A CANDID FRIEND.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10150, 21 November 1910, Page 6

A CANDID FRIEND.

MR R. B. ROSS, M.P., SPEAKS PLAINLY. REBUKED BY MINISTERS. In the House of Representatives on Friday night, Mr R. B-. Ross, M.P., when dealing with the question of the deletion of a clause in the Land Finance Settlement Bill by the Legislative Council, said he wished "to tell the party in power that Liberalism did not thrive on tradition. So far as he could see, the party was living on the past. It it chose to transfer the power given it by the people to one man in the Legislative Council, he would plainly ! telTthem that he did not intend to give them one single vote to help them to do it, as they were trying to do that afternoon. If the clause was unworkable, it was the duty of the leo-a I advisers of the House—one of whom was paid £IOOO a year—to furnish a workable clause. Both parties in the House should combine to tell the Government that it was not going to be run by the Crown law officers. The Hon. R. McKenzie declared that Mr Ross's attack on the leader of the Upper House was one of the most contemptible he had ever listened to in his life. Mr Poland rose to a point of order, objecting to the expression. The Speaker ruled the expression out of order. The Minister: I bow to your ruling, but I still hold opinions on the subject. Ivir Poland: He has not withdrawn the words. I insist that he be compelled to do so. The Speaker: The hen. member must formally withdraw. The Minister: I bow to your ruling. The Speaker: You must go a little further. The Mini a tor: I said I withdrew it. I know why this is being done. It is a deliberate attempt to prevent me having anything to say. It was highly ludicrous to hear the member for Pahiatua saying he would never give another vote to the Liberal party if it was to be led by the leader of the Upper Houfae. Wo doubt it was scunc! advice, but the Government was not asking the member for Pahiatua either for his advice or his vote. He floated between the two partie?, the same as he had done before the last general election, but he eventually had to be carried in on the backs of the Liberals. We don't care two straws which way he votes. He is as fuil of vanity as an egg is full of meat, but if he imagines that we will take notice of his advice he is even more full of vanity than I imagined. Both of these ! gentlemen (indicating Messrs Poland and Ro3Sj, are trying the trick of running with the hare and hunting with the hounds and they will fall between two stools every time. Mr Ross; My constituents will send me here! •The Minister: So far as I know, you have no perpetual lease. The member for Olnnemuri had coquetted with the Opposition, and that party, with a few members on the Government dide. had been hoist oh their own petard. They knew perfectly well that the Bill must go if clause 10 remained in it, and it was ÜBeiess for them to try and excuse themselves in Hansard for killing the Bill. ' The members of the Opposition would have to take their responsibility too. Every possible effort had been made by the Liberal party to prevent the aggregation of large estates, and the Opposition had taken advantage of every form of the House to interfere with that policy. The Government was fully alive to the coquetting and intriguing which : had been going on between the member for Pahiatua with a few of his friends, and the other side, and. he need not imagine that the Government was depending on him for a vote at any time. They know how far he could be trusted, and it was not much further than he, the speaker, could pitch him. By what right and. authority was the statement made that men were put into the Legislative Council hy devious ways? He ventured to suggest that if the leader of the other House was in the representative Chamber, the member for Pahiatua and his friend would be "as mum as mouse." They were no friends of the small settler.