The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2nd. 1921.

Hokitika Guardian, 2 December 1921, Page 2

The Hokitika Guardian FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2nd. 1921.

LEGISLATION BY EXHAUSTION. In the House of Representatives on Tuesday night, the Prime Minister, mentioned some sixty or seventy Bill* that would have to be passed through Parliament duping the succeeding twenty days, if the session was to be brought to a close before Christmas. Of course, this did not exhaust the list of proposals to which Mr Massey has promised attention. “There are about fifty other bills,” the Minister went on to Jay, but there is not tlfe slightest chance of these being dealt with during the present session. It would not lie possible even to get them all drafted. Members have asked my opinion about getting finished before Xmas. T cannot express a definite opinon, but the matter is in the hands of members themselves. T am not going to ask the House to go till for legislation by exhaustion or anything of that sort and 1 am not going to ask the House to sit all night unless there happens to he something in the way of obstruction. If tliere. is obstruction, we shall have to resort to the old practice.” These fair words seem to imply that if members hurry through the remaining work of the session or rather through that part of it the Government considers absolutely necessary, without paying any particular attention to what is (going 0 n they will be released before Xmas. If,’ on ‘ the other hand, they refuse to’ be hurried and insist upon bearing

their legitimate part in framing the country’s legislation, then they still will be released before Christmas, but by tile painful process of all night sittings and sheer exhaustion. It is ridiculous to suggest that the House can give proper attoulion to sixty or seventy bills discuss the Public Works Statement, pass the Estimates and do the hundred and one things that remain to he done before members can go home with a clear conscience, in twenty working days. We wonder what Mr Massey would have said had Mr S"dd"n or Sir Joseph W'ard demanded anything of tlm'sort from Parliament. Tim Prime Minister said in the House it little while ago, in reply to a pointed question on the subject that he hail learnt a great deal since he used to storm against the dominance and arrogance of Ministers. He has indeed. He has learnt til art of dragooning Parliament ns it never had been dragooned before. The chances now are that we shall see the House pnssing Rills and Estimates and the rest at lightning speed in a wild rush to get away from Wellington before the holidays. It is the old tactics over again. The House was kept idle for weeks on end at the beginning of the session, short sittings and little business' being the order of every day. But now, from all a<-counts. Parliament House is in a perfect whirl. Both blanches of the legislature are working at a high pressure, turning out. laws as they might he delivered from an automatic printing machine and voting away money with ns little thought as the ordinary mortal might give to the expenditure of two-pence on the purchase of an evening paper. The spectacle is a standing reproach to our representative institutions.