Mataura Ensign GORE, SEPTEMBER 30, 1884. "HANSARD"

Mataura Ensign, Volume 7, Issue 396, 30 September 1884, Page 2

Mataura Ensign GORE, SEPTEMBER 30, 1884. "HANSARD"

b<- "tjft>w>:that * Hansard • has been cheapf, ened in price and is ; delivered free o J charge almost kd lib to various public '"TSodies, it uiay be well to enquire what it really is that so much agitation has been made about from tirst tp last. niuiTtherg fare mafiy "so-called advanced reformers of the Sir Geobgb Grey type who consider the free publication ' il! 6V' i l£inQax&' tb be the palladium of ■ > 'liberty— that its indiscriminate publi- : ,< (jftbion would bring the sayings and - t doings of hon. members more closely f ; ( uad,of ,t^e; eyes of .their constituents^ who would then be > enabled to eati. niate their representatives at their i ; eal f value. If ' Hansard' were what io purported to be, these arguments wbulbV'have considerable weight. But is not more a correct record of what is said in Parliament than were the stilted dialogues of theOHA?rgAMf and f Pkto period, j Aa a matter of fact, what a member says iv his place and what subsequently -..jtppearjs vin,^Hansard' are two rery member has J the liberty of altering, addiug, »nd APiending wliat he ia suppoaed to i^7p

said. Asksoon^as possible after the debate he fincls; in his letter box a proof sheet. o£ his speech, and we have it on the authority of the Government printer that the alterations so made fluently; cosfc more than the original composition. Instances areas plentiful as blackberries of members haying been so inaudible in the reporters' ;: gallery that pencils and note book 8 have been laid down in despair. Still the speeches have appeared in ' Hansard ' and have been duly posted to admiring constituents. But these same speeches have been the work of some newspaper flaneur. Numbers of these gentlemen flock to Wellington, and for a consideration supply the 'deficiencies in the cranial development of hon. members who could not for their lives put a column of decent English together. It is currently stated that there are not half a dozen men in the House who will bear verbatim reporting. What therefore appears in * Hansard ' is not what has been said but what the sapient member thought might have been said after both sides have been debated. The sooner people arc aware of the mightiness of this sham the better.