The Talking Shop.

Maoriland Worker, Volume 2, Issue 35, 3 November 1911, Page 9

The Talking Shop.

The Sessiom, and Some ttflen and Measures of it — with a gVloraf.

By LONE HAND.

The session of 1911 has been uneventful. Full of sound —signifying nothing. Same old Joe, with the added dignity of Baronet, spinning out interminable phrases, hiding incapacity" in a multitude of sentences, which - .have a beginning and a middle, but no end. Same old bucolic Massey, tearing- a passion to tatters. Same old musty fusty, weary, stale, flat and unprofitable platitudinarians. If an earthquake came along and wiped out the National Palaver, the people of this country could sing in chorus "Hip I addy, I ay;" They never would be missed. No, really. '

Time was when I took Parliament seriously. On closer acquaintance, I recognised it had its faults. Theoretically, it is a great institution. It has played a great part in history. But its days of usefulness are over. Bowed beneath a dead weight of formulas, precedents, parliamentary procedure and other medieval rubbish —the _ only thing democracy can do is to tip it on to the rubbish "heap and get an institution beter adapted to the needs of a new age and a new people.

As a palliative factory'the Maoriland Parliament has been a success. Latest sop to- Cerberus is a pension for widows- We-ller, senior, would not have approved of this. Widows are charming,, deluding creatures. I, had—the pleasure of being refused by one once upon a. time. They have all the seductive guile of the sex, with the experience "gained going through the matrimonial mill. Now they will receive a pension to compensate them for the loss of their sleeping partners, and will be doubly attractive to young men with strictly honorable intentions. A "Hansard" man told mc he thought of making his wife a widow. And .cany it may come to this, that a. man who truly loves his wife- will desire to place her—not too late in life-—in, that state in which all men should desire to see their wives who love them better than themselves.

I have not been able to take much interest in the legislation of the session. However, it is of 110 consequence. Even, if a Labor party were in power, as in the Commonwealth of Australia (which is not a Commonwealth), Labor would only be able to run, the country for the benefit of Private Enterprise. What societj- needs is a, new constitution _ and that means revolution —and a, revolution is a bugbear to the member of Parliament.

■ Parliament takes the mental virility out of a man. The atmosphere is bad and has bad effects. The House de- | bauches those who sit in it just as the I law makes honest men into thieves and liars. The heredity may be all right, but the environment is all wrong, and the results are ditto.

The "Haouse" has lost its most picturesque figure in the late T. E. Taylor. "Tommy" was like a breath of fresh air in. a tainted atmosphere. His untimely death takes away the only streak'of colour in a drab, dull, dreary Assembly. Taylor was by far the most effective speaker in the House, and was an influence for good, clean administration.

That arch-humbug, Sir John Eindlay, Attorney-General, is seized with a vaulting ambition tc seek a new career in the Lower House, topped off by the Premiership. He is an able lawyer with a faculty of assimilating dead men's brains. But he would be as miserable a failure as head of a Government as his present chief, Sir Joseph. The latter is weak as a general, and has been unable to keep his forces under command. The bond of sympathy between Sir Ward and Sir Eindlay is the touch of humbug that _ makes all members of Parliament kin. Ward will go down to posterity disgraced as the creature who introduced hereditary distinctions into a colonial democracy, and Findlay, if Parnell responds to his wooing, will find. his. Waterloo in tho House of Representatives.

But which over way the wind blows Labor will continue to get only 6s.Bd in the pound. 'Tis true the hornyhanded one is beginning to growl ominously, and to rub the dust out of his eyes. The "Worker" has been a liberal education, to him. The old gag, "'Codlin's the friend, not Short/ is losing

its knack of succeeding: The worker's brain is beginning to clear, and he is seeing things in their true light. He will none of quack remedies, be they disguised never so cleverly,-as "Labor" soothers. His industrial dungarees have been patched so often that he begins to think he must have a brand new pair. * * * And the only way is through the N.Z.F.L. Politics'for the working-man can be summed up in two words—words [ pregnant with meaning, brimful of better things, and watchwords of an educated democracy— lndustrial Unionism. Workers, ask for the true remedy and see that you get it. All others are worthless imitations. o • * f- - . r w ." - - . ' t .':■:, ' - - > ' • - -__-_»> . i,- _. ~--_ . .. - . A. Z*~. It is a deplorable fact that a democracy such as New Zealand should have .returned, drunkards to represent them in Parliament. It is a degradation of . the man and of democracy. HowcA-er gifted a man may be,, when 'he becomes unfit to exercise his functions as a representative of the people he should net be allowed to sit iv the House. '— • - *•■ --- . - ___ _ _* v a * * To the Socialist Parliament is an epitome of Society. It requires to bo . destroyed and replaced by something better.' Parliament is based on the idea that there are antagonistic interests in society. Ll a State based on justice, society would be regarded as an organism, and an injury done to any of its members would be recognised as being harmful to all. Modern democracy is becoming more and more contemptuous of parliaments. In the State towards which mankind is tending laws will be almost unnecessary, and ignorance of the law will not exist, for such simple laws as may be necessary will be taught to the children in the State schools, and the happy ideal of Walt Whitman realised—"Where the people think lightly of the laws." _> * » The professional politician is a poor creature. _ He lacks ability, knowledge and imagination. The politician of today is a fair type of the social system that produced him. His place will be taken in the future by an educated democracy, which will demand the right to make its' own laws and to preserve and give effect to them. Law-making by proxy is doomed. * # » Parliament is really a relic of barbarism. It is an institution common amongst primitive peoples, lacking literature and scientific knowledge. The idea that it is necessary for an assembly of mediocre persons to meet and discuss matters they do not understand is fallacious. Amongst the Red Indians Parliament was a necessary and noble institution, and as Benjamin Franklin pointed out, could give points to the British House of Commons. But in a civilised community parliaments are unnecessary. It is difficult to conceive of the necessity for parliament in the Socialist State. The laws would be written in the hearts of the people, and obeyed as a matter of course. Private property and other institutions of Capitalism found parliaments necessary to pass cla-33 legislation—but classes and legislation as they ex_Ht today will be unknown in the good time coming.

Beknighted Findky, M.L.C., and At-torney-General, has decided to resign from the Maoriland Legislative Council and seek election to the Reps, (says Sydney "Bulletin"). Nine years ago he was induced by Richard Scddon to con test a Wellington seat at short notice, and was turned down. This 1 ime he will hunt the elusive vote in Parnell (Auckland). If he doesn't win the seat he says he will retire from public life, which is obviously all that will be left for him to do. Findlay is one of M.L.'s native-born clever men, and/rose from a poor clerkship to his. present position without any aid but his own brain. But what he gains in brain he lacks in stz-ength of character, and, .to- • day, with the exception .of a few fi.iicy side-lines, is little more than, a fluent banraeker for lou Ward .'..id. his policy of "lends a quid or two." His ambition is abnormal, and ho doesn't know how to get there, which wa.-; the case of the brilliant dog that, tried to climb a tree.