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to close this week, and if they are agreeable to go on under those circumstances and we can get through, well and good. If, on the other hand, they prefer not to go on with the petition this session, it clears us, but 1 think we should give them the opportunity of being heard. They should be informed that owing to the limited time it will be impossible for the Committee to go into every detail, and then the deputation should be allowed to please themselves whether they will go on or not. Mr. V. Brown: Before that is decided I should like to make a statement as to what our position is with regard to the First Division. We have taken all the evidence, but it is not yet all printed, and we have to deliberate on that petition. We must report to Parliament on the petition of the First Division, and we must have a couple of days to deliberate in regard to our report. Ido not know what your ideas are, sir, but 1 should like you to express an opinion as to what you propose to do in connection with the petition of the First Division. The Chairman: Well, we propose to deliberate on it. Mr. V. Brown: Then, if we proceed with the hearing of the petition of the Second Division, there will be no time to consider the other one. The Chairman: By putting the hearing of their evidence off for a day or two, it would enable us to deliberate on the evidence placed before us by the First Division. Hon. Mr, Millar: You are going to place the Committee in a very false position. You are going to put it in the hands of the Railway men to say that we deliberately refused to go on with the petition which we had in our hands for three months although we had a week to deal with it. I do not want to put myself as Minister in that position, nor do I want to see the Committee put in that position, and the only alternative will be to simply report to the House that the time at our disposal has not given us an opportunity to report on this petition. I think we should say that the Committee proposes to go on with the petition of the Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants. Mr. McLaren: Being in charge of the petition, I should like to explain that I have not been able to meet the representatives this morning, and I do not know whether it is their desire to give evidence or not, but I think they should be heard this morning and the position put plainly before them. The Chairman: The reason I want a resolution is this: The Press has been publishing statements thai cake it appear to the public that the Government is running this Committee, but the Government is not running this Committee, and neither is the Minister. We know, and the Minister knows, that by the tone of the wire that came up from Christchurch it would appear that the Government was running this Committee. Unless we put on record a resolution that we are going to hear the evidence in support of this petition, it will appear that we are going to hear it at the instigation of the Government. .1//-. IIin?: I do not think the Minister has been quite fair, and the Committee has taken a wrong conception of the whole position, because, to my mind, there has been Ministerial interm truce. Mr. Millar himself admits that he authorized the calling of this meeting this morning. Hon. Mr. Millar: Simply because the Chairman was not available. Mr. Hine: It appears to me, Mr. Chairman, that if it had been deemed desirable last night after the remarks in the House to have the Committee called together J should have said it was quite right, and a majorit} - of the members of the Committee could have arranged it, but it is going to be put before the public that there has not been any Ministerial interference, and I contend that there lias been. 1 say that the Minister authorized the calling of this meeting without the consent of the Committee. Mr. V. Brown : 1 was present in the Utilise lust night, and probably was one of those who caused this meeting to be called. Statements had been made by Mr. Hine, Mr. Witty, and Mr. Davey, and the question of when the next meeting of the Committee was to take place was brought up in the House. Mr. Millar said he thought it was for Tuesday, and at the same time looked round to Mr. Witty and myself, and I said " Yes, we meet again on Tuesday." 1 then looked round for the Chairman, Inn lit' was out of the chamber foi the moment. Mr. Otterson then said the meeting was not called for Tuesday, and no notices had been sent out. Mr. Millar has done everything he can to give these men an opportunity of being heard to-day, and by taking the course tie did in the unfortunate absence of the Chairman, he has hastened on the matter for the purpose of hearing these men. Instead of blaming Mr. Millar I think he should be thanked for having the meeting called. I made the statement that the meeting was called for Tuesday, and Mr. Witty backed me up, but Mr. I ' me never stated that no meeting had been called. He is a member of the Committee, and he ought to have known what happened at the last meeting and to have stated so in the House, but he did not say anything about it. Mr. Hine should not have sat in the House and listened to our statements which he evidently knew were not correct without saying so. Mr. Witty: The statement made by Mr. Hine is not correct, but that is not the only time. \nv two ii ibers of the Committee could have called a meeting if they had desired to do so. I was certainly under the impression that the meeting was called for Tuesday, and so was the Minister under that impression, and any blame that is attached to it I am quite willing to shoulder. It was I who sent the wire, and I consulted with the Minister. Mr. Hine: It was not my concern whether the meeting was called for Tuesday or not, but it is not usual for members of Parliament to send wires away saying that a certain thing would happen which we had decided by mutual consent would not happen. You admit that you sent the wire saying that they would be heard. Mr. Witty: Certainly. Mr. Hine: And we had decided that they would not be heard. I said last night that I could not reveal what had taken place privately before the Committee. That reference was to the fact that it has been informally agreed that they would not be heard. Mr. Witty: There was no decision.