Excerpt from Evidence Taken by the Public Accounts Committee in Connection With Dredging in Midland, Tiffin and Victoria Harbours, Vol. 1: January 22, 1913 Hon. Mr. Pugsley. - But the charge was made in the House, by a member, upon his responsibility as a member of the House; that member had the courage to make the charge, he did not insinuate, he did not go about making statements or what he knew and what he would prove if he had the chance, but he had the courage to make the Charge in the House Of Commons on his responsibility as a member; that is what happened, and it is quite different from the proposal before this committee which is, as I have said, an entirely different practice to that which was followed on the occasion to which Mr. Bennett refers. The charge, in that case, was made by a member in the House of Commons, the people who were accused knew what they were accused of, and the matter was very properly referred to a committee, and then the govern ment appointed counsel to take charge of the matter. What the committee is asked to do today is to adopt an unusual course, and upon what ground? Absolutely upon no ground whatever; there is no charge made in the House, there is no charge made by the Minister of Public Works; the Minister of Public Works has not stated any reason whey he desires the committee to adopt this unusual course. As Mr. Carvell says, if we to-day, without the slightest ground being submitted why 'we should adopt this unusual course, allow this precedent to be established can it not be done again to-morrow, and will not the practical result be to take the investigation into these matters out of the hands of the members of the committee, whose duty it is to inquire into them, and put it in the hands of counsel? Mr. Bennett. - Does the hon. Member imagine, as a member of this committee, that after Mr. Stewart and Mr. Pringle have asked question of the witness, he will be debarred from asking whatever questions he desires? About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.