PATEA PARLIAMENT.

Patea Mail, 10 February 1882, Page 3

PATEA PARLIAMENT.

I notice that it is intended to “ promote occasional debates ” in connection with the Patea Institute. Could not this idea bo enlarged, by forming a regular Debating Society, the members to be elected or rather “ named in the House,” as if they represented different constituencies ? My idea is drawn from a miniature Parliament which has flourished in Liverpool many years. The last time I saw it “in session ” was some twelve years ago, when the honorable members were discussing, with due parliamentary forms and usages, one of the burning questions of the day—the electoral franchise. The Premier was an orator of some note. The Chancellor of the Exchequer was alwaj's impecunious, hut hj splendid fellow to handle figures in the House. One member who had been famous as an imprisoned Chartist for the Peterloo riots was about the best speaker in the debate. Party spirit ran high. The Ministerialists glowered at the Oppositionists, who were making an onslaught on the Government benches. Other members on the cross benches were the Moderates. To listen to those parliamentary proceedings for a few hours was quite an education for persons who had not been in the greater Chamber at Westminster.

I think the idea would be quite workable in Patea. The facility of putting questions to Ministers at the commencement of each sitting on any matter of public interest recently occurring, would afford material for official replies more or less satisfactory, and for motions thereon. A motion of censure could be based on slight materials, without much ingenuity ; or if a motion affirming a principle were carried, the Government would have to bring in a bill to give effect to the decision of the House—or resign. And the “progress” of that bill could be contested at the first reading ; or at the seeond reading by a long array of notices of motion ; and then there would be all the amendments in c’ommittee, and reporting progress, and third reading. The fun and use of a miniature parliament is that anything done by the Wel-

lington Ministry, or left undone, could be treated as the act of (he Patea Ministry, and questions could he asked of tlie particular responsible Minister for the acts done by his namesake at Wellington. And if the Patea Minister didn’t give a satisfactory answer, wouldn’t he catch it! Patea Politician