The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo. MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1910. THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION.

Auckland Star, Volume XLI, Issue 288, 5 December 1910, Page 4

The Auckland Star: WITH WHICH ARE INCORPORATED The Evening News, Morning News and The Echo.

MONDAY, DECEMBER 5, 1910. THE CLOSE OF THE SESSION.

fW- tto cwue that laoU MtUfimM, Wftr ti» -4-ron? **•* «««fe mtrtm** Mr uk fctw to **• jmn

The sesftjgfl JS oyer at I-*?t- *W4 "Wfl We inclined to think that the country ia as tired of it as the members, For the conditions under which 1&e House }vas, been working for the last two or three weeks, have 'been anything but favourable to sound and permanently valuable legislation. Not oven the 'beat intentioned and most conscientious men pan do justice to their work in the small hours pf the morning after an exhaust - ing day at the end of the heaviest session on record; and tip put bills through, under such circumstances is simply to i reduce Jaw-making to, a* fajrce. The worst of it is that we will not discover h«W mistakes have been mafle, pd how much harm has been done till the new statutes have to i ° e carried into, effect, and then it will be .too late tq remedy them conveniently. But without waiting for results of this sort, members have left us in no doubt about the temper of the House or their 'own state of mind during the past fortnight. Insinuations and accusation*, charges. a 94 counter-charges, vituperation) recrimination, and all the other familkw signs that a public body can offer of ill* humour and disturbed equilibrium have been lavishly displayed; in fact, the, impression, produced on our mind has, been that in the country's - interest it would have 'been well U the f ession had. stopped two week? ago instead of drag; ging itself out to a c}o§e under undignified and dangerous conditions. We do not suggest that any section, of the House is solely -responsible fpr; ail this. The Premie? c»n hardly be blanie4 for bringing down pack, comprehensive and important measures as the Land Bal, the Licensing Bill, and the Gaming BJII, which necessarily occupied a considerable amount of the House's time and energy. But one remarkable feature of the session's work was thejj extraordinary rapidity with -yhich liament got through some of the mosij difficult and complicated bills. The waste of time arose got in regard to them, but oyer a large numiber of mis-, ceilaneous and comparatively trivial matters; and an unfortunate tendency toi wards stonewalling was developed whepever individual members could not get their own W*> fn the earlier stages pi the session the Qpppsitipn was certainly to blame for a great deal of the waste of ijime, and Mr. Maasey'e illconsidered No-Confidence motion and the subsequent debate obstructed the work of the session without any good result. Towards the close of the session the difficult task that Ministers bad to, face •was rendered even heavier than it Treed have 'been by the evident anxiety of a large number of members to get away to their homes as soon as possible without much regard for the interests of the ©onnfry- We have protested frequently before' against this dereliction of duty, which is becoming a fixed habit with some of our members, apd we repeat that we can see no excuse for the refusal of our representatives to stay in Wellington as long as the country needs them tp discharge' the funptipns which they; are elected and paid to perform. We have dwelt upon this phase of pur Parliamentary proceedings at some length because it seems, to us tp constitute a most serious public, danger, and we hope that the electors will keep the facts in view when members submit $hemselves to the judgment of their constituents. However, so far as the work of the session is concerned, it has been voluminous, and in some respects distinctly valuable. The Water Power Bill, the anti-Trust Bfll, the- Crown Suits Amending Bill, the Defence Amending Bill, the Lan<l and Income Tax Bill, the Law and Libel Amending Bill, the National Annuities Bill, the Licensing Act Amendment BUI, the Secret Commissions Bill, the Stone Quarries Bill, the Waihou and Ohinemuri Improvements Bill, are a few of the measures that will make this session memorable in our legislative annals. Certainly no one can charge the Waa-d with neglecting any important aspect of our national development; and the many modifications which some of the bills suffered while passing through the Houep show that Government has made no arbitrary use pf its strong majority tp foajce its measures Ithroughi A|s) It Whole the legislation of this session is distinctly Liberal in character; that is tp say it has been dictated by a uniform desire to promote the interests of the great majority, and not of one single class or section of the people. We regret to observe in same instances a tendency toward the centralisation of administrative power at the seat of government—one of .the worst dangers that democratic com* munities have to face. And we cannot congratulate (Ministers or the House on their logicality in deciding to penalize certain districts by withdrawing grants to mark their disapproval of the tactics employed by those districts' members. I But this last lapse was certainly the outcome •'Of the pyer pressure to which the House was forced to submit. A more reasonable distribution of time, and greater self-denial on the part of members would remedy such defects; and in spite of them the work of the 1010 session, will in our opinion, prove

to be one of the most valuable contributions yet made .by <«or Parliament •toward the improