Political Prattle

Maoriland Worker, Volume 3, Issue 87, 8 November 1912, Page 5

Political Prattle

Another political party in the making. "It is rather surprising to mc," said Mr. C. Mclntyre at the combined gathering of tho Australian Institute of Marine Engineers and the Amalgamated Society of Engineers in Wellington last week, "that we have no political organisation amongst ourselves." Other bodies, he continued, when they wanted anything, went to a Minister of the Crown with 5000 votes or so, and showed a very bold front. "We should organise," he continued, "and it is our intention to form a political party of skilled craftsmen throughout New Zealand." Lord!

Pneumoconiosis, or minors' complaint, was again the subject of some discussion in the House last week, when the Mines Committee reported on tho petition of John Samuel Ritchie, miner, of Onohunga. Petitioner represented that in 1902 he went to work at the Waihi Company's mine, where tho dry process of crushing was in operation, as a battery hand. As a result, he contracted pneumoconiosis and three medical practitioners certified that he would never be fit to work any more. Having no resources, he was concerned for the future of himself, his wife, and five children. . The committee reported that they regarded the facts disclosed in tho petition as exceptional, and they. recommended that the petition be referred to the Government for favorable consideration.

Thus a woman correspondent in a Christchurch paper: "Myself and many friends are of the opinion that we have never had a better Prime Minister than Sir Joseph Ward. All honor to him, and I am sure he is a Conservative in the truest sense of the word. I am thankful that Sir Joseph Ward is still amongst us, and I hope we shall one day see him once more in his proper place, 'For noble souls, through dust and heat, rise from disaster and defeat the stronger.'" Makes jpu smile, doesn't it?

According to the Melbourne "Farmer and Settler," Alfred Deakin, Opposition leader in the Commonwealth House of Representatives, "is first and last a spinner of words, an orator and a dilettante in the political field, with no strength of conviction and no practical ideas. He makes inspirational speeches, but the kindling is soon dead ashes. He tickles the ear with pretty tunes, but it is music without words, talk without thought. Mr. Joseph Cook, his co-leader, is a person of f.a.q. intelligence and of reasonable industry, but with no imagination. He _ probably never evolved an original political idea in his life." What a to-do the papers have been making about Speaker Willis, of the N.S.W. Parliament. It seems these papers are all of opinion that tho Speaker shouldn't speak at all. Well, what's the use of being Speaker if you can't speak, and if j*ou can't stop the other fellow from speaking when you want to? Reminds "Barrier Truth" of a song it learned a long time ago: Oh, it's hard, you'll admit, If a man has to sit In the midst of a babel of babble, To be seen and not heard, Not to utter a word, In a Chamber devoted to gabble. Ti be perched on a chair With a wig on your hair Giving ear, though Massey's the shrieker, Yet have to keep mum, As a man that is dumb— (Though they waggishly call him the Speaker). Oh, m? friends, it's no joko for the Speaker The Speaker! The Speaker! Let's pledge him, poor soul, in a beaker, W T eek in and week out To the spouters who spout, He must listen —and finds it most trying, no doubt, Our truly unfortunate Speaker. Our very unfortunate SpeaKer When koracious debate Goes on early and late, And some garrulous rep holds dominion With his leathery lung, And his bell-clapper tongue! Oh, you burn to express an opinion! When tho voluble bore Takes—and sticks to the floor, / With a voice like a halfpenny squeiivt.T, Though the members may <ly, You must stay, though you die, If you're filling the chair of the Speaker, If your functions are those < f the Speaker. The Speaker! The Speaker! Our martyr let's pledge in a beaker. To hear us haw-haw As we lay down the law, And not to be able to join in the jaw— It must rack the soul of the Speaker, Our truly unfortunate Speaker. When, of all that is said, You must follow the thread With attentive, judicial discernment, • Though your head's got an ache, Though you crave a beefsteak, And you're yearning to movo an adjournment. When your eyes want to close, And you're trying to doze, And endurance grows weaker and weaker, Forty winks are denied, For behold them each side, Bent on catching the eye of the Speaker. Which is torture, you'll own, for the Speaker. The Speaker! The Speaker! Let's .pledge him in sympathy's beaker! From slumber debarred, And compelled to keep guard,' To listen and keep, too, his temper— it's hard— Infernally hard on the Speaker! Our truly unfortunate Speaker!