THE HOURS OF PARLIAMENT.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXIX, Issue 8152, 30 May 1906, Page 3

THE HOURS OF PARLIAMENT.

To judge from an artioie pepared upon the subject of the "Pali Mall Gazette"tbe hoars observed by •the New Zealand Parliament are ABOUT THE WORST iin the world. The article was published with a view to showing that the British Parliament was specially retrograde in the matter of jits hours,and no mention h made of the colonial times observed. But to judge from the reproaohes which .are held up to the House of Commons at Home, New Zealand is in .a peculiarly parlous condition. The •earliest hours are kept in Switzerland, where the National Uounoil meet at 8 a.m. in summer, and 9 ;'a.m. in winter, and usually sits until lor 1.30, although, if business requires it, THtiRE IS SOMETIMES a supplementary sitting. In Hungary the House of Magnates meota at 11a.m., and the lower chamber at •10 a.m., the adjournment being made at two o'clock. Tho hours in the 'Austrian Parliament are FORM ELEVEN TO FOUR ■or Ave o'clock, and iu Prussia the House meeta at eleven in the morning and averages a sitting of four hours. In Holland the hours observed are from 1 am. to d or 4.30, though there is sometimes AN EVENING SITTING lasting at the most from (.30 to 11. The United States Senate meets at eleven in the morning and often sits until late at night, tut seldom so late as is common iu the New Zealand Chamber. In Germany tho Reichstag meets at one o'clock in the afternoon and closes at six, although committee meetings are .held BOTH 13EFOKE AND AFTER these hours. In Denmark the 'opening hour is 1.30 but the House :seldoms sits after four o'clock. The French Chamber of Deputies begins work at two o'clock and ends 'about 8. p.m., and Italy's Chamber «of Deputies workß from two to six, •with an occasional morning sitting. Portugal has the same hours, and •Greece comes in last with a sitting which begins at four in the after noon, but terminates at seven or eight o'clock. These figures are eignflcant in the LIGHT-OF THE LENGTHY sittings which are imposed upon the New Zealand legislature, and they are uven more significant •when such an authority ha Dr B. Ward Richardson is found writing that "no authority on personal bygiene would countenance the practice of Parliament, six hours being the limit of an •INTELLECTUAL WORKING DAY, .and this on not more than five days a week. There are men who can work longer without ultimate injury to health but they are exceptionally constituted." The matter is complicated, however, by the fact that the practice of morning sittings and limited hours, as tried two sessions ago by the Parliament of.New Zealand, was quickly pro.nqunced a failure by the members : themselves.