POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXX, Issue 8502, 3 August 1907, Page 5

POLITICAL NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(From Our Parliamentary Correspondent. ) WELLINGTON, Yesterday. WASTE OF TIME. The scandalous waste of time that has occurred over Mr R. McKenzie's Noxious Weeds Biil may be productive of good in the long run, for many members are so exasperated at a system that enables a Bill which has not the remotest chance of passing being allowed to block every other Bill below it on the Order Paper that some amendment of the Standing Orders will be forced upon the House. The blocking of legislation by the adoption of stonewall tactics is only one phase of the evil: the dignity of Parliament suffers also in the process. The fact that the rules of the House permit not only an incredible waste of time and opportunity for good, but that they also permit the proceedings of Parliament to be degraded to the level of a vaudeville entertainment is a matter for regret in the minds of those who would see associated with the deliberations of our Legislature the highest aspirations to .-yards dignity and statesmanship. For three or four successive sessions this Noxious Weeds Bill ._.; been submitted to the House only to be discarded in the end, and this session it has occupied the time of the popular Chamber on four successive private members' days, to the exclusion of other measures of great public importance. After three nights in committee, it has got no further than the title clause, and this is "still undecided. The Bill has a considerable number of opponents, which is one reason for the blockading operations; but it is an open secret that another object was to keep out Mr Hogg's Abolition of Flour Duty Bill and Abolition of Plural Voting Bill,* which immediately follow in the order of succession. On Wednesday evening Mr Hogg declared that the Noxious Weeds Bill had been used for specific purposes. The Parliament had, he said, with a good deal of fervour and truth, become demoralised, and the deadlock created over this Bill was unknown in the history of B)Lish Parliaments. When it is considered that preference during one day a week is given to private members' Bills for the first six weeks only, that Parliament is now in its sixth week of session, and that the greater part of four of these sittings has been occupied by Mr McKenzie's Bill, the chagrin of other members, who have Bills upon the Order Paper, may be appreciated. "STILL THEY COME." The applications which the Acting Minister for Public Works has received for works deemed necessary in all parts of the colony are so numerous that he is fairly puzzled how to deal with them. Already he has received applications for votes running into more than four times the amount available for allocation, and "the cry is, still they come." A PRACTICAL SUGGESTION. « In regard to the matter of branch railway construction, the member for Hawera (Mr Major), in discussing the Loan Bill, made a suggestion which meets with a considerable amount of approbation on the part of many of his Parliamentary confreres. It is that a Commission should be set up consisting of engineers and commercial men who shall fully investigate the various proposed railway extensions and projected branch lines and_report to Parliament upon thenmerits, recommending only _ those which are of most urgent import in the interest of the colony generally. Mr Major pointed out that members as a whole were not in a position to judge of the merits of any suggested railways, and the only way to secure an honest opinion upon these was by some such means as he had indicated. MINISTERIAL OPPOSITION ANTICIPATED. It is pretty certain that the Government would not accept any such proposal, as it would remove from it those enormous powers of controlling votes, the exercise of which has played susm a large part in establishing a continuous Ministry. Put railway works to the arbitrament of a Commission, and roads and bridges must also be similarly dealt with, and then the most potent source of political patronage would cease—so at least think some members of the House. "CLOSE-GUILD" BILLS. There is a growing tendency on the part of persons pursuing specific callings to form themselves into close guilds through the instrumentality of Act of Parliament. In every instance, the promoters would lead Parliament to believe that their one end is patriotic without alloy. They are seized with a burning desire to protect the colony from quackery or charlatanism in the particular branch of art or industry they affect; but Parliament does not seem to be

"catching on." The first attempt this session was in connection with the Musicians' Bill, but the mover (Mr Sidey), finding insuperable obstacles in the path of making musicians a close corporation, consented to take a second reading of the Bill he fathered and have it referred to a committee with a view to bringing the matter forward on some future occasion. The object of the Bill was, practically, to exclude a class of teachers who might not be able to pass such tests as a close guild might deem fit to impose with, the alleged object of "raising the status of the profession," this, of. course, at the expense of many teachers who are now earning a and helping to support their parents. or families by teaching music. Then came the Farriers' Bill. This proposed also to establish a close corporation among horse-shoers The peculiar feature of the Bill is that while its preamble sets out the fact that cruelty is inflicted upon horses by incompetent farriers, its chief provision enables the incompetent practitioners, if they have been practising farriery for one year, to perpetuate their malpractices for ail time. The House passed the Bill,, but the Council referred it to the Agricultural and Stock Committee for review before further dealing with it. On Wednesday evening a third close-guild Bill—Land Agents —was set going in Committee of the House, and met with a stonewall that will probably result in its extinction for this session at least. Speaking on the subject of the Farriers' Bill in the Council, a member remarked that if Parliament made a close corporation of horse-shoers, they would be asked next to apply the same legislation to bootmakers and tallow-chand-lers, QUACKERY PREVENTION. Mr Hanan has been appointed Chairman of the Select Committee set up to consider Mr Hornsby's Quackery Prevention Bill. It is understood that evidence will be taken upon oath, and it is possible that the Ccmmittee will report to the House some time next week. WAIPAWA BOROUGH BILL. Mr Hall, member for Waipawa, is introducing a Waipawa Borough Council Bill. THE PRINTED REPLY PRACTICE. The practice of having printed replies to questions by members has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantages are that instead of questions being dealt [with orally, as they crop up from day to day, and a daily waste of time occasioned by motions for the adjournment to enable dissatisfied questioners to air their grievances, the ' whole of a week's questions and the answers thereto are placed before the House in concrete form, and members are limited to two hours' discussion thereupon. The disadvantages arise out of the limitation of discussion because Ministers are enabled to give in print the vaguest answers to important questions and cannot be brought to bock for what they say or leave unsaid in their printed replies. Members may, for five minutes each, vent their indignation, but they cannot draw further information from Ministers than the latter n~3 willing to give. Honourab ; e me .;bers on the Treasury Benches have only to sit tight and say nothing, and questioners are left in a hopeless condition. Here is ore sample of Ministerial disingenuousness in connection with Wednesday's questions:—Mr T. Mackenzie asked the Government whether the vote passed last session by way of gratuity to Parliamentary messengers was paii to them; and, if not, why not? The answer was: "This is not understood. Full payment has been made to the Parliamentary messengers." Of course the question was understood: it was too plain for misunderstanding, but it was considered politic on the part of the Minister to appear dense. The messengers got their regular pay, but they did not get the gratuity voted. A DAIRYMEN'S PROTEST. Mr Major's deputation arranged to wait upon the Government on Monday next, to discuss the proposed imposts upon dairying implements, will include 34 members of the House representing agricultural districts. AN UNDER-ESTIMATE. A return was presented to the House on Thursday which showed that the first estimated cost of the North Island Main Trunk railway was £2,085,000. The expenditure to the 31st March last had been £2,139,351, and the amount required to complete the work was £500,000.