CURIOSITIES OF PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 1, 26 September 1907, Page 13

CURIOSITIES OF PARLIAMENT.

UNNECESSARY ANACHRONIBMS. SOME INTERESTING RULINCB. r t Ono of the standing curiosities of this progressive age and country is the mumbo .jumbo' that accompanies the work of legislation. People visiting Parliament for the first time always find matter for amusement and interest in " the forms of the House," but after a short spell of regular attendance one grows accustomed to tho queer conventions, and at last forgets that there are any.

Unknown to tho habitual spectators of the Parliamentary proceedings, however, thero are obscure practices fallen into disuso, and dormant rules still sufficently activo to appear at add moments—theso in addition to tho mummery of, tho maco, and tho circumlocution cif tho ordinary routino of business; The mace is an unfailing source of fascination to peoplo weary of tho flood of talk. Once it was a serviceable weapon-, for quelling disorder, but to-day it is a bogus baublo of gilt wood, having no specal significance. A degenerato ago has replaced it with, fines and suspensions. In 1879 a' Committee of the Houso of Commons was interrupted by a visit from thq Sorgeant-atArms, who asked the members to come to .the Houso. The chairman of tho Committee told the Speaker that the Sergeant had not tho mace wtli him. The Speaker notedt he objection, and agreed that a Committee need not dissolve until the mace appears. It was usual to inform tho Committee that the Speakor " intends or threatens to scud the mace if they do not come." The mace is probably less useful than a poker in a fight, hut it stil dominates Parlament; ! "When the mace lies upon the table, it is a House; when under, it s' ; a committee. When the mace is out'of the Houso, no business can bo done; when from the tablo and upon the Sergeant's shoulder, the Speaker alono manages." Ths prepares ono for anything in the way of makobolieve. At the opening of Parliament the Speaker and the House assemble in the Council Chamber, an dliston to tho speech from tho Throne, which has already been printed as a " Gazette," and copies of which aro circulated at once. One would not supposo that this was tho procedure if one trusted tho Standing Orders. Standing Order 23 says that on-the House assembling in its own chamber, "Mr-Speakor reports" the {act, and mentons " t, v iat His Excellency was pleased to inako a speech '. . . of which Mr. Speaker says he had, for greater accuracy,' obtained a copy." For greater accuracy I And the' House does not dream ,of smiing'. 1

When a Bill is " read a first time," tho motion-is put and carried " that tho Bill bo now read a first time and bo printed." It is only what was to be suspected that tho Bill is not read, and that.it'has already, been printed. Every day "a largo number of Parliamentary .papers" are "laid on tho table;" most of them in printed form, _ and although it is patent to every- ' body that thousands of copies of such and such a paper has been printed tho Hduso pretends that it is still in manuscript, and solenmly decides to have it printed. And a moment later, perhaps, some member " raises Cain " because it is not circulated in /printed form. . _ • Make-believo permeates the whole procedure. Tho Legislative Council has made amendments in a Bill to which the House'. objects. The Premier moves that tho House disagree' with the amendments, and that Smith, Brown and Jones be appointed to draw up reasons. This is agreed to,. and tho Committee solemnly goes out and walks straight in again with typewritten reasons. Time, 2$ seconds. An intellient foreigner would gasp in amazement at this jugglery. The Premier, again, hands something to Mr. Speaker, and returns to his seat. Mr. Speaker rises. "A message from his Excellency the Governor!" Tho House rises, the Premier with them, looking interested. " Plunket, Governor," says Mr. Speaker, and members fall back, in their seats. / "Plunket, Governor," had no moro to do with it thin tho man in tho moon.

