END OF THE SESSION.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2042, 20 November 1907, Page 2

END OF THE SESSION.

' PARLIAMENTARY BUSINESS CRITICISED. >1 IDLENESS AND • THEN “RECKLESS PRECIPITANCY.” (Special to Times.; if. ' WELLINGTON, Nov. 19. ' .Several members left for' their' and others will leave to-morrow. The Northern members hope the session will be at an end--011 Friday morning in . time to let them get away by the northern express on that day. They will proceed via. the North Main Trunk route, and a special train will convey them over . the latter portion of their journey, "jThey should reach Auckland in this ease at about 10 o’clock on Saturday night. The long sitting of the House yesterday left members very < tired, both physically and mentally. - It was thought that the reoent Parliament would adopt more businesslike methods than the previous Administration, but as a matter of fact - -’ there is little difference. The Dominion has a scathing article on the subject. It says: “It is ’"* not pleasant to think that the expedition during the past fen T days has only been made possible by the exhaustion of the critical alertness of members and the withholding of the bulk of the projected legislation until a time when members in their anxiety to flee away are willing to agree to almost anything. The assembly which spoilt months .in profitless wrangling and foolish merry-making, and which for all legislative purposes was as good as unemployed for nine ■weeks; is now passing Bills with a breathless expedition that makes it as difficult to keep track of the heavy output as it was topcjiscover any output at all three months ago. The complaint which we are..making as one rendered familiar bv the censures of the press of the country for years past, but these censures have been unavailing. It has been almost as if three months of idleness, three weeks of activity, and a final fortnight of reckless precipitancy were the proper programme for Parliament. For the continued abuses of Parliamentary business the Ministry is not wholly responsible. So long as the public is willing to endure from Parliament a method both scandalous and inept the Government is not likely to reform itself and abandon tactics so convenient to its ends. Reform must come from a public awakening to the shams and strategies of Parliamentary business.”