori epidemic, the big strike, the calling out of the ''specials," the railway disaster, the White Island tragedy, and, above all, the great European War, and last, but not least, the Huntly mine explosion which caused the death of over forty workers, and at the end of the precious Parliament, during the process of getting the new Mining Bill passed, to crown all he was denounced as a murderer! Therefore Mr Massey has our sincere sympathy and that of thousands of others, whether political supporters of his party or not. During the debate on the Mining Bill in question, the Prime Minister said that one of the saddest, soi-riest, and most humiliating spectacles in the history of the N.Z. Parliament wag that of its members trying to make political capital of |he deaths of 43 of their fellow-citizens. -'I have never seen anything like it before," he said, "and I have never bgiore been ashamed of being a, membsr of .this Parliament. I haya felt it so to-night. No one could have listened to the clear, straightforward, and honest

statement of the Minister for Mines without failing to see that he was absolutely blameless." Mr Massey said that section 58 of the present Act gave ample power to an inspector to withdraw the men from a mine he considered was unsafe. The disaster, he went on to say, was caused by a man going with a naked light into some old workings where there was gas. Mr Massey, for purely political purposes, has had to stand the blame of every imaginable and actual disaster, but still lives. Long may he live, and be in a position to guide the destinies of the ■ Dominion, whether as Premier or leader of the Opposition. He even gets the blame for not passing the present Mining Bill 12 months ago. But why didn't the much-vaunted Ward Government do it since it has been found to be such a necessary measure ?