The hat has a code of rulo3 to itself. ■ A member must bare his head when entering or leaving tho Chamber, but once in his seat he can keep his hat on. When speaking he must remove his hat. But if, during a division, ho wishes to call attention to a point of order, vtho ordinary rule is reversed. He must sit, and keep his hat on. In tho excitement of rectifying an error in a new member—often oven, an old member— rises in tho accustomed way. "Order! chair!" and a babel of crics bewilder I him, and ho glares about him in alarm until a kindly grip of 'his coat-tails nils h'im down. Ho recollects. "Sir—" Again the yell 'breaks out, and again he is bewildered. .He remembers then, and. reaches for a hat—generally tho hats falls over his ears. Once, the writer remembers, Mr. Seddon thus addressed the hair in soft felt wideawake belonging to Mr. Carroll, and as a figure of fun ho most certainly, took a high place. Akin to the hat fetish is tho fetish of the bow. " Every member," says Standing Order 64, "is to make obeisance to tho chair in passing to or from his-seat." n tho very ancient days an altar of St. Stophen was located behind the 1 Speaker's chair, and, just as Catholics now make obeisance to the altar, so members of Parliament mado genuflections to St. Stehen. St. Stephen's altar has disappeared, but tho Speakor remains, and .members nod or bob, and will contine to ;' : nbd or bob till the end of things ,nd to disappearnce of the mace,.: " s The rulings of peakers on points not covered by the Staning Orders hvo mado a large body of Priainentary law, quite independent of " chair." Tho code of Parliamentary etiquette is very rigid—this j g disorderly,. tat is higly disordery.' If the code wero observe dloSley Parliament wold bo tho best school of manners. Bu many an old prohibition has lost is force. Members'must not refer to othor members by- name, but they do bo, and tho Speakor, moving with the times, does not say ' them nay. Briefly put, the rules upon the subject prescribe that each member must in debate tre every other member aa a pure and perfect knight. There iuus.fr bo no imputations against a member's action or speech in tho House—but a member may "slang" to his heart's content any ex camera observation, speech or action by a brother member. i A collection of unparliamenary phrases would make a large dictionary. • " Ungontlomanlike," "dishonorable," " impertinent," " insolent," " entirely false," " scandalous," " dodge," " caluminous," "cowardly," "shabby," "spiteful," " palpablo lies," "stealthy," "infidel blasphemer," " miserable subterfuge," " seditious " —all theso are clearly not allowablo. It has been ruled that you may hot accuse a member of saying things without thinking, nor refer to any group as "the wiseacres' of the House." To call a member: a "gentleman," curling one's lip the while, is, curiously enough, quite in order. • In 1592, Mr. Fish attacked a platform speech of Mr. Seddon, and declared that tho

member for Hokitika should ho ashamed of himself. Tho Speaker ruled that, although members wero not to bo. accused of saying or doing in the House anything of which they ought to bo ashamed, the same privilege did not extend to words uttered outside the House.

A ' hunt through Hansard reveals many interesting statements of parliamentary law. Amendments must bo relevant to the original motion, but the "must" does not apply in Committee of Supply of Ways and Means. Thus, en.an liilprest Supply Bill, an amendment may refer to anything in, undor or over tho earth. Debating tho Licensing Bill of 1805, Mr. Frank Lawry tried, to- move that tho Bill bo read a second timo that day 999 years. The Speaker ruled that nonsensical amendments which would bring tho House into ridicule could not bo admitted. More than once it has been ruled that the speaker cannot know from tho titlo of tho Bill what it means—a humorous commentary on the difficulty which the Courts find in determining the meaning of tho Bill evon when they havo the text. In 1895 Mr. Hollo learned that a member cannot, on the third reading debate, go through a Bill clauso' by clause, although, in earlier days, Mr. Seddon walkthrough an electoral roll name by name, with notes and biographical comments. "A member must not express his contempt for a select committee" recalls .the fact that Mr. T. IC. Macdonald was quite moved by a Wellington Electric Lighting Bill many years ago. ' Although ingenuity enables members to break ; through the rules pretty frequently, Sir George Grey once "found eren't difficulty in ringinc the changes on "transaction," "fact," and "report," in an attempted criticism of a resolution of the House. Mr. Vincent Fyke was a lively member in the old days. Once, ho had created great disorder in committee, and was ordered out of the Chamber. 17c went into the Press Gallery to listen to the debate upon ' his conduct, but was dragged out when tho Speaker ruled that a member ordored to withdraw could not remain m ono of the galleries. It was Air. Pylce who, in YSfl. created a disturbance by burlesquing a notico of motion. Mr. Andrews (Christchurch) had given notice to move that tho total abstainers should he . given the. benefit §of their total abstinence by tho creation of a temperance section of tho Government Insurance Department. Sir. I'vke gave notice of a motion to give moderate drinkers the benefits of a moderate drinkers' department. The Speaker crushed Mr._P.yke by object-1 ing to the introduction of Anything calculated to bring tho Houso into ridicule. More recently it has been ruled that it is "frivolous" to.movo an amendment to tho effect that Angora goats should be importod to destroy noxious weeds. In 1'892 a member, bearing in mind a Standing Order that members cannot vote on a question in which they are pecuniarily interested, suggested that members could not veto on tho Payment of Members Bill. His attempt at a deadlock failed. Sometimes a member has spoken vehemently against a Bill and voted for it. What is tho Houso to <!o ? "Tho vote follows tho voice," said Speaker I'itzherbert. "I know of no rule," he caustically added, "preventing au honourable member from speaking' on one side and voting on the other." Ono might multiply 1 the curiosities ad infinitum, but enough has been said to suggest-that it is time that Parliament set to work to devise up-to-tlato rules for its conduct, and. to use tho phraseology of "the old parliamentary hand." "to cast tho worn-out conventions into tho limbo to which they properly belong." _____