Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY. OCT. 8, 1891. Some Suggestions.

Manawatu Herald, Volume III, Issue III, 8 October 1891, Page 2

Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY. OCT. 8, 1891. Some Suggestions.

♦ A few weeks ago, a member of the House of Commons was banished from the sittings of the House for one week, owing to his refusal to obey the order of the Speaker. We notice that some of the Home papers represent that the member's disobedience was more the outcome of an excited mind than from any wilful desire to be insulting, and that he believed, to get any reform carried, it was necessary to press his views to the verge of stubbornness. His lesson does not seem to have been of much value to him, as he has given notice of eleven motions for the next session, some of which might with advantage be applied to our Parliament. The member is Mr Atkinson, who represents Boston, and belongs to the Conservative party. His first motion is, " That a list of questions be printed each day, comprising all notices received up to one o'clock a.m. of that day, and that the answers be published in red ink, therewith ; that no other question be asked unless forty members vote "urgency " for it." He has evidently hit the blot as to time wasted in this manner. Talk finds no favour in his eyes,^ as he purposes to introduce a Bill to limit the duration of speeches in Parliament to fifteen minutes in the case of honourable members. Should this shot fail he trusts that an arrangement be made by which hon. members can write and read comfortably in the House during the delivery of long speeches, often quite irrelevant, and therefore not necessary to be heard. He evidently is no frequenter of Bellamy's or the Library, he recognises that a member's place is in the House, but would like to be as comfortable as he can. ! The tvue patriotism that terapfcg

politicians to take a portfolio to which a good salary is attached, so much against their will, Mr Atkinson proposes to amend wiuh a Bill to enable Ministers who desire it to serve without salary, and to be free from any necessity to vacate their seats on appointive-it. " Guinea pigs," as the ornamental directors of public companies are known in London, receive a stern rebuke, and only in cases of the companies keeping alive, are members of Parliament to be tacitly allowed to act, but that if any member of the Cabinet be also a member of the board of a company which fails, he be required to choose immediately whether he will remain a servant of the Crown, or go off all boards or companies to which he longs. "No monopoly " is Mr Atkinson's creed, and he will move, That if any salaried member of her Majesty's Government, accepts more than six seats on boards or public companies, he be required to resign his office under her Majesty's Government. - - We cannot say that the propsals are not right, as in the first ones much valuable time would be saved, and the latter ones, .would guard against reflections being made on those who hold high honor and positions. The last notice is perhaps in bad taste, and will certainly do much towards wrecking the calm consideration of his other motions, it being his intention to ask for a Return of the number of members of Parliament who eke out their income by writing for local and other journals what are-called " Parliamentary letters," showing, in each case, how many local papers publish the same letter each morning, and the ap« proximate amount of remuneration received for the gossip supplied or invented. With this bomb to be exploded it is possible that during next session Mr Atkinson may be called upon to take a longer enforced holiday than that he has had already to take. The motions and proposals , help, however, to throw much new light on the past action of this e<> | centric gentleman.