PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXI, Issue 4808, 19 August 1876, Page 3

PARLIAMENTARY REPORTS.

TO THE EDITOR OE THE NEW ZEALAND TIMES.! Sin, —There is no inducement, that I can alee for you .to report .the debates, in. Parliament jin such a way, for instance; as the Sydney Mornin'g Herald does: Hansard competition; prevents anything of that kind. Butas it accomplishes this Hansard should be, a; faithful' record of-what is,said.' I say j this is ,not po. That members of either branch of the Legislature do not content themselves with.merely correcting proofs of speeches for verbal inaccuracies. They go further.; They;delete) they re-write so much, and then add.new matter, that in some instances, say the speech 6f the hon. member, for Chandler's Bay, is as different as it is possible to imagine from the classical original. Mr. Stout's enthusiastic endorsement of Mr. Rees'. speech on Sir G. Grey's indefinite resolutions may be cited as an That endorsement is • now deleted. Why? Was the legal member for Dunedin ashamed of having endorsed the elegant sentiments ■ and language of the polished member for Au'ekland City East? It seems so.' ' Then Mr. Fitzrpy, on Thursday evening, accused Mr. Wasoh (both being Canterbury members) of suppressing in Hansard his remarks about "high life, champagne, and all such nonsense in England," &c. These comments are but itoo true. I venture to say no editor of a journal of any standing would allow his reports to be tampered with in the same way as the Hangar A reports are dealt with. Sir, we must as a reading public after all rely upon your i reports and other sections of the Press ) for the true essence of what really does occur. I fbel that this tribute is due to your reports, and only hope they will be continued, as they afford a check and a reference on the now one imperfect record, because Hansard speeches are often not those as taken down. Imagine a Hansard reporter's speech in one column, the hon. member's speech as in another column, what features and fictions would such a proceeding represent ?—I am,&c, A Jacobite. August 17.