HOW THE MONEY GOES.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 694, 20 December 1909, Page 3

HOW THE MONEY GOES.

THE EXHAUSTION PROCESS IN THE HOUSE.

, MR. MASSEY'S WORST EXPERIENCE. ■More than thirty members of, tho House of'Representatives spent the whole of ' Friday lught sleepily throwing bags of money labelled •220,000, <£250,000, £340,000 down ■ a large black yawning gulf. It was only the' Estimates, and a large proportion of tho men who are paid JJ3OO a year to sit in Parliament' and control expenditure did not earo what becamo of them. They did not even "sit"; in larliament. They slept, and often snored, 'on lounges, in the lobbies, in'-the library,' in the rooni, and some few in the House itself, oil the edges of the big black gulf. Money was going down the gulf as coal is tumbled out of sacks down a ship's hold, only tho-gulf is bottomless. The Estimates for the various Departments were large, unwieldy, sacks, bulging with . precious, unexplored contents, and very badly labelled. On the pit's edge it did not matter much. ' ■ ".£350,000"— that was sufficient label,. over-with ..it into' darkness! It was annoying that a dozen wakeful, strangely curious men. would make themselves obstreperous, insisting every now and then on. fumbling the- bags,',* and-peering ill" tently down into the gulf -in a! vain attempt. to see where.it led. , "What does it.matter,' there are twenty more .bags, yet ? w Oyer.:with ~ "O division bell is rung to bring more shoulders.to the push. .Tho clothes on these new shoulders are creased with lying, the faces pver. them are drawn and 1 white, tho eyes that direct thehi' blinking from recent 'sleep, but what need of direction? ' It is a big gulf and, pushed by tho shoulders of tho 'blind, over.,goes the .-bag, and the reservists' creep back to: their couches. Tho game goes on till daylight, or is it another -, game? Visions change suddenly when ond is half awake, and now it .seems we are on Tom Tiddler's ground, not picking up, but' throwing' away gold and s » v «- A' dozen men who are/"on the other side try to stop this throwing', away. They '■P ,' 00 ' c at. the gold and silver and ask \\ iKi.se? It is tho game of, tho; Government" players to prevent this inspection, and as often as' their leader calls ./'Obstruction,", which he;, does very often,'. .they charge', iu, wrest the precious fragments, and hurl them sadly over tho edge. Or are these Estimates the pie that was never opened, but flung recKlessly to the blackbirds? Auvliow, when tho game is finished—and'it is growing Tery tiresome—thero will be'no sacks, -no gold aud silver,, and no pie. . The Estimates will, have I , "l ancl slee P will be undisturbed. : ihe twelve men -who have not slept wanted to suspend the game hours ago, and start a»aiu m the morning. They said they could not see to play. But the other side is larger, and its leader thinks that , this game—throwing iwaysomething,. something very valuable, never you mind what—is better played in the dark. \nd the other side is used.to following its leader.. Mr. Massoy Protests. V To abandon motaphors, '. it was ' rumoured fairly early on Vriuny night that an all-night sitting was ill prospect, it was whispered, as it had been prior to the all-night sitting of two, nights before, that lounges had been brought over from the library, and it was noticed that suppers had;been< provided on an unusual scale, it was. also , stated, truly or not truly, that a por.tion of the Opposition party had been sent off to bed, so that if tho game went right oni through tho morning they might returu fresh and quite awake to checu what was going, on. Mr. Massey, who usually remains upright and -smiling - through tho longest sitting, confessed that lie had slept, early in the evening,- for ."three-quarters of an hour!" Although the weary process of inquiry, ex ; planation and division had been going on from 10 a.m., no reference was made to the long hours till after 3 a'.iu. on Saturday. It was recognised that the work must, bo. dono, as expeditiously as possible. But thero is a limit to .endurance, and work cannot be done after a certain timo if it is- to be dona properly. •' ' . At 3 a.m. Mr. Massey pointed out that tho House, had been sitting about' seventeen hours, and tho manner of conducting business was becoming a public scaudal. Tho attention of people throughout the, country -was being drawn to it. Ho did not: know whether the Prime Minister wanted , them-to go right round tho clock again. It was really unfair to the people of the country to deal with' their business in this way. "Just look at the state of tho House," said Mr. Massoy, and a casual, scrutiny, showed that out of eighty members there were not twenty—which, is a quorum—present. There wero only eleven sitting upright in their seats. Tho others wore lying down—soiiio of them asleep. Occasional snores wero heard. A little later one member was so sound asleep that another member used his head as a writing-table, and oven this did not appear to "wake him'up. Tlio Greatest Farce Undor the Sun. Mr. Massey said this was the greatest farce under the sun. . .'Mr. Stallwoi'thy: Not'under tlio. sun;,under the moon, you moan. , Mr. Massey: Well, under;the electric light. I don't know whether there is oven a quorum present, and yet there has been no obstruction, ,no dclav, nothing but a genuino desire to do the work" properly. : Even tho Chairman of Committees has been, hero sinco ten o'clock in tho morning, 'and it must ba a great strain upon him. The Prime Minister snid .it was his desiro to finish before' Christmas if ho could, but if tlio House adjourned and left the Estimates unfinished lie did not see how it would ho possible to do it. "The question," he said,--"is entirely ono for lion, members. I feel all right; the House feels all right." , Mr. Massey: The right lion, gentleman should take notice of what tlio House is like just now, and of what it has been like sinco. midnight. . • ■ , , Sir. Massey, moved to: report progress, with a viow to ending tho sitting. Tlio division bolls were rung, and members trooped; in to vote. Thoro were in all 47, out of.the 80, in the build : ing, and the motion was lost by 31 to IG. "Tlio motion to report progress is lost; unlock tho doors," said the Chairman; the House half emptied itself again; a bare quorum, halfawako and very tired and 1 brain-fagged, settled down once more to voto away the country's money in thousands,- and hundreds of thousands; of pounds; ■. V ' '

