The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1913 SELECT COMMITTEES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXVI, Issue 93, 23 August 1913, Page 4

The Stratford Evening Post WITH WHICH IS INCORPORATED THE EGMONT SETTLER. SATURDAY, AUGUST 28, 1913 SELECT COMMITTEES.

i The "Manawatu Standard" holds that the wisdom of setting up Select Committees to investigate charges that may bo preferred against Ministers of the Crown• in connection witli such matters as the Westport Harbor Board appointment and again in the Royd Garlick case, is open to very serious question. Our contemporary truthfully goes on to say: What does the Minister, the House or the country gain by such an enquiry as the first, or how much better off will the inter|esi.cd parties be when the latter enI quiry is finished and the report is presented to Parliament? Certain facts will have been placed on record, and certain statements may be either disproved or verified. But if the Com-. mil lees are not unanimous in their findings their reports will not be worth the paper they rire written upon, j much less the loss of time "and the, trouble and expense incurred in arriving at decisions which will be immediately challenged on the ground j that they are dictated by party con- j sideratious. The trouble is that every' Select Committee appointed carries a; majority of Government supporters. It] was so in Mr Seddon's day and in that' of Sir Joseph Ward. It is so now, and i if a Minister's reputation is at stake! the Government majority may always] be looked to for a whitewashing report, i [assuming that the need for such a re-! port exists, while, in the alternative, 'if an Opposition member's reputation is likely to suffer as the result of unfounded charges, or of conduct unbe-j coming a member of the House, the i minority will do their best to save j such member from the consequence* j of his action bv presenting a ininorifv I 1-epnrl disagreeing with thai of the ; majority, All this is almost too well I

known to need commenting upon, cept to point the moral that when, under our system of party government,, one side of the House or one section of that side brings charges against the other it would be more to the purpose if those who were assailed were to ma ke their denials or explanations in Parliament and for no further notice to be taken of Mich charges, when, as i TI the ease of the Westport Harbor Board appointments, the demand is !in de for an enquiry. The two Select Committees that have been, engaged

investigating Mr Atmore's charges against Mr Fisher and Mr Wilford's charges against the Minister of Education have monopolised the time and attention of a number of gentlemen who could have found more profitable . occupation, in helping to push, forward the work of the session. Apart from that loss to the country there is the expense of the enquiry itself, which is by no means inconsiderable. Two members of the Hansard staff have to be in attendance with a small army of pressmen and attendants, and then. there is the cost of the witnesses and of printing the report and evidence. It is beginning to be counted almost as a weakness on the part of the Massoy Administration that they should be so ready to appoint these Committees or Commissions to enquire into charges made against its members. No amount of censure on the part of Gov-

ernment supporters is at all likely to move from their course those members of the Opposition party who'have entered upon a policy of reckless criticism. While some'of the mud may stick the Minister's denial is, after all. just as effective and just as'likely to be accepted against the word of an opponent on the floor of the House as When given on oath before a Select Committee. The electors, who represent the fina] Court of Appeal upon these matters, are likely to be better satisfied with the Minister's plain and straightforward statement than with the report of a Select Committee which i is open to the charge of partisanship. » It is unfortunate that the tribunal se- • I lected for these enquiries is always a Committee more-or less one-sided in ' its composition. But for the jealousy 'I with which Parliament insists upon ' i maintaining its own judge we might ! suggest that an outside judicial committee would form the most fitting, and competent tribunal to enquire into the more serious charges, which, fortunate jly for e the credit of the House and the country, are so rarely heard of in th? public life of this Dominion. The Government would, however, do well to hold its members more severely in hand and to -resist the temptation, to be always setting up Select Committees , when charges are made against the j actions'of its members.'