Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPT. 1, 1891. Honi soit qui mal e pense.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 1 September 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. TUESDAY, SEPT. 1, 1891. Honi soit gui mal e pense.

During the present session of Parliament the members of the Ministry have shown a most deplorable reliance on any story told to them by irresponsible persons, even if it implicated gentlemen who had, up to that time, borne an unblemished reputation. Within the last -week or two we have had some glaring examples. Mr Fish's question to the Government as to their opinion upon a reported conversation between two gentlemen in a railway carriage, was not responded to in the manner such a question should have been, and it seemed to have been necessary for the best men in the House to denounce the act before the .Government could see anything objectionable in it ! The result of such reliance upon informers, whose status appears too low to justify the Ministers in mentioning their names, has naturally led to a painful scene, in which the Minister of Lands has cut a disgraceful figure, and the House has allowed itself to insult one of the oldest and the most respected of its members — Mr Bryce. The Minister of Lands asserted, and refused to apologise for doing so, that " if the secrets of chat matter (relating to the leasing of some runs by the Hon Mr Bichardson) were stated in the House it would not be to the honourable gentleman's (Mr Richardson*}) credit." Mr McKenzie, the Minister of Lands, said "that the late Hon Eobert Campbell had said that he came up to Wellington and " squared it with the Minister." When asked to whom Mr Campbell had made this statement, the Minister said, "to a person on a steamer going from Wellington" and being asked for the name of this " person' 1 decliuci.l to give it and said ho did mt think he could be compelled to,

" Til© grand old name of gentleman" means nothing to the honourable) i (by title) John McKenzie. If he can get an untrue statement against a political opponent ititb Hansard he is satisfied, the lie will be there, and he refuses either to apologise for the statement, or to give the name of his informant and shields his baseness under the trivial reason that it might involve other | people in matters which might bring them into trouble. The Minister may imagine that .the convprifoiiiici of his friead> the inventor of this delU)el x atas ttwuth, is a person of consequence to shield from the punishment that should await one 'who is prepared to vilify both the living and the dead, but the public will think, with justice too, that the character of its public men are of much more moment, and unless every reparation is made by the Minister of Lands to the Hon Mr Richardson by giving up the name of his common informer, then he must be content to accept the whole odium such a statement, and such a shuffle, is bound to bear in its train. Honi soit gui mal e petise— Evil be to him who evil thinks— has boen sufficiently long before Ministers on all the official documents they have issued, so thai they cannot plead tho warning is late. In attempting to get his colleague away without damage, the Premier has been guilty of fabricating a charge against the leader of the Opposition, by objecting to certain words, being used before he understood the whole sentence of which they formed part. The idea of " whipping" up a vote of censure upon Mr Bryce may be thought a clever trick by the Government, but ,vhen the whole facts become known over the Colony they will find that the majority even of ; their supporters, will feol contempt for such meaness, and such taotios "will enable the electors to find the low depths to which party government has sunk under the guidance of the " Liberal" Ministry. It is a noted fact, that during past sessions of parliament, the extreme course of clearing the galleries has been seldom resorted to, yet already during this session the galleries have been cleaved twice, the last time because, so it is reported, that the Speaker did not desire to permit the pnblic to view the bear-garden the House had been turned into. The 41 tone" of the House has been destroyed, and the government are to be blamed for it, as it has been from the prominence that they have given to irresponsible statements that has aroused, a just feeling of indignation in the minds of all upright and honest members'. "" The fact is to bs regretted, as in this case, a3 in all others, it is mucli easier to break down than to build up. We trust that Mr Bryce will not play into the hands of his opponents by taking a political and strong party vote to heart, but that he will stay in his place, and at the end of the Session take energetic steps to organise the party which he leads, so that by combined action at the next election, the majority will rule the country. We hoid now that the Government are in the minority, and that their victory was gained simply by organisation whilst the other . party had •none. Mr Bryce and the hon Mr Richardson will have suffered no hurt during these disgraceful proceedings, but Messrs Ballance and McKenzie will for long regret the day that their tempers and their predelictions tempted them to act as they have done.