THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION. And the End of New Zealand's Fourteenth Parliament.

Free Lance, Volume III, Issue 118, 4 October 1902, Page 8

THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION. And the End of New Zealand's Fourteenth Parliament.

THE curtain is being rung down on the fourteenth Parliament of New Zealand as we write, and the statute books are rather more phlethoric now than they were this time last year. For which we have, perhaps, to thank the forthcoming general elections. Who knows what revolutions might have been effected if the great mass of "slaughtered innocents" had not been slaughtered, and who knows what brilliant gems of legislation the country has lost through the necessity of a short three months session. It has been found out in Parliament that "tied houses" are good for New Zealand, and that in a country much averse to monopoly that the biggest of them all is welcome. Even Libel Bills — one for and one against journalistic enterprise — have been rudely swept down the front steps of Parliament House, perchance to pop up serenely again should thenauthors pop up serenely also. * * • That scores of important and unimportant Bills have been relegated to temporary oblivion does not alter the fact that what has been done has been done with a modicum of friction, and with businesslike promptness. Now that all is nearly o^ er the members of the dying Parliament have a much harder task outside the House than in it. * * * Have you noticed the remarkable number of candidates who have been attracted to the forthcoming contest ? There is no doubt that the increase of honorarium is responsible in some degree for the increase of candidates. It's a sad reflection that a place in Parliament should be looked upon as a " billet." Then, again, the average candidate is satisfied that he's as good a man as any man in the House, and wants to prove it at the hustings. We heard a candidate remark to a friend the other day, tersely, if ungrammatically : " Him ! Why if a fool like that can get into the House and earn his £300, why shouldn't I be able to ? " * # • On the principle of that oldfashioned person who did not know what to do with the " fool of the family," and who therefore made him a parson, there may be thoae who, having been failures at everything else, believe Parliament to be their proper place. However, in most cases, fool or no fools, the host of men who are wanting to enter the political arena have to fight tried and trusted political warriors. These tried warriors are hastening away now to "pick up" the new pegs of their altered boundaries, and it is just possible that the alteration will send many into private life again. If those hosts of candidates should have any qualms as to their capabilities they should remember that the eyes of the whole world (and probably those of Mars) are on them. We few thousands have been setting the

pattern for the countless millions elsewhere, and we feel very proud of our position as the " anointed." • • • If we might ask a favour it is that the gentlemen who are not quite up to 14th Parliament mark may go out of the contest. We don't want that magnificent reputation blurred. Intending members should take warning by the wholesale sweeping out of private members' measures not to bur3t forth into Bills. The 15th Parliament of New Zealand could be very well employed in burnishing up the existing statues of New Zealand, with a special regard to impro\ing and simplifying them. It is rather a cutting commentary on the abilities of our Legislature that Judges, from the Chief Justice downwards, often make pointed remarks about existing laws and their vagueness and contradictoriness. Candidates at the general elections, among other things, might promise that " if I am returned I will do a good £300 worth towards making the existing laws capable of application and easy interpretation." All the embryo Bills intended for the purification of everybody and everything can wait. There is a heap of time between this and the 20th Parlia ment.