The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1907. A GOOD WORD FOR THE “LORDS.”

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXIX, Issue 3769, 29 August 1907, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. THURSDAY, AUGUST 29, 1907. A GOOD WORD FOR THE “LORDS.”

A Post representative gives some impressions of the Upper Chamber. He says inter alia : —Going from the Dower House to the Legislative Council is like passing from a hurly-burly football match to a game of cricket, where the umpire is respected and each player believes that his opponent is a gentleman. A visitor may enter, prepared to scoff, but a glance at the room hushes him. . . . It is a common superstition that the Upper House is a place where pensioners sleep placidly, and say “Aye” or “No ” occasionally when they happen to wake. Whatever may have been the habit of the members of other days, no charge of

somnolence can now be laid

against the Tonis. Some of them are elderly, but they are far fro u dead. Indeed, anyone glancing trom the gallery at the benches cannot help noticing that the members listen to what is said. They are polite, and not conventionally polite, but intelligently respectful. It is not a case of one man talking at Hansard, and the others talking at one another or rustling papers. In the Tower House a discussion is often a series of dreary monologues; in the Upper House it is a: debate by a cohesive assembly. This agreeable element of politeness gives the Chamber an air of solemnity in contrast with “the other place,’’ and the Council not only looks serious, but is actually serious. It realises that it exists to do business, and does it. . .

When a Bill has passed all its stages in the Lower House, it is introduced by message into the Council,, and then its previous history is repeated. The approval of this. Chamber must be set upon a a measure (except financial matters) before it can become law. This Assembly may also initiate legislation, which passes down to the Lower House for approbation or condemnation, but usually the Council is content with the vision of the other House’s Acts, and finds plenty of scope for useful work, for which it often gets only abuse from the bunglers. Divisions are not so noisy or cumbersome as they are in the House of Representatives. A bell rings, and after the allotted notice —-a couple of minutes —has elapsed, the doors are quietly locked, and the names are called. Each .member gives his “Aye” or “No” from, his own seat. There are no stonewalls, no bombardments ot questions, no eternal discussions about trifles that do not xiiatter to anybody. The Council does its business and goes home. It. usually rises at about 4.30 each afternoon, and sensibly takes a when it has cleared its tables, and so encourages the Lower House to work a little faster.”