A SORRY SPECTACLE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2283, 31 August 1908, Page 2

A SORRY SPECTACLE.

PARLIAMENT BY NIGHT. LEGISLATION J3Y EXHAUSTION. [Special to “Timeb.”] WELLINGTON, August 30. A stranger to New Zealand,’ liad lie been present ill the House of Representatives during the early hours of yesterday morning, -would doubtless" have been greatly puzzled, on being informed that the subject that was then being discussed by about half-a-dozen speakers in the presence of one-quarter of the total members of the House, was the important question of the defenco of the Dominion. The total vote of the Departs meat, amounting to £214,470, was put through in slightly over two hours, by “a House” that averaged a bare quorum of twenty members, the number being at times two or three more, and at other periods one or two less than the score. A countmade at half-past twelve during the speech of Mr. Jas. Allen, showed that there were then 18 members in the Chamber, including the Chairman of Committees and three Ministers.. A great many of the members were half asleep, and evidently paying little or no attention to the remarks of the speakers. At one o’clock there were 20 members present, and half-an-liour later there were 25 (out of a House of 80), but- this number soon dwindled down again to the quorum border-line. In such manner does Parliament, the fountain-head of authority and power in the Dominion, transact its business and carry out the principles of “government of the people, by the people, and for the people.”