Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1910. FORCING THE PAGE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10126, 24 October 1910, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. MONDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1910. FORCING THE PAGE.

Tlie haste in' which the Estimates were rushed through Parliament at the latter end of last week, bordered upon the indecent. One would have thought, from the nervous anxiety displayed by Ministers, that the whole fabric of government was in peril of dissolution. But, in reality, the cause of the test of physical endurance was the desire of the Government to avert further divisional defeats. Never, since the alleged Liberal Party came into power, have the Estimates been stuck up in the way they have during the present session. Never have there been so many outbursts of dissatisfaction and so many adverse divisions. During the Seddonian era such a thing as six successive defeats would have been impossible. The Party whip would have been cracked, and the dissentients would have been given clearly to understand that if there was any further obstruction they would be sent to the country. Apparently, however, the Ministry as at present constituted would suffer the most ignominious defeat rather than risk an appeal to the electors. Indignity after indignity has been heaped upon them by their own supporters until, in exasperation, they have resorted to the process of exhaustion in the hope of restraining the disaffected. The spectacle of a worn-out, dishevelled, incapable body of legislators wrestling with the most important items in the Estimates, and being plainly told that the whole business must be got through in one sitting, was humiliating in the extreme. There is little wonder that the country should become alarmed, when such vicious practices are adopted for the stifling of muchneeded criticism. It is idle to say that the criticism of the preliminary items in the Estimates was of a factious character. The representatives of the people in Parliament have a right.to know that the revenues are expended in a proper manner. They have a solemn duty to perform when the votes for the respective Departments of State r.re under review. And if they allow

themselves to be bounced and browbeaten, and cajoled into doing what they know to be wrong, they are r.ot worthy of the names of legislators.' The incident of last week will not readily be forgotten, for it wilt serve to show to what lengths a desperate Government will go in an attempt to save its face and to protect its friends from criticism.