SPEECH IS SILVER— IN PARLIAMENT

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 365, 28 October 1932, Page 4

SPEECH IS SILVER— IN PARLIAMENT

The member for Invercargill (Mr. J. Hargest) has once again stimulated thought in Parliament by expressing the intention to talk wherever and whenever he feels the urge to do so. The Weliington Dominion, Mr. Hargest complained, had held np an admonitory forefinger and "shushed" the eloqnence of members of Parliament, whereat the member for Invercargill who gives promise of developing into a politieal "enfant terrible," proclaimed his independence and his intention to talk whenever he felt like it. Not only. that, but Mr. Hargest advanced the undoubtedly novel contentionj that members of Parliament in the past had talked not too much but too little. His voice, Mr. Hargest gave Parliament to understand, was his only buckler against a naughty world and should sound ; as a 'trumpet to Israel. Perusing i the pages of Hansard, however, | it is a little difficult to agree with j Mr. Hargest that members in ; the past have talked too little ; ; they may perhaps have talked ' too little about the things that ; matter but in the majority of j cases they have not cultiv- | ated the "mute inglorious Mil- , ton" complex. We agree with Mr. Hargest that a member is sent to Parliament to represent his ! constituents to the best of his i ability and that he cannot do | this by cultivating strength and silence. But a consideration of Parliamentary debates hardly confirms the impression that con- . stituencies have suffered from the silence of their representa- ; tives. This is one direction at i least in which Parliamentary ' zeal has not flagged and in which j it promises to be worthily main- | tained in the future. Mr. Hargest ' appears to have overlooked the salient point that it is what a member says and not the length j of time he takes to say it, that | matters. Parliament's time is | worth two pounds a minute, a j small point which members are j inclined to overlook. Taxpayers possibly do not begrudge this | expenditure when the time is l occupied in the country's business but they may be excused for begrudging it when it is spent in encouraging members' loquacity. Mr. Hargest is justified in his contention that members should -raise no uncertain voice when the occasion demands it — but only when the occasion •demands it. It is the condition ; which he appears to have overlooked. Unless members have something to talk about, they should remember that if silence is golden, speech in Parliament at two pounds a minute, is even more costly. And, as the Scriptural philosopher has it, "even' a fool, when he holdeth his peace, is accounted wise."