The Dominion. TUESDAY NOVEMBER 19, 1907. THE SCANDAL OF PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 47, 19 November 1907, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY NOVEMBER 19, 1907. THE SCANDAL OF PARLIAMENT.

Although'the public grew weary of the session some time ago, we cannot believe that they have overlooked the extraordinary occurrences of the past week or two in Parliament. Such of them as have to follow the doings of our legislators are, of course, pleased to see that the parliamentary machine is at any rate capable of dealing with business in an expeditious fashion, but it is not pleasant to think that the expedition has only been made possible by the exhaustion of the critical alertness of' members, and the withholding of the bulk of the projected legislation until a time when members, in'their anxiety to flee away, are willing to agree to almost anything. The assembly which spent months in profitless wrangling and foolish merrymaking, and which, for all legislative purposes, was" as good as unemployed for nine weeks, is now passing Bills with a breathless expedition that makes it as difficult t'6 keep track of the heavy output as it was to discover any output at all three months ago. The complaint which we are making is one rendered familiar by the censures of the Press of tho country for years past, but these censures have

been unavailing. It has been almost as if three months of idleness, three weeks of activity, and a final fortnight of reckless precipitancy were the proper programme for Parliament. For the continued abuses of parliamentary business the Ministry is not wholly responsible. So long as the public is willing to endure from Parliament a method both scandalous and inept, the Government is not likely to reform itself and abandon tactics so convenient to its ends. Reform must come from a public awakening to the shams and strategijes of parliamentary business. For it is the public whicn suffers from the Government's easy perpetuation of the bad practices of the past decade—the deliberate prolongation of the lazy, period until Time itself comes to coerce into acquiescence the critics who have become exhausted, stale, and unable to exhibit the bright alertness and persistence which, in the early days of 'the session, are wasted for lack of subjects. Every year the Statute Book contains a batch of Bills to amend the measures which in the preceding year were put through the machine at a time when everybody was too weary to see the defects in them. Nor is it merely through specific errors and absurdities that the methods of Parliament have become full of injury to the public. A contentious Bill which manages to secure discussion in the first half of the session, before members havfe grown stale, rately gets passed without modifications and compromise. Such modifications and comhowever essential to fairness and justice, are impossible in the wornout assembly that is now pouring forth a Niagara of statutes. - Theoretically, of course, the critics on the Opposition benches should be as well able to criticise on November 18 as on, say, June 30, but Opposition members and Government members alike have, by November, become physically incapable of zestful and ardent fighting, a?id such criticism as may be advanced is in any case left unanswered, and is almost entirely disregarded. The Government is well aware of this, and it has a part of our parliamentary tactics to bring down important Bills at a late stage of the session because it is easier then to force them through the House than at an earlier period. Short of reaohitely blocking all busiMr. Massey and his supporters can issue no practical protest against anything that the Government brings down at the time when the pastures and the cornlands are calling members' thoughts home. The current session is one of the longest on record: in its dying hours it is displaying the viciousness of the exhaustion tactics as that viciousness has rarely been displayed before. We should be hoping that the Government will "cease firing" at once. But to hope for even that minimum of propriety sounds like audacity and extravagance. AW that the public can do is to hope that the Government will refrain from the extreme of outrage, and will not, as it could, if it wished, force through the House any of _tliose large measures still unconsidered.