The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, August 5, 1890. THE HUTCHISON CHARGES.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 489, 5 August 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, August 5, 1890. THE HUTCHISON CHARGES.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country's, Thy God’s, and truth’s..,

The present session of Parliament will have a truly sorrowful record to leave behind. The fizzle which has apparently been the outcome of the charges made by Mr Hutchison against certain Ministers is not likely to give satisfaction to the country. Such serious charges should not have been lightly made, and it is shameful they cannot be dealt with in a judicial and not in a party spirit. If our representatives had that respect for their honor which law-makers should have they would deem these serious charges to be far superior in importance to any question of party. The honor of public men is at stake, and there should be an earnest desire to get at the bottom of things—if the Ministers alluded to are guilty of what they have been charged let them be straightway given their deserts : if Mr Hutchison is discovered to have made groundless charges, punish him as he would deserve in such a case. It is a glaring scandal that in such a serious matter our legislators cannot rise superior to party considerations, instead of dividing like a pack of sheep just as the bell-wethers may take them. But so it is, and it seems hopeless of anything better. The Government showed great anxiety to have the charges enquired into, and moved for a Committee to investigate the charges which they loudly declared to be false, but from the first attempt that was made in the constitution of the Committee it was clear that both sides were anxious to have a party majority on it, and in this respect the Government was most to blame. After a lot of skirmishing and a deplorable waste of time the Committee was equally divided in a partisan spirit, with a neutral Chairman, Mr Withy : in point of fact all decisions would really be the Chairman’s. Indeed it was believed that Mr Withy would also be a party man, but from what has transpired of the private deliberations of the Committee it was only through the firmness and impartiality of the Chairman that the collapse of the whole affair was prevented. AU kinds of technical difficulties were raised, and three weeks have been wasted in over them. The Bank very properly objected to its books being produced, and had its side of the question ably advocated at the bar of the House. This resistance was perfectly fair and honest. The Bank’s transactions with its clients must be of a confidential nature, and the institution was justified in seeking to evade being compelled to violate such obligation to secrecy. As a matter of principle the Bank would have acted very wrongly had it not tried to prevent such a precedent being established. No reasonable man would'deny this, but that is not where the rub comes in at all. Why do not the clients particularly referred to in this case come forth in the light of day, and release the Bank

officials from their obligation to maintain confidence? If there is nothing to conceal, why, after such a storm of virtuous indignation, do those specially referred to seek to throw the responsibility on to other shoulders ? If the Ministers still, assert that there is nothing to hide, and are still zealous of clearing themselves of the stigma now resting upon them, why do they not desist from appealing to their party majority, and meet the charges in a free and open way, so that people may be convinced that there is nothing upon which the light of day may not be allowed to fall ? What the end of the affair may be cannot be foreseen. The vote of the

House has practically stifled further enquiry, but in the course of the debate Mr Hutchison so emphatically reiterated his charges that persons who value their reputation could not possibly rest under such grave imputations. No one who can approach the matter without having his judgment made defective by a spirit of partisanship, can believe that Mr Hutchison would so calmly and emphatically make such charges unless he felt confident of being able to adduce some proof. When the Government instituted the enquiry, it was patent that it could only be satisfactorily gone into by the banking accounts being inspected, and if they were not prepared to submit to that, such an expense to the country should never have been incurred. The Ministers have now taken up the humiliating attitude of resorting to their Parliamentary majority to stifle the enquiry, instead of the more honorable one of the individual Ministers coming forward and voluntarily unsealing the lips of the Bank officials. Such a position is far from creditable to those who moved for the enquiry to be held.