WEARING A WIG

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 726, 29 December 1933, Page 2

WEARING A WIG

YICTORIAN SPEAKER HOES j NOT BREAK STATE I TRADITION. ' | When Mr. Blackburn the newly- ■ elected Speaker of the Yictorian Legislative Assembly, deeided to wear a wig, he fell into linia with a tradition which has never been brokeii in the Parliament of his ^tate, says the Melboume Argus. he tradition has not been preseryed in the Cominonwealth Parliament. Mr. C. McDonald, the first Lahour Speak- ! er; abolished hoth the wig and the 1 mace. The mace, the symhol of authority, was restored by Mr. McDonald's successor, Sir Ellit Johnson, and it has remained; hut the wig has disappeared for a period again when Mr. Makin became Speaker. Eveii the President of the Senate, Mr. Givens, sat for ,a time without a wig, but when his allegiance to Labour faltered he adopted the wig. One or two wig-makers in Melbourne were considerahly annoyed some years ago hy a statement that all wigs used in Australia were imported from ahroad. One of them had particular reason for his answer, because just as the statement wia!s made he had completed a wig for a newly-appointed Judge of the High Court. The maker said reeently that Ravenscroft, of London, had the same standing as a wig-maker as Worth of Paris had as a dressmaker. Many people who desired. the best wig sent to London for a first-grade Ravenscroft; but they paid for the privilege. Even ian Australian-miade, fujll-bot-tomed wig cost £25. The barrister's wig cost about £12. Mr. Blackburn would, for more reasons than one, hesitate to send abroad for a wig. Not only, as a Labour man, is he a protectionist, hut in these unsettled political times it would be unwise to risk the delay which importation would necessitate. Various statements about the hair employed in the manufacture of wigs are made; but the manufacturer quoted said that fine horsehair was all that was needed. The story of yak hair was a mere tradition without any foundation. For years there has been an elaborate full-bottomed wig and a gown in the room of the Victorian AttorneyGeneral. The oldest officer of the State does not know who owned it originally. It has remained unworn for half a century.