GOING SLOW.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2196, 10 August 1889, Page 2

GOING SLOW.

There appears to be exceedingly little progress being made with tho work of the session. Parliament lias now been assembled for seven weeks, and though there has been plenty of talk there has been scarcely anything done. Two or three private member's Bills, the most important among them being the Criminal Evidence Bill and tho Triennial Licensing Bill, have reached tho Upper House, and have been passed by that Chamber, but the only Government uieasure which has yet struggled through the House is the Representation Bill. This last, it is said, is likely to be materially altered by the "LrMs," by the excision of Sir George Grey's clauses abolishing plural voting, and if so tho alternative of the future will be a collision between tho two Houses or the dropping of the Bill. It is freely prophesied that the Representative Chamber will reject ull the other Government Bills of any magnitude, |inciuding the Registration of Electors, Corrupt Practices and Hospitals and Charitable Aid Bills, while it is almost certain that there will not bo time to proceed with the Bankruptcy Bill" or the Civil Service Bill. Long and not improbably somewhat heated debates are imminent on the subject of the Ward-Hislop-Christie affair, the Property versus Income Tax question, aud the financial proposals of the Government, and the outcome threatens to bo a succession of stormy episodes followed by an unprecedented slaughter of innocents : in a word a session barren of results, and fitly characterised by tho old proverb " much cry little wool-" This is by no means a pleasant prospect, and as matters in this direction are growing worst year after year it is evident that one of the most | pressing necessities of the times is that some means should be devised by which legal machinery may be enabled to work more effectually and without the enormous waste of energy which is now increasingly apparent. The present state of things is as wearisome and disappointing to members themselves as it is unsatisfactory to the country, and a remedy is urgently necessary. The way to that remedy is in too directions, namely, by the amendment of Parliamentary forms of procedure, and the setting up a strong and capable Government instead of the present weak and incapable institution.