OCCUPATIONS REPRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 915, 31 October 1879, Page 3

OCCUPATIONS REPRESENTED IN PARLIAMENT.

An examination of the callings represented in Parliament may not oe uninteresting to our readers affording, as it does, an index of the various interests represented in the House, and the numerical voting strength represented by each. Small farmers and settlors head the list with sixteen representatives, and as tliev arc now generally recognised as the backbone of the country, and the class demanding specially favorable attention in the sliaue of legislation, it is a matter for satisfaction that they are so represented. The ruiiholders and proprietors of landed estates however arc

only one behind, numbering as they do fifteen representatives. That fluency of speaking is an important assist nice in getting into Parliament is shown hy the fret that a dozen “gentlemen of the long robe ” will make their how to the Mr .Speak -r tliii session. The “ fourth estate ’ is almost as well represented as the Bar. eleven of the now iM.IT.R.’s being journalists by profession. It lias often been remained—and whether the statement is complimentary or otherwise wo will not venture to say—that there is no better preparation for a political life than a journalistic training. This seems to ho thoroughly exemplified in the ease of this colony, and we doubt whether even the French Parliament, which is noted

for the number of newspaper men which it comprises, contains so large a proportion of its members as one eighth. There are also eight merchants, three storekeepers, three financial agents, two members connected with the mining interest, two ex-civil servants, two auctioneers, two gentlemen of “no occupation,” one minister of religion, one architect, one plasterer, one engineer, one gas fitter, one house decorator, and one publican in tiro new Parliament. Tiie malign influence of the solitary publican it not neutralised by the presence of the minister of religion will probably be counteracted by the fact that the now House will contain two, if not more, prominent members of the flood Templar body. In this analysis we have omitted reference to the Maori members, whose interests, to a large extent would stand alone.—Post.