Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1890. Reform in Procedure.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 25 October 1890, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1890. Reform in Procedure.

' It is evident that a member of Parliament life's is not a happy one. Whatever else goes wel 1 , the"' strain 1 that it entai's upon him, the long h<>nrs and -more especialy the late lrmrs, t' 11 upon him soonor or later We have before us many instances. •. 'I he last Parliament certainly

I m -nogcd tv lmv<> few r lato hours i ihin many previous ones, tut still it sit 505 hour-. In < t 1 doiib-rative ' a3S;inb % ie, 100 much we appears to hye been taken Lo s cure the miv >r ty a hearing, but with the evi--Inc l-efo o us of the wonderful waste of time th.it is thus c useil, it 's not to i-o w naeved at, that, o h i the oi\ World and the New, thinkers areproposinn- r rlic 1 alt era- ; n«. In one of <>>■ i *■ Pall Mil B tdge's w notice liiat iho fo lowi'ijr ; U^-^(\s ions to *' i'H|>rov the p cj " jt legislation have been made To prevent members abusing the privilege of . asking questions, it is suggested that the clerks be empoweredto., refuse -ariy questions unless endorsed by five members ; and no motion should be raised in Supply unless -previous notice is given, endorsed by ten members. That replies to questions' be printed and cireu'ated, thus saving the time of reading them . • To secure control over Expenditure, finance committees be set up deili^g with a particular branch of the estimates, That non-contentious bills be first take.ny ,and.to carry this out, a com- ' mitt&e 1 ' of 'selection should' be appointed at the beginning of each ; -session with the duty of determining what order these minor bills should be taken. ■ • ■ •" - Some simpler plan of taking divisions. To reduce the time taken by "self -advertisers or bores " in purely . useless talk,, it might be a3 well to insist "on a larger proportion of the House being roquuv.d. ,tp make a quorum. The evils complained of seem to be •possible to be reduced by some such alterations and arc worth the earnest consideration 6i ouv Representatives.