MAORI MEMORIES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1938, Page 2

MAORI MEMORIES

PARLIAMENT IN 1854 AND 1937. (Recorded by J.H.S. for “Times-Age.”) In 1854 and 1855 the farcical procedure in the first Parliament and the Legislative Council may well be compared to the skits of Alan Paterson in the press today. Although there were very few Maoris who could understand English, and still fewer Pakehas who knew Maori, our proceedings in both Houses were faithfully reproduced every fine evening before an audience of a thousand Maoris, whose fits of peculiar laughter sounded strangely in our ears. Today it is difficult to believe that educated white men could make such fools of themselves, or that the official Gazette would put such stuff on record. This was all the more surprising when we read in the parliamentary news of those days that “all men are equal and energetic, the idle and the sick having been left behind in the old country.” The radio of 1937, in its graphic voice, reveals to us that in the evolution of the professional politician, 83 years is less than a day. When the television- adds its fuller revelation we will have still another valuable aid to the elimination of the unfit in the elections. But meantime let us revert to the parallels of 1854. On August 17 in that year Mr Mackay, member for Nelson, declared that the House was not legally constituted and he therefore flatly refused to take off his hat, whereupon Mr Minister Sewell punched him in the ribs, and he escaped from the scuffle by climbing to the strangers’ gallery. Members were hurriedly leaving the House when the Sergeant at Arms was ordered to lock the door. After passing a vote of censure on Mr Mackay the House adjourned to August 31 to overcome the confusion.