Between the Sessions

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 290, 28 February 1928, Page 8

Between the Sessions

Spare Time for Politicians

Ammunition for Coming Campaign

POLITICIANS of all shades of party opinion are this summer showing unusual activity. The Prime Minister and his satellites of the Keform Government are talking to the country; the Hon. A. D. McLeod is exchanging courtesies with Mr. E. A. Kansoni; Mr. Holland is wrestling with Samoa problems; and Mr. G. W. Forbes is nursing the infant hopes of the “Uppos.” While this is happening, the parliamentary rank and tile has its ears to the ground. Listening-in is a favourite hobby during recess.

THOUGH they may return nominX ally to the occupations and environments from which they were suddenly projected into Parliament, legislators in reality are changed men when they return, and the habit of studying the political pulse becomes a permanent faculty. It is axiomatic that, though numbers of men enter Parliament with high ideals and the fixed belief that the social and economic welfare of the people is in their hands, they soon become cogs in the party machine. After a session or two they become simply politicians, 'and the retention of their billets becomes a primary consideration, involving the necessity for closer attention to developments during the oil-season. The farmers in Parliament slip back fairly easily into the rural atmosphere when the session is over. One man, yr. U- -I- zr. -Ir. -K -I- -I- U- y'r -K rK

a Hawke’s Bay grazier, is said to -find this period a good opportunity for polishing up his rhetoric by addressing fiery declarations to flocks of unappreciative sheep. Mr. W. S. Glenn, of Rangitikei, runs racehorses as well as sheep, and still finds time to Indulge in fond recollection of the days when he was an All Black forward. Mr. Richard Phineas Hudson—the “Phineas” is the prize Christian name in the present House —retires to his Nelson orchard, and Mr. David Jones, of Ellesmere, concerns himself mainly with the New Zealand Meat Producers’ Board. A TRAMPING BACHELOR Mr. H. Atmore, M.P. for Nelson, graduated to Parliament from the signwriting business, and is a better speaker than his origin would sug-

gest. He is one of several bachelors in the present Parliament, and in the recess forgets domestic lacks by taking long tramps through various parts of the country. In this way he has covered most of both North and South Islands.

Other bachelors in the House are the eligible Mr. Mason, of Napier, who is a lawyer, and Mr. Waite, of Clutha, who is a farmer.

The two Masons in the House, the other being Mr. H. G. R. Mason, of Eden, are both lawyers. The member for Napier won his seat in 1925 from Mr. Lewis Mellvride, who had captured it three years earlier on a heavily-split vote. Within a day or so of his defeat by Mr. Mason, Mr. Mellvride was back in his old job in the Napier railway workshops. It pays to keep in practice. Who knows but that some stroke of evil fortune or political mischance may return Messrs. Mason (2), E. P. Lee, T. E. Y. Seddon, Statham, Sidey and Rolleston to complete dependence on the law; or that an untimely rejection may not send a whole host of Reformers, and even one rural Labourite (Mr. Lee Martin) back to the tending of flocks, and the atmosphere of hay and herds? Many of the Labour politicians rose to Parliament from secretarial billets in Trades Union offices and depend entirely on their Parliamentary salary of £450 a year. Some of them have tasted hard work in jobs a loi less congenial. Mr. H. E. Holland and Mr. W. E. Parry were miners; Mr. E. J. Howard was once a sailor; Mr. D. J. Sullivan wrote for the Press. Their dependence on Parliamentary positions is shown by the fact that in directories each usually describes himself as an M.P., the inference being that for the time he has no other livelihood. FACTS AND FIGURES

Incidentally, it may be mentioned that many of the Labour politicians spend much of the recess in poring over political and economic figures. Ammunition for the coming campaign is even now being accumulated. Mr. W. J. Jordan, M.P. for Manukau, set a good fashion by instituting a personal round of the local body meetings in his constituency, thus giving local administrators the benefit of political intelligence from the inside. Mr. F. N. Bartram, another Labour M.P., enjoyed an audience with the King when he made a trip to England a year ago; and Mr. H. E. Holland writes graceful verse. Of other Parliamentarians, Mr. W. A. Veitch was an engine-driver before he secured a mortgage over the Wanganui seat; Mr. Vivian Potter is a land agent; Mr. A. Harris a traveller; the Hon. J. A. Young a dentist, and Mr. H. S. S. Kyle a veterinary surgeon. Mr. Henry Holland, of Christchurch North, dealt in a bulky commodity, traction-engines. Mr. T. M. Wilford practises law only at ; niervals nowadays. For the benefit of his health he has spent a lot of time abroad, and ascribes his recovery to IS holes of golf, played without fail every day except when on shipboard.