NEW SOUTH WALES SPEAKER

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LV, Issue 95, 7 September 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

NEW SOUTH WALES SPEAKER

THE REAL WILLIS. PEN PICTURE OF SYDNEY'S MAN OP THE HOUR. Though Mr. Willis is the man of the hour, he is known only in caricature, says a recent Sydney exchange. The newspapers have succeeded in portraying him as a bear. Only the other day he was introduced by a friend in the street to a stranger, who, with extreme candor, exclaimed at once, "Why, you're not the man that has been described to me." "By whom?" asked Mr Willis. "By the Daily Telegraph," the stranger answered. The real Speaker Willis is a wellbuilt man of medium height, with a round, elean-s'haven face, greyish hair brushed up straight from an ample forehead, keen, though kindly, blue eyes, a voice that is low and melodious, a manner the personification of courtesy—a man with a serenity that nothing can disturb. A faint smile hovers on his face, a smile vanishing only when the warrior spirit within rouses him to fighting pitch. He ha« Irish blood in him on his mother's side— his father was English. No matter, how he may be perturbed inwardly, his self-control never deserts him, and his self-confidence and composure carry him triumphantly through any conflict in which he may be engaged. Another of his assets is a saving sense of humor. He will argue for and against and when he has built up a case that seems to be all but invincible he will, if it suits his purpose, proceed to demolish it, piece by piece, until his point is gained. Many of his rulings in the House are given in this way, and it is a treat to hear him settling a dispute as to procedure, giving hope now, and causing the Opposition to chuckle across at the Treasury benches, but the next moment, perhaps, plunging t'hem into the deepest despair. And with what suavity he tells Mr. Wade how he values hia opinion as a "lawyer," with elocutionary emphasis on the quoted word. When the Opposition leaders gave out that Mr Speaker was not conversant with the laws that govern Parliamentary debate, they found they were never more mistaken, especially the "chronic angry man" of the Assembly, who is rapidly learning manners under the tuition of Mr Willis.

_ Willie, like many other prominent politicians, began his political career in a local government body. When quite a young man, he was returned to the City Council of Adelaide, and when he came to this State it was in municipal life that he first attracted notice. For some years he lived at "Lansdowne,"' Cabrarnatta, the house presented to the late Sir Henry Parkes by the people of New South Wales, and when Cabramatta and Canley Vale were formed into a municipality he was elected its first Mayor. Later lie became an alderman at Camden, where he pursued hie course of radical Teform, which often brought him into conflict with the wealthy families of the district. Not long after he took up his residence at Randwick and entered the local Municipal Gbuncil, where the story of his doings is still fresh in the memories of the (residents. So determined was he that he went to the expense of engaging a special reporter to report the proceedings of the council, had them printed, and served to the ratepayers at breakfast table the next morning. These accounts let too much light into the way the business of the municipality was being conducted, and Mr Willis attributes the 'fact that several of the aldermen did not stand for re-election owing to 'his system of publicity. He was a member of the Greater Sydney Conference in lflOO, and many of the proposals now brought forth by the present Government in connection with the Greater Sydney scheme agree almost word for word with those presented bv Mr Willis.

Mr Willis entered the first Federal Parliament as member for Robertson. In Federal, as well a* in State politics, Mr Willis never made a speech for the sake of talking. His rule is to speak only when thoroughly familiar with his subject, and when he has something worth saying. He was the only New South Wales Liberal member who supported the Home Rule resolutions. He was re-elected for Robertson in 1003. and agaiil in 1006, but lie went down in the debacle that overtook the DeakinCook alliance at the polls in 1009. He says his defeat was due to over-confi-dence <m the part of many of his sup porters, who were so certain of victory that they didn't vote. In 1010 he entered State Politics as member for the Upper Hunter.