The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1898.

Waikato Argus, Volume V, Issue 364, 8 November 1898, Page 2

The Waikato Argus GEORGE EDGECUMBE, Proprietor. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8, 1898.

The session is over, aud tho members have left the seat of Government for their homes. They are no doubt glad, but very little more so than are the people whom they are supposed to represent. The country is sick of Parliament and all its doings, and only a very small minority for some time past has taken the trouble to read the reports of its proceedings published in the newspapers. There is very little to show for the fifteen weeks' talk which, is reported with questionable accuracy in Hansard. The Opposition owed it to themselves and the country to assert their constitutional right to have information on every

branch of administration. This the Premier, backed by a servile majority, had during previous session refused to furnish. The Minister for Lands went so far on one occasion as to say that the Government was not going to furnish information to be used against, them. The Opposition gained a partial victory by the only means in their power. They combined to block business until certain specified information was promised. They were not only justified in this, but, in addition, would have neglected their duty had they not done so. Ministers and their henchmeii will, in a short time, be found stumping the country and blaming the Opposition for the inordinate length of time expended in doing so little. That "gag" has been so often repeated as to have become nauseous to all who have not become habituated to the strong sulphurous smell which attaches to very many Seddonian statements. In another column we give a summary of what Parliament has done and what it has not done. Our readers have had suah a dose of Parliament of late that we will not attempt, until they have had a little rest, to bore them with an analysis of the measures passed and of those rejected. We congratulate the country that now the House is no longer sitting it is safe for the time being from further injurious legislation. We wish we could congratulate it on being as free from danger of maladministration of its affairs.