CLOSING SCENE IN PARLIAMENT.

Greymouth Evening Star, Volume XXXI, 16 November 1901, Page 3

CLOSING SCENE IN PARLIAMENT.

The Old failing again seen. (Wellington Post) A time-honoured custom in connection with the close of the session is tho holding of a “Mock Parliament” while the Speaker is at Government House with the Bills finally passed, and it was not so many years ago that those ceremonies were invested with a great deal of wit and humour by the legislators, who for the time being unbent and indulged in fun, which proved highly diverting. Of late however, the humour has grown leas duller, and the wit less nimble, and yesterday the climax was reached what was nothing less than a disgraceful scene. From tho commencement of the affair it was evident that one of the participant?, at least, was hilarious to a degree, and his actions and those of several of his supporters cannot bo regarded as anything but unbecoming. Waste-paper baskets were emptied of their contents and thrust on a member’s head, insulting remarks were made about a certain gentleman’s baldness, and when the hilarious gentleman “rose to a point of order” more than one member pointed the moral with brutal frankness, even if he did not adorn the tale, by remarking that “the hon. member had been rising to points all the morning.” As the “Mock Parliament” proceeded, tho hilarity of the member' in question increased to such an extent that he picked up bundle after bundle of papers (not his own), copies of Hansard, and a weighty file of Bills and pelted them at members right and left, and when tho House really did resume it required some persuasion on the part of the Deputy-Speaker to convince him that ho must respect the dignity of Parliament. The Premier, it should be added, also played a very undignified part in the affair, which, though it caused laushter among the members and onlookers, appeared, on sober reflection, to be the acme of bad taste.