THE BIG STONEWALL

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14830, 22 November 1913, Page 13

THE BIG STONEWALL

HOUSE STILL DELAYED

OPPOSITION VERY

OBSTRUCTIVE

WEARY W-ASTE OF WORDS

'SPECIAL TO "THE PRESS.', i

WELLINGTON, November 21

The stonewall on the Legislature Act Amendment Bill, by means of which the. Government propose to repeal the Second Ballot Act (which*.was proceeding when the telegraph office closed this morning) was continued all night and i throughout the. day, and again this ! evening. Thu debate, which is bimilar in character to previous stonewalls, has been almost devoid of incident. The j House has sat continuously since half I past two on Thursday, with the exception of the usual adjournments for meals, and it i« likely to continue until midnight to-morrow night, with only the same intermissions and a couple of hours on to extra adjournment to-mor-row morning to enable members to attend the funeral of the late Mr George Laurenson. The stonewall is expected to be continued on Monday. The Opposition declare their determination to keep the blockade going indefinitely. One prominent member of the party has asserted -that his own amendments alcae are sufficient to keep the "debate" going for a month. Mr Wilford's proposed amendment to the short title to the effect that the Bill should not come into operation until April let, 1915, which was under discussion when the telegraph office closed this morning, was defeated by 32 votes to 13. * . CHANGE OF RELAYS. Shortly before 3 a.m. a new relay of Oppositionists, who had been away for a sleep, came on the scene. A change of shift of Government members also took place about the same time. New subject matter was introduced by Mr Poland moving that the Chairman leave the chair. For hours the obstructionists, tired with their long vigil, worked their weary brains in an endeavour to discover something that was new and at the same time . relevant. They had only indifferent success, and speakers wero called to order very often. A division was taken on the motion at 7.55 a.m., the ntotion being defeated by 29 votes to 8. • Mr T. E. *Y. SedSon . then moved an amendment to make tho Bill come into force on October , Ist, 1914. This was the position at the breakfast adjournment *at 8 a.m. It had taken the Houee 26 hours to pass two words of a Bill of 96 words. A DRAGGING MORNING. The House resumed at 9.15 a.m., when the question of whether Mr Seddon's amendment was in order was raised by Mr Lee. Hβ contended that after the defeat of Mr "Wilford's amendment-no further amendment of the kind was in order. A lengthy discussion on thk point ensued, and eventually the actingChairman (Mr Statham) ruled that the amendment was not in order. , Mr J. 0. Thomson moved that the following words be inserted after the words "this Act," : "shall form part of and bo read together with the Legislature Act, 1908." Mr G. W. Russell, in order to gain further time,' affected, to find fault with Mr Thomson's amendment. Ho moved to amend' tho amendment by making it read "shall be read together with and bo deemed to form part of.'.' The 'idiscussipn" on the merits of the two rival amendments was lengthy and devoid of interest. A great deal qf the task was directed to the meaning of the word "deemed." , Mr Thomson, in defending the. wording of his own amendment asserted that the word "deem" was not mandatory or definite. Other members pointed "out that the wor<*. was frequently used in statutes. One Opposition member, during the discussion, accused a fellow. Liberal of wasting time, and the latter, of course, .indignantly repudiated the soft impeachment. Tho talk dragged on until one o'clock, when the House adjourned for lunch. RINGING THE CHANGES. In the middle of the afternoon Mr Russell's proposed alteration to Mr Thomson's amendment was defeated by 29 rotes to 12, and then Mr Forbes "rang the changes," with the good old motion "that, the Chairman do leave the chair.". . , ~ The Hon. R. H. Rhodes raised the point-of order whether.in moving this motion Mr Forbes could use the. arguments that had been used on the previous motion to the same effect. The ChairHan admitted that this was a very nice boint, and he would like time to confder it. " The Opposition ranks started offuppn tho round ol reasons wlrj the Chairman should the chair, but were frequently palled up on account of tedious repetition. Suggestions of a conference wero speciously urged, but were met with peremptory refusals from Government members. BY WHAT RIGHT? A "variety change" was sprung by Mr Russell at four o'clock, when Mr -Malcolm was replaced by Mr IL 1). Bell in the chair. . Mr Russell immediately raised * point of order, ami wanted to know by what right iMr Bell occupied that chair. "I hold it by the* authority of Mr Malcolm," said Mr Bell. Mr Russell was not satisfied. "Hβ has no authority under the Standing Orders," he said, 'to delegate that authority to you," and proceeded to quote the Standing Orders, which provided that the Chairman should occupy the chair, and that "as soon as may be convenient after the commencement of the session, the House shall appoint a panel of not more than three'members to act as temporary Chairman of Committees when requested to do so by the Chairman of Committees." He wanted to ask whether the House had by resolution authorsed Mr Bell to take the chair.

