THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1882. OUR REPRESENTATIVES.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2615, 24 August 1882, Page 2

THE GLOBE. THURSDAY, AUGUST 24, 1882. OUR REPRESENTATIVES.

When wa come to reflect on the way in which business has been conducted during the present session, we certainly shall not feel inclined to award any praise to the members of the House. Parliament met on May the 18tb, and the amount of work that has been got through up till very lately has been comparatively infinitesimal. It was bad enough indeed before the visit of the members to the Christchurch Exhibition, but very much worse after that festive event. The junketings that then took place seemed to demoralise the gentlemen who took part in them. Prom the date

of that outing—the beginning .’of July—affairs progressed slower than ever. The Government appeared to have lost all control over the House, and, as for the Opposition, their time seemed principally occupied in putting up Mr. Montgomery as a leader, knocking him down again, and moving useless votes, which might be construed or not into votes of no-confidence. Of course people may say that the House was a new one, and that the majority of the men comprising it were previously unaccustomed to the conduct of public business. But it must be recollected that the members were, at least most of them, business men of some sort, and that a large number

of them were “ grave and reverend seigneurs,” who, if they had not been in Parliament before, had had considerable experience in municipal and other matters. It was not as it was in the early days of the French Revolution, when representative institutions were first springing up in Prance, and when there were sent up to the Chamber young men whose principal claim to confidence lay in a fluent tongue and plenty of enthusiasm. The Girondists and other representatives of these days had their brains filled with theories, but knew little of ordinary business. They had been born and brought up during a period when the management of their own affairs was not entrusted to the body of the public. No—the gentlemen who were chosen for our House at the last election were men who, like most Englishmen, had an extensive acquaintance with the general run of representative institutions in some form. So that wo hold that they cannot fairly be excused for the manner In which tho business of the country has been conducted during the present session. And these business men we find frittering away week after week in useless discussion of the debating club order, or in vain attempts to shift the balance of power in the House. Time, which devours all things, proceeds to swallow and digest the session with the moat perfect impartiality, and we at last find these gentlemen aghast at their own work and commencing to realise the fact that they have done absolutely nothing—have in fact been extremely like rhe unprofitable servant who hid his talent in a napkin and thought he had done an extremely good stroke of business. So, after a final and vaiu endeavor on the part of the Opposition to npset the 1

Government, real business is commenced in,,» fevered and hurried manner. It is attempted to make np for lost time, important measures are puahfed through with scarcely any debate,. and numerous Sills which promised well are thrown into the waste paper basket. And all this without prejudice to the Massacre of the Innocents which must shortly take place. And then, with the knowledge of their delinquencies staring’ them in the face and forced on their daily notice by the state of business in the House, members coolly declare that they will not stop in Wellington after the first week in September under any consideration. The order paper is crammed, almost numberless measures have been hardly noticed, and this entirely through the fault of the members themselves, and then our representatives, shutting their eyes to the reason of all this, say the matter must he settled by them all decamping. Now, we have heard a good deal of the duties of representatives to their constituents. The Radical party in pariicular lay great stress on the absolute necessity of their members keeping one eye turned to the business of the House and the other back on the voters. But they do so simply from party motives. If a man votes with Mr. Montgomery or Sir George Grey ha is considered quite en regie. Bat how about the matter to which we have called attention? Wo do not hear this radical party crying out because their men have frittered away their time, and have aided and abetted in

hurrying through the real business of tha country in a scandalous manner, in order that they may get hack to their homes. Bat this in reality is a thing of great importance. Here we find the servants of the public, who are paid out of the public purse, quietly declaring that they will leave their posts, when they know very well that the mess is of their own making, and that their duty should keep them in Wellington. Can people think that if the business to be considered and transacted by the members was their own private business, that they wonld leave it incomplete P Of coarse not. They would then believe in the motto “ Thorough” to its fullest extent. There wonld be no shirking, no running away because the work was not done within a certain limit of time. And surely the business of the country should be held by representatives to be of more importance than private business. One wonld think that with thoroughly conscientious men this would certainly be the case. When the members consented to represent their constituents they promised that they wonld do the best for their clients. They all swore this, time after time on the hustings. And yet here we find these same men stating their determination of making their clients’ interests bend to their own convenience, instead of the opposite. It is indeed a queer state of affairs, and wa wonld recommend its consideration to some of those rampant gentlemen who are always holding forth on the duties of members to those who elected them. Next time a Radical is elected, let him specially promise that he will see the business through at all personal inconvenience. This is an oath he should take, and then he might be allowed to drop his other oath as to his constant state of dependency on the wishes, or the state of liver, of his constituents.