Exhaustion: Mothocts" Reach thoir Limit. /. At 4.20 a.m., when tho votes for' Customs and Marine had boon disposed.'of, 'Mr.'Masscy. again asked the Primo Minister, to, report, progress, and Sir Joseph Ward declined, on tho ground that the Estimates could soon bo finished: Mr. Massey said it came to this, that lie would either walk out of tho House and placo tho responsibility 011 tho > Prime Minister, or they would discuss tho Estimates as'they ought to ba discussed. Ho was not going to allow them to bo rushed through as this Prime Minister suggested. "I have-just about hadonough of it," said Mr. Massey. "I think this is about the most unreasonable proceeding I liavo known iu the Now Zealand Parliament. I have witnessed a good' deal of legislation by exhaustion, but I have never witnessed anything worse, and I do not think'that I have seen anything so bad as this." Ho would move to report progress. Tho motion was rejected'by 29 votes to 15. When the result was announced Mr. Massey asked if it was not a fact that a majority hall voto -"Aye." . The. Acting-Chairman (Mr. Russell) denied that this was. .the case. Mr. Massey persisted 'in liis statement.. The Acting-Chairman said the only possible explanation was that 1 tho "Ayes" division-list had been sent to tho tellers of the "Noes." ' Mr. Massey: And they wero so far asleop that they did not notice it! Tho House was too tired for laughter. "At Breaking Point." At 5.20 a.m., when the vote; for the Labour Department had been disposed of, Mr. Massey again protested. "We have just about reached breaking point," ho said. "Wo havo been as patieht as men could be all day, and it is time the Minister told us what ho proposes to do. X am willing that .we should go homo now and como back at 10 o'clock, but I am not willing to go on with the Estimates' now. It is too* much to ask." Mr. Massey added that "tho Houso was being imposed upon. They might adjourn then and. return nt 10 o'clock, but members were entitled to a few hours'.rest. : Tho Prime; Minister said he had wanted to put'the Estimates through and then adjourn till 2.30 pjn. .Mr. Massey: It is quite impossible. The Prime Minister taid ho had no objection to take the other com se,'but' it looked t.i him as if they could not carry out'what he had proposed to do in regard to other work, and he would not hold himself responsible for not doing it. Mr. Massey,: I suggest that we report progress and . meet at 10 o'clock. The Primo Minister: I havo no'; objection to that. . 1 . Sleeping members were shaken and .aroused, by thoso who were still half awake,' and tho weary legislators (?) trooped homo to bed; Members Become Reckless. :: Despite the. strain to which member? wore subjected on Friday night the Estimates wero not nearly finished. • They dragged on all day on Saturday, and are likoly to tako up a good portion of to-day., Very slow progress was made on Saturday, and tho reason, may well have been that after the cxccssivo weariness of the night before members were not ill a condition to apply themselves seriously to any kind ■of business. Mr. T. E. Taylor suggested another explanation. Speaking on Saturday afternoon, when .hours wore being spent in the discussion of possible Ecenic reserves,' hoi askod if all these eloquent speeches on the 'Estimates were part -of a deenly-laid plot to make it impossible, for, the Defence Bill to go through. He was .trilling to see the Defence Bill held over for six months, but he would rather havo a straightforward understanding to that effect. than that that result should bo effected by a protracted, discussion of'tho'Estimates. ;, < A member suggested that the House could go 011 after Christmas. ... * . ;• ••! "I don't . care „ what goes on," replied Mr. Taylor, "and I think the House is pretty reckless now." If they had, to come back after Christmas he hoped that provision would: .be made, on tho Supplementary Estimates to' repay Members for their extra work. ■ 'jThere will' have to be another steal in that case;";'added 'Mr. Taylor sarcastically. -• The Council Demoralised. ! ' The serene atmosphere' of' tho Legislative Council is" less conducive'to recklessness, "but even there signs were not wanting of'dettioral.' isation.r 'When the .Council'jmet on' Saturday 'afternoon Dr. Findlay intimated: that the Native;. Land Bill would, be , placed in-members' pigeon-holes and they, might' spend' Sunday in' studying it,, seeing .of necessity. In reply to some interjection, ho said he thought that any sacred tin which'one was endeavouring to understand tho Maori-Land Bill;- ''5 '■*'■- ■ ■' . The' Hon. Mr; Thorne. 'J.Gtor'go. • suggested' 1, joculdrly r that' they should" put';tho 'Bill; intoCommittee and consider it on Sunday. . , Mr. Samuel said that; for'hispart, one glanco at. the Bill showed him that it would tako 1 him a month to unacrstand.it','; " V