The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE Proprietor. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1897.

Waikato Argus, Volume III, Issue 209, 13 November 1897, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE Proprietor. SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 1897.

The prediction has been realised that the change in the personnel of the House of -Representatives would compel Ministers to be more conciliatory than in previous sessions, when they have used their majority to stifle discussion and to withhold any information asked for calculated to bring discredit upon their administration. After a lengthy struggle and a good deal of the old-fashioned bounce by the Minister for Lands, some of the details of the cost of the Premier's trip to Australia to attend the conference of Premiers, which amounted to £570, were given. This was a very largo sum, and to our mind and" that of many members of the House far in excess of what -it should have been had proper economy and regard for the public purse been shown. The other item was £1750, the price the colony is to pay for the Premier's trip to the old country to attend the jubilee celebrations. This also appears to be a very large sum, considering that lie was the guest of the British people and ample accommodation afforded him free of cost. We were amongst those who urged that the honour of New Zealand required that the Premier should go Home as representative of the colony, he being the only person invited to do so. We did this with the full knowledge that the bill would be a stiff one, and had it been properly rendered and the items given which made up the grand total, we should not, and we believe neither would the House, have raised any objection to its payment. It was stated that it would bo undignified for the Premier to give particulars, and improper for the House to ask them. This was urged by that paragon of etiquette and nice feeling the Minister for Lands, the man who has always shown himself so careful of the feelings of others. The House looked at the matter in a totally different light, and insisted upon the particulars being given, not that there was the remotest thought of reducing the bill, but in order to show Ministers that the days of bullying and bunkum have passed, and that in future information which it is proper to ask for shall be furnished by those who are paid by the country to do so. We repeat that if the Premier had made out his bill in proper form it would have been passed almost without comment; any indignity which Mr Seddon has suffered was brought by himself upon his own shoulders. We can only call to mind one instance in this colony in which Ministers refused to give particulars of the expenditure of money drawn from the Treasury, and that was when the late Sir Donald McLean refused to give any details of how he disposed of the large sums voted him annually for the manipulation of the natives. He claimed that the public service would suffer, this could not be urged in the cases in point.