The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, August 13, 1910. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXII, Issue 878, 13 August 1910, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Saturday, August 13, 1910. EDITORIAL NOTES.

By-and-by the “Union Parliaments ” and the multiplying debating societies and mutual improvement associations should, be sending some good debaters to the House of Representatives. There is room for them (says the Wellington Post). The interesting speakers in the Lower House may be numbered on one hand and ahalf. Some have good enough ideas, but they are butchered in delivery. The monotone is the prevailing tone ; the wind blows only one tune; the northerly of dissertation has only one sound. The ears of the audience ache ; one feels that one’s bones are holding indignation meetings. Some members speak querulously, even when they are advocating a pet notion. Mr EH, for example, has a diction which invariably leads a hearer to think that the speaker imagines that a cold, hard world is pitted against him, but Mr Ell is not at all a dismal man naturally, though he is serious enough. Mr Laurenson was once a sad speaker, who shovelled leaden tones into Hansard ; but his temperature has risen, and his words have now an agreeable warmth. Some mutter, some mumble, others shout. Mr Poole is a shouter, and so is Mr Russell. These gentlemen use much unnecessary horsepower. They pitch their voices loud enough to reach the Quay, and all the air is a-buzz. A mathematical mind cannot help working out the good tonguepounds of energy needlessly expended by these members in throwing their voices into the bottomless pit of Hansard. But there is hope for the future ; there is comfort in the contemplation of that “Union Parliament” and those debating societies.