The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1912. TEE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 312, 29 June 1912, Page 4

The Daily News. SATURDAY, JUNE 29, 1912. TEE SPEECH FROM THE THRONE.

Beyond the fact tnat the Speech from the Throne this year is a good deal more wordy than it has been for some time past, it calls for little comment. As a matter of fact, this particular annual sop to the precedent of Parliamentary pomp and circumstance might very woll be dispensed with without occasioning , any very grave heartburning in the country. It is purely an adaptation from British Parliamentary procedure, and it lias long since fallen from any original grace that it possessed. In its present form it is simply a dry-hash cataloguing of events past and promises <to come that reads like the old-time "Summary for Europe" which the staid and conservative journals of the country were wont to publish at mail time. The Prime Minister, has already announced the policy of his party from the public platform, and the Governor's Speech is simply a rehash of Mr. Mackenzie's platform utterances. It is a labored document at best, and its redundancy is an admirable illustration of the philosophy that "speech isgiven to us to conceal our thoughts." It says practically nothing at great length, and in this respect it is thoroughly in keeping with the customary speech that is placed in the. mouth of a patient and long-suffering Governor. As it stands, the speech is simply an excuse for a prolonged debate on the quite unnecessary Address-in-Roply, and a consequent wasting of the time of Parliament, for the speeches delivered at this stage of the session are almost invariably repeated during the course of the Financial Debate. Mr. Mackenzie, of course, is only following precedent, and custom proverbially dies bard. Some day, perhaps, the country will tjsc to an appreciation of [lie fact that a whole lot of Parliamentary procedure can be easily dispensed with, and we shall then hear less of legislation by exhaustion in the dying hours of a session, and find the business of the country being proceeded with on the lines adopted by any intelligent local body, the members of which prefer to get to work early and leave the talking at length to their con- { stituents. The Speech from the Throne is, frankly, far too generous a "much ado about nothing," and the sooner it is relegated to the limbo of forgotten things the better.