3lr Bell replied that It had not been the custom tor years past to appoint Deputy-Chairmen. Under a ruling from May it was stated that "during a prolonged sitting, the Chairman may withdraw and be replaced by another member without the question being put." He therefore ruled that he was properly in the chair. Mr Russell contended .that the ruling from "Mar was anterior to 'and was superseded by the Standing Order which had been specially passed to meet the difficulty. Mr Bell, however, persisted in his ruling, whereupon Mr Russell at once moved that the Speaker's ruling be taken. This was agreed to. "ABSOLUTELY RIGHT." "When the Speaker "resumed the chair, the case was put to him. Mr Russell admitted that Mr Bell had acted very well indeed, and his question was in no way directed against him- The Government, he declared, should take the proper course of nominating three nwm to carry out the Standing Orders, In his ruling, Mr Speaker said it was true that the Standing Order existed, but he believed only on one occasion had it been exercised, and it was found to be more or lees of a failure. It

had been the custom ever since he had been in the Mouse for the Chairman to leave the cttair and get some otfivr hou. member to take his place. That course was iully borne out by -May. li'o had to rule that the Chairman ot Committees was entirely right in. his decison. Ths little interlude occupied half an hour of time. Then the dull round of the stonewall was resumed. THE EVENINGS PROCEEDINGS. The debate upon the motion that the Chairman should le-ave the chair was continued when the evening sitting commenced. Tn a half tentative ruling upon the point of what is relieving or not, tho Chairman said that he recognised that in ono debate similar motions mighty bo moved at different stages, and similar arguments adduced. In such cases he would not enforce too rigorously the rule of ''tedious repetition. ,. In order to assist his rulings upon the subject of "tedious repetition." Mr Malcolm kept a list of the subjects referred to at different times, and shortly after 7.30 he read out tho list of the ■'reasons" which had so for been used and which could not again be referred to.

. Mr J. C. Thomson immediately added two more reasons to the list in the irritated atmosphere of tho Chamber, and the danger to the dignity of Parliament which a continued sitting would constitute.

With his 'Tittle list" before him, Mr Malcolm stringently kept the Opposition members to the point, and would not allow the slightest deviation.'With the same object of reducing; the number of subjects to which reference conld be made, tho Chairman decreed that no interjections should be made, because the Opposition were thereby enabled to further draw out to tho finnst point the thin threat! of their discourse and, stepping from interjection to interjection, fill out tho desired ten minutes. At five minutes to nine, the Opposition having fairly well exhausted their repertoire of reasons, took division, but the House resolved to keep the Chairman in his chair by 38 votes to 24. ANOTHER ROITXD STARTED. With the former question disposed of, the Committee next faced the question of deciding upon the amendment moved by Mr Thomson early in the afternoon. Mr Russell desired to move another amendment before it was put, but was ruled out by the Chairman, whereupon a division was taken. This resulted in the defeat of the amendment by 38 votes to 24. Another stonewall amendment by the Hon. A. T. Ntjata, that after the words "which shall" there should be inserted the words "be continued with the Legislature Act, 1908, hereinafter referred to as the principal Act." Then started another round of obstruction.

This battleground, howevnr, was not acceptable to the Chairman, for he ruled that it had been covered by prev.ioJE motions.

The Opposition therefore substituted a motion. to replace "may" with "shall" and on this ground kept the Lall rolling. The niceties of "may" and "shall" sufficed to keep the literary experts of the Opposition occupied witn an interesting subject, for the • range afforded was sufficient to give a. wide field for talk and checks for straying •from the point, and tedious? reptition were far from frequent. The "elasticity" of the subject was mentioned by Mr Poland, and it seemed as if this subject would occupy the committee for a number of hours. MIDNIGHT EVENTS. . After various amendments had been dealt with and others had been ruled out of order on the ground of oeing frivolous, the Committee at midnight found itself still dealing with the short title.

Mr McCallum worked himself into something of a rage at this stage,' and declared that the insertion of the repeal of the second ballot in this Bill was one of the basest and meanest things that could ever be done.

The Hon. W. H. Herries called attention to this language, and the chairman ruled that there could be no reference to second ballot repeal, as it was not in the Bill so far.

Sir Joseph Ward wanted the Speaker called in on this point, because he claimed that Mr Massey had given notice of his intention to repeal the second ballot, and that therefore reference could bo made to it.

Mr W. H. D. Bell (acting-chairman at the time) held, however, that he could allow tne suggestion, as the chairman (Mr Malcolm) had ruled against references to the repeal, and the Speaker had said he would support him. After some further debate Sir Joseph Ward accepted the position, although, he. said, he would raise the point when the Speaker resumed the chair. Being thus debarred from discussing second ballot matters, Mr McCallum reverted to the Bill itself, and urged that in itself it was not worthy of being dealt with at this stage of the session. The fact of it being pressed tin the House showed that it was a mean, miserable, and contemptible subterfuge. "Hon. members," he declared, "ought to be ashamed of themselvos, and would stand discredited from one end of the Dominion to the other, and their names as politicians would go down with infamy and shame to those coming after." This strong language ruffled the Government benches, and there were cries of "Withdraw." The Chairman (Mr Bell), however, said he would not ask the speaker to withdraw, but hoped he wi.uld not continue in that strain. A new amendment by Mr Russell to strike out the word "Legislature" was next discussed. The stonewall was'very solid, and when the telegraph office closed at 2 a.m. everything pointed to another allnight sitting.