MR JACK JONES

Hokitika Guardian, 15 January 1929, Page 8

MR JACK JONES

TELLS HIS LIFE STORY. Air Jack Jones, AI.P., is the playboy of Parliament. Now that the Irish have gone lie is perhaps the only natural humorist in the House. He is the Peter Pan of politics and lie tires ci ackers which he lets oil on the most serious and solemn occasions give a piquant, if sometimes startling touch to ponderous debates. Everybody likes him because while poking fun at others he has the great gift to laught at himself. He is a man of shrewd common sense, but his Longue is often quicker than his reasoning, and lie wins laughter at the expense of logic. FIRST JOB AT ELEVEN. In his hook “My Lively Life” (John Long, os. net), published to-day. Mr Jones reveals that lie hates humbug affection, and hypocrisy. He was barn, lie tells us, in County Tipperary, and bis upbringing was one of many trials. He came with his mother to Liverpool at the age of 11, and be got a job as a hoy to an old Welsh draper, for whom lie worked from 8 in the morning until >S at night. My old boss was a terribly religious man—a Welsh Calvinist —and all day long he sang pslams and hymns in a weary, droning voice. . . His favourite was “Here we suffer grief and pain.” This is how he sums up his attitude towards a political life: Tt is true that I value my seat in Parliament, that T sought earnestly for election, hut it was not with the slightest idea of altering my form of life. Boiled shirts and knee breeches look best to me in pictures or on old Court officials. The poor chaps look quite pleased with themselves, dressed up like ninopeiiny rabbits. . . For myself, I like a comfortable old suit and a low collar. WILD-EYED MINISTER. The most delightful chapter in this entertaining hook is that devoted to “Amenities, pests, and bores.” Air Jones says freely and frankly what most members of Parliament have thought in guarded secrecy. Of long sittings he says: In those long' and weary debates I can assure you it was a mercy, to be able to slip out of the Chamber itsell and obtain a little sustenance at the buffet.

Referring to visitors to the House he declares:

1 would hot that seven out of ten calls on members arc positive nuisances. I personally have stopped a lot of impests.

I remember one of these people calling me out once when T particularly wanted to bear two.speeches for which T had been waiting for hours. . . As soon as I got to the barrier I saw coming towards me a thin, black-bearded, evil-looking minister, liis. eyes glinting fanatically behind powerful lenses. T turned to bolt, but it was too late. A misguided policeman whom, Heaven forgive, shouted out, “Mr Jones, here’s your friend!” I often wonder if he did it on purpose. “TREAT TO HEAR WINSTON.” Dealing with parliamentary bores. Mr Jones concedes that on the Treasury Bench there are one or two excellent speakers. It is always a treat to hear Winston and there are sometimes some fireworks about when Jix is on bis bind legs. Sir Austen can be very interesting in a rather cold, detached sort of way, while, of course, the Premier can rise to heights of sentimental eloquence that would nearly charm a duck o(l a pond. A lively book by a lively ]>ersonality, who sums up his own philosophy perhaps surer than he thinks in the senton ce:

In all parties, freaks and fanatics run through the fabric like a scarlet thread, and the trouble is that you cannot get them out without cutting the cloth.