OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

Taranaki Daily News, 1 September 1919, Page 5

OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

FORMALITIES AND FRILLS. (From Our Own Correspondent.) Wellington, Aug. 29. The most striking features of the fornullifies and frills in connection with the opening of Parliament yesterday were the I'lnltorale arrangements made for the reception and accommodation of the tJovcrnor-Gcneral. The Master of Ceremonies, whoever ho may have been, appears to have set out to make the function worthy of the dawn of. peace, and, perhaps, of the presence of hie Majesty's cruiser New Zealand in the harbor. The procession to Parliament Buildings, the bunting and the salute of guns were as usual, only "a little more so." But the beautiful marble steps at the main entrance were carpeted and canopied, the passages to the half-finished Council Chamber were festooned and draped, nnd the Chamber was decked out and furnished till it looked like a completed building fully equipped. To-day its rough walls arc bare again, the luxurious furniture is removed, and the councillors are relegated to their old wooden room.

'THE BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE. The business of the House, when the members returned from hearing His Excellency read his speech, was confined to the purest formalities. Mi. Nash, tlio new membor for talmerston, and Mr. Si'mple, the new member for Wellington Santh, being sworn in, and the usual deluge of questions and notircs of motions and Bills being fired indiscriminately at the heads of the Speaker and the Clerk. The Prime Minister gave notice of the Women's Parliamentary Representation Bill, thus taking the wind out of Mr. McComb's sails, so to speak, and raising a laugh in which the membei foi Lyttelton, who is not jiivon to habitual hilarity, joined very heartily. The Labor members between them gave notice of quite a number of Bills, bearing more or less directly upon reforms they have been advocating during the recess, and Mr. Vigor Brown, by a series of questions, started off afresh in his relentless pursuit of the enemy alien. The rest of the notices were without any particular color. •

PARTY RIFTS. The stories circulated by Dame Rumor since the return of the party leaders to the Dominion are obtaining some color as the hours and days progress. When the members of the House returned from the Council Chamber yesterday, looking impressed by the weighty words that had fallen from the Governor-General in "the other place," the Reform members of the. National Government took their seats on the Treasury Benches, Sir James Allen occupying the chair at Mr. Massey's right hand formerly filled by Sir Joseph Ward, while Sir Joseph Ward, Mr. McDonald, Mr. Myers, and Mr. Wilford faced them from the Opposition benches on the other side of the House. Mr. Russell and Mr. Hanan were missing from the group of retired Ministers, but in due course were found seated far back on the cross benches, in convenient reach, as one flippant occupant of the press gallery put it, of the Reform benches and the Labor seats. Mr.' Hornsby was flitting about in the same locality. * REFORM TROUBLES.

The Reformers, true to the admirable traditions of the parties from which they have descended, madelio flagrant display of their differences in the House. There appeared to be a little pressing among some of the rank and file of the pavty towards the Treasury Benches, but this was notiiceable only to those who remembered the disposition of members during the "truce," when the divisions between the parties were only loosely defined. It was well known, however, that at the party caucus on the previous day the "progressives" among the Reform members had pressed for the retirement of Sir James Allen and Sir William Praser from the Cabinet and that Mr. Hemes' resignation had been taken as a matter of course. But there was no sign of anything of this sort in the bearing of a single member, and it is reported this morning that the malcontents have been induced to wait and Bee what turns v», Attd to aatttri (tend «i gctMat.