“LIKE DONNYBROOK FAIR”

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20023, 23 August 1939, Page 12

“LIKE DONNYBROOK FAIR”

PARLIAMENT ON AIR MR. BURNETT LISTENS IN (Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, this day. Impressions of Parliament, as heard by one of its members through the radio, were given, to the House of Representatives yesterday by Mr. T. D. Burnett (Nat., Temuka). They were not complimentary. Everyone would agree, he said, that the decorum and dignity of the House were in capable hands, but he was discovering that the general public did not hold the same impression of the dignity of Parliament as did the members themselves.

He had occasion recently to get four days leave of absence. He spent one wet afternoon listening to the proceedings of the House over the

adio and was amazed at the differ-

ence ot impression he obtained in view of his knowledge ot what transpired. .“It gave the impression of a cionnybrook fair” declared Mr. Burnett. “It took me back 40 years to

the days of the up-country races. Every now and then I was expecting to hear a shout of ‘a bob in,” though it did not come to that. We should give some thought to broadcasting our speeches. “This is a deliberative body. We do not want people to turn on Parliament on the wireless in the evening for a cheap variety show.”