THE NO-CONFIDENOE MOTION.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIV, Issue 5734, 15 August 1879, Page 2

THE NO-CONFIDENOE MOTION.

~ 9 The following report of the proceedings which took place in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the 30th July, in refer, enoe to the no-confidence motion, will prove interesting to our Home readers : Sir GEORGE GREY stated that his Excellency the Governor had appointed a quarter to three as the time for receiving the committee appointed to present the Reply to the Address and the members of the House. It would therefore be as well for them to adjourn at once, and proceed to Government House. The House accordingly adjourned, and the Speaker and the committee proceeded to Government House in three carriages, the other members bringing up the rear on foot. The House re-assembled at three o’clock, when the Speaker read the following reply : Mil. Speaker and Gentlemen op the House op Representatives—

I thank you for this Address, and for the congratulations which you are so good as to offer me on my appointment to the Government 6£ the colony. I fully realise the necessity for my advisers possessing the confidence of the representatives of the people in Parliament, and I shall not fail to give to the views which you express on this subject immediate and careful consideration. (Cheers.) Sir GEORGE GREY stated that with regard to the present position of the country the Government was desirous that no unnecessary delay should take place. The Government proposed to consider its position, and to state the result to the House as early as possible, and he would therefore propose the adjournment of the House until half-past seven o’clock. In the meantime the Government hoped to come to some decision on the subject, and to lay their views before the House when they re-assembled. ' Sir W. FOX wished to know whether it would not be desirable to go on with Committee of Supply as soon as possible 1 Sir GEORGE GREY said he had no objection, and he gave notice for the House to go into committee on the subject to-day. After some further observations, the House adjourned until 7.30. On the House reassembling at half-past seven, The Hon. Sir GEORGE GREY said that in the afternoon he had asked the House for a short aljcurnment, in order that he might make a statement to the House as to the present position of affairs, and as to the course which Ministers might take. After the adjournment he had waited upon his Excellency the Governor, and had informed him of what had transpired in the House, and had likewise, on his own and his colleagues behalf, ventured to give him advice, and had asked him for a dissolution in accordance with the Constitution. (Applause.) The Governor was pleased to comply with his request, at the same time stating he was anxious that the decision arrived at should be conveyed to the Parliament in his own words. He would, therefore, with the permission of the House, read the reply which his Excellency had given him in his own hand-writing. (Long and continued cheering.) The reply was as follows :

“ I have carefully considered the position in which Ministers are placed by the defeat which they have just sustained in the House of Representatives, upon a no-confidence motion ; and I am clearly of opinion that they have a fair constitutional claim to a dissolution.

“No doubt a general election at the present moment would be inconvenient, having regard to the condition of public business—the prevailing financial depression—and the circumstances of the colony generally, especially the native difficulties upon the West Coast. But I presume that Ministers have carefully considered the consequences of such a step before tendering to me advice to dissolve, and I am, therefore, prepared to adopt their recommendation, leaving with them the entire responsibility of such a proceeding. “ At the same time, I think it right to stipulate that the well-recognised constitutional principles which govern cases like the present shall be strictly adhered to. Ministers have lost the confidence of the representatives of the people, and are about to appeal from them to the country. A majority of the House of Representatives has declared that Ministers have so neglected and mismanaged the administrative business of the country, that they no longer possess the confidence of Parliament. It is indispensable in such circumstances, if Ministers do not at once resign, that Parliament shall be dissolved with the least possible delay, and that, meanwhile, no measure shall be proposed that may not be imperatively required, nor any contested motion whatever brought forward. It is necessary, also, and in accordance with established constitutional precedent, that the new Parliament shall be called together at the earliest moment at which the writs are returnable.

“If Ministers accept a dissolution upon this understanding, I beg that in any explanation which the Premier may think proper to make to Parliament, the answer which I have given to his tendered advice may be stated m ray own words. “ Hercules Robinson.”

(The reading of the above letter was interrupted by loud and continued cheering from the Government side of the House, and was also loudly cheered at its close.) The Premier continued : He had only under these circumstances to add that as the Government had tendered their advice that this dissolution should take place it would require some time to decide as to what measures should be brought forward before the House was dissolved. He had called the Governor's attention to the words “ contested motions,” when his Excellency had replied that that did not comprise the Loan Bill and the question of supply for the public service. (Cheers.) The Government would be very happy to communicate with the Opposition, and to act in the most cordial spirit in bringing before the Parliament such necessary measures as would have to be dealt with, and to carefully abstain from pressing any measure forward that was not absolutely necessary. (Hear, hear.) He would now ask the House to agree to an adjournment until half-past seven o’clock on Friday next, so that the Government might determine what course it would be best for them to pursue in the way of what was to come before the House before the dissolution was actually carried out. He would therefore move the adjournment of the House until Friday evening next. (Loud applause.)