NOTES ON THE SESSION.
(feom a correspondent.)
Monday. How Matters aid sometimes Managed in the New Zealand Parliament. Judging from the speeches which one occasionally reads ii the Government Bine Books, I should be inclined to the opinion that any jnember who offends against any of the standing orders is not only in " bad grace" with Mr Speaker, but it is made rather hot for him by individual members. Such a careful lesson does one read of such bosh ai the privileges of Parliament, and the honor and dignity of the House, that to suppose any thing like " dodging," or any other «nch offensive terms could or would be applied to such a highly-respectable representative body as the Colonial Assembly, would be looked upon as something like a great crime against our boasted free institutions, but the old adage applies that there is no rule wil hout an exception- Your readers no doubt perused a week or so back a local, in which a very-humorous thing happened as between Sir Cracroft Wilson and the member for Newton on the occasion of the latter borrowing the hat of' the former whilst the House was in Committee on the Representation . Bill, and when the doors were locked pending the result of a division taken on one of the A clauses ; but the' occurrence which g^p^ rise to it vras perhaps as remarkable an. occasion as any which took place.during the late session. The "House, as I stated, was in committee on the Representation Bill, and the question was that Waikato should have an additional member. The discussion on tbe motion proceeded; a division was called for; the messenger rang the bell; tho sand glass ran ; doors were locked; the question put; and tellers appointed; and members voting on different sides went into opposite lobbies. After the division the tellers reported, and it was found that the resolution to give the locus in quo another re» presentative was carried by a majority of one. Then the hitch occurred, for one of the member's names was found to be already ticked off, and of course he passed through without being counted. It was then that Mr Swanson borrowed Sir Cracroft Wilson's hat to explain, as if his vote had been taken on the right side Major Jackson's proposition would hare been carried by a majority"of two instead or one. One of the members who counted heads ascertained that less members actually voted than were in the Home, and as a consequence a mistake must have inevitably taken place. The Chairman of Committees, Mr O'JJorke, was appealed to, and ultimately the teller, for the ayes was requested to sign the papers, but that member refusing to do so, ia accordance with the standing orders tho Speaker resumed the chair, aad the offending member's conduct reported to him; Sir Dillon Bell ordered a fresh division, and the result was, that a majority of one still existed for the motion. - This, to say the least of it, looked like careless
management; especially ai one of $£ members who voted with the ayes on the first division, voted with the noes on the second one-^-rather a strange lia« of
public conduct. for a representative to follow in deciding a very important question. That such strange things \ occur, is, hqwever, a fact, not only in the case under review, but in others. During the late sittings, in some instances, although membersx voted on a division, their name 3do not appear recorded on the proper side, whilst in other parliaments the same division lists establish the fact that their names were- actually put down as having voted with both sides on the
same question. ....... . The glass sand—which, by the way, is quite a curiosity, and constructed upon a new, and, perhaps, convenient principle— is placed on a table before the Clerk of Parliament. When the bell rings fora division, the glass is turned, and ought, according to the standing ordess, run two minutes before it is , out; but the glass used has been tested on different occasions, with alternate results. On one end the sand empties itself in on^-minute SO seconds, and vice versa onHftinute and 40 seconds. The members of course expect two minutes to elapse from the bell commencing to ring until.the doors are ordered to be locked, but if a good whip is in the House and has a sufficient following, and the sand goes^ out at the quicker speed, many members are shut, out from voting, and a division and result, frequently- follow which will stagger J many. During the late assembly the Speaker's attention was directed specially to the matter by Mr Macandrew, the Superintendent of Otago, but I have not heard with what result. This appears one of the .many ways in which some.of our .honorable members might adopt a grand role when any definite object is to be gained, first hurrying supporters into the -Hou.se in anticipation of *'divide, divide, '"■- then ticking off the same names, for .the ,one side and again quite innocently for the other, and adopting 'such other means, as in the opinion of an outsider j would, enable them as * faithful" followers, of a weak Government to report to their chief that they were the "innocents abroad" who ware able to t«ach the Opposition members a wrinkle or two which would put even the ""cutest" of their tellers in the shade when great political questions were at stake, involving perhaps Parliamentary management.
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Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2143, 16 November 1875, Page 2
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912NOTES ON THE SESSION. Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2143, 16 November 1875, Page 2
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