A USELESS STONEWALL.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXV, Issue 10713, 15 September 1913, Page 4

A USELESS STONEWALL.

Emboldened Jjy the fact that it has secured a leader, the Opposition resorted to obstructive measures in the House of Representatives on -Friday. were followed by; a'determined "stonewall," which lasted till midnight on Saturday.., It is signifioant that the wildest display of rhetoric was made on the question of mental hospitals. No more fitting subject could have engaged the attention of the Opposition. If some of the obstructionists consulted members of the medical profession yesterday, there may be hope for a better condition prevailing when the House resumes to-day. A more insane "stonewall" has never been set up in this country. The Opposition claimed that it was entitled to more infdnnaion than that with which it had been supplied, and when Ministers furnished the information, they were pressed for more. Parliament has, no doubt, a right to reasonable/ information before it passes the Estimates. It has/ no right to obstruct, as the Opposition did on, Saturday, for the mere sake of obstruction. , The tactics that have been adopted by the Opposition, at a period when time is precious and tlhe country is waiting for legislation, are discreditable in the extreme, and will excite disgust from one end" of the Dominion to the other.