SHIRKING THEIR DUTY.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1244, 28 September 1911, Page 4

SHIRKING THEIR DUTY.

We arc in entire agreement with the Prijie Minister in the attitude ho adopted on Wednesday respecting the consideration which should be extended to members who absented themselves from their duties in the House. The suggestion had been made that the small number of members present at the late hour at which the House was sitting was a good reason for adjourning. Sir Joseph AVard quite properly scouted this idea. We have not the least sympathy with late sittings—they are a menace to sound legislation and the proper conduct of public business and a discredit to Parliament. But we have still, less sympathy for those members who shirk their duty to their constituents by sneaking away to bod and leaving those with a better sense of their responsibilities to carry on tho business of the country. -Sir Joseph AVard was on perfectly sound ground when he protested that these absentees—save in cases of illness—were undeserving of consideration and his rebuke was thoroughly well justified. If members desire that reasonable and proper hours shall be kept in Parliament the remedy is in their own hands. On Wednesday night, for instance, if those members who had gone home to bed had remained in the House and at 1.10 a.m. had voted with the minority that then thought it quite time to adjourn, the motion would have been carried. But instead they went off to bod and in their absence many hundreds _of ■ thousands of pounds were voted without their knowing anything about it. The mistake that is too often made in connection with the business of the House is the attempt by Ministers to squeeze just that little bit extra through which proves the last straw. At the end of a good night's work—especially when things have gone smoothly—a Minister is often tempted to take advantage of the occasion to rush' through something extra, and the trouble is made. He may score for the moment but he almost invariably pays for it later, and curiously enough Ministers seldom profit by their experiences in these matters.