"MISERABLE GAME"

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 2, Issue 365, 28 October 1932, Page 5

"MISERABLE GAME"

("Post"

N.2. POLITICS MEMBER FLAGELLATES HOUSE FOR WASTE OF TIME ' . CRYPTIC CONCLUSION

Special Commissioner) .

Wellington, Thursday. Sharp criticism of the Parliamentary machine was made hy Mr. W. Fjs . Endean (Govt., Parnell) during ..the eourse of the hudget debate in '.the House of Representatives tomight. "Where is Democracy drifting$" ha asked. There were ten Cabinet. Ministers who really ran the country ,and so long as they knew*. their jobs,;. fairly good administration should ensue.i "We members of Parliament are . nothing more thah fire brigade fiieri who suppress any political conflagration that may arise in the. .Housejt' he said. « Referring to the Opposition,- Mr., Endean said that those gentlemen had - put on about 24 or 25 recorda.in ,the eourse of the long -drawn out 'debatea,. and most of these records . had . been the same tune. . . » . * Their Good Manhers Mr. Endean's latter remark drew several interjections from th'e Labour henches. ' "I suppose it's their good manriers - or their sense of humour that makes them do that," he said. - Dealing with th'e committee work of the House, he said that the facts on which members based their judgment were generally ohtained in committees. Several members served on several committees and it was impossible for members to be at every committee meeting. Further there was-nb record of- typewritten evidence and he sugg-ested that it would he a simp-le matter for members to be supplied with copies of the evidence. In a law court, nohody could give judgment unless the facts were known. Mr. Endean next directed his criticism to the Address-in-Reply debate and pointed out that in England, the debate occupied _only two or three days, a few selected men from each side speaking. In New Zealand, there had been two sessions of Parliament in one year and the .Address-in-Reply had probably accounted for three weeks. "No wonder there is a body of opinion outside the House that takes a humorous view of the proceedings/' he said. "The proceedings are higrgildy piggeldy." Nothing Ever Finished First there was the Address-in-Reply debate, then th'e debate on the Ottawa Conference, then the" debate on the Industrial Conciliation dnd Arbitration Act amendment. Nothing was ever finished. It reminded hina very much of the farmer who decided to piough a paddock and then went down to attend to the drain. Then somehody ran down to him artd told him about a cow and finally he went* back to th'e paddock * and got 'the ploughing finished. "I regard the political garne- as "a very poor game," he said. He paid tribute, however, to th'e Speaker in maintaining the conduct of the House. "But what about this ■miserable game of politics, where we have whispering companions and man is viilified?" he concluded". "We know what is happening in New Zealand in regard to a certain man in this House and I say that it is a disgrace to politics and the sooner this practice is abolished the better (Hear. hear).