A SUGGESTED REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 48, 20 November 1907, Page 6

A SUGGESTED REFORM.

Mu. Wilfoed touched on an important question with his amusing suggestion that, as fifty days is quite a long enough term for a session of Parliament, the honorarium of members should be fixed at £350, less one pound for each day upon which the House trans-acts business. This ingenious proposal to make silence really and truly golden is, unfortunately, unsound. Some time ago " Punch " pictured a Scotchman gazing profoundly at a handsome gig and pony that he had won in a sixpenny raffle. The bystanders waited patiently for the expected outbursts of delight, and at last the lucky man broke the silence. "Whaur's the whup?" he. sternly demanded. So, in the present case, we are afraid that members would be very anxious about the £50 " whup " which Mr. Wilford expects that they would forego. Under the sliding scale members would speedily become convinced of the gross extravagance of giving fifty days to a session. Given a pound J s .worth of good reason each day for making that day the last, they would become unduly anxious to end the session and resist the expensive delight of speech. There would be a strong disinclination to criticise. Members would feel that they could not afford to protest; such speeches as had to be niade would be in the elliptical style of Mr. 'Winkle; and when members had gone away with all they could salvage, the laws would be shocking to contemplate. That the jocular suggestion should have been made at all is, nevertheless, significant of a dis-r gust within the House itself at the scandalous methods now current. The two cardinal vices of the system maintained by Sir Joseph Ward aro the postponement until the last fortnight of a mass of legislation introduced months before, and the introduction of important measures at the eleventh hour. Until the whole procedure of Parliament is reformed, the first of these vices can only disappear when some sense of propriety develops itself in the Ministry. The second vice is easy oi removal.. If it were laid down

that the Government must circulate all its measures for the session within one week of the assembling of Parliament—provision heing made for emergency measures — a fruitful source of trouble and confusion would at once disappear. Members would familiarise themselves with the programme, and, secure from the fear of surprises, would be able to do more efficient work in every wajj. Ministers, of course, would have objections pat, as Ministers always have, when there is a conflict between commonsense and ministerial strategy. The other day Sir Joseph Ward actually said he had fifty or a hundred new Bills in his drawer, all ready for presentation to the House. But, indeed, it requires no argument to make it clear that such a business-like Ministry as the present one professes to be should have, and probably has , , its whole programme quite ready before the Governor's Speech is drafted. Mr. Wilford deserves the thanks of a weary public for making a proposal rich in humorous suggestions of members shouting down the reckless orator who is going to have another pound's worth of talk, hut it is a pity that he did not put forward the proposal that we have outlined.