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'Magna est veritas et praevalebit.'
SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1887.
Further Delay.
When the Premier intimated thnt the
Government would endeavour to ^ot
-through business in order that flic
House might, adjourn nt the end of the
month, In; did not anticipate having to j
meet rih.structiou of tlie kind that has |
been ruisi'd by the chief uiulertaker ol'i
the Opposition, Mr. Ninian Mki.vii.i.i:, ;
mid the one or two other wind-lings who i
euro no more lor order anil »ood trovcrn
meiit tliim vicious urimitiuls would en re
for prison rules if there were not ofiiciu!
power behind to enforce them. Night
after niyht the representatives of North
umberland had retarded bu inesH and
destroyed order by interposing obstruc
tive inotionn and speaking thereto for
hours ut a stretch. In consequence of
the obstruction to which they -have bent
their energies very little business has
been irausaclct] by the Assembly, in d
tho ileciiMt incinhers tlieroof have inure
than ohco expressed their disgust :;t
foru'uet of which Messrs. 3Iei.vim.i-:,
O'.Sui.i.ivax and Wai.kki: have been
fruilfcy, members of tho Opposition tliern
kcIvos having repudiated any connection
with tlie obnoxious movements. Thni
is one remedy on!}1 for such an evil, lint
? it is one the application of which the
j'TPatrst lover of order must bo lo;it!i to
recommend. The application of the
cloturc, under which the majority of tin.
J louse could effectively check tho out
? flow of obstructive talk, savours of
restriction of free .speech, hut in a case
of this kind we cannot see that that the
freedom of speech would suffer in any
lioyroe fiom the adoption of a rule .such
as that proposed. Men who offend as
IUici.vu.m; and his supporters have
offended cannot complain if their
toiiffiiOH are forcibly tied, for they with
out scruple pass over the boundary
dividing freedom from license, and for
l.lm Assembly to be cnmpelUd to listen
lu them, and the country compelled to
(??nfler while they indulge, is to say that
their freedom is of moro conspqunriro
than the wcll-boiiif; of tho country.
The injury resulting from .silence on
their part being1 enforced would remain
with* thorn, bui the evils reuniting from
a continuance of the license which thoy
fake arc jrrroat and widespread, cveiy
man, woman and child in rho 'country
being' made to suffer therefrom, ft is
nnijuestinnnhjc that a majority of the
Assen.ljiy would assent to the introduc
tion of the datura rules of the House of
Commons, for circumstances point to
the possibility of all public business
being retarded indefinitely unless a gag
bo applied, and the obstructionists named
compelled to keep within reasonable
hounds. It is known that tho Govern
ment have in Cabinet considered the
iidnjttion of the cloturc rules, but nothing
ilelinito has been done. A small dose
of such physio is generally very oii'ec
tivc, and in this naso we might look for
a spc-edy euro. The act of parsing .such
i ides an! of rigorously enforcing then
where h'q'itiinale business was being
captiously opposed would not bu any
reproach to tho Assembly. It has a
porker, right to protect itself against the
persistent hl.ibberjnsrs of smnll-tninded
men, whoso chiflf .[plight in life appears
to lie that of hearing themselves talk,
iiiid in cheeking Mm.vn.i.ii and his
windy males, the Assembly will not only
he conserving their own peao? but con
fering a boon upon the whole colony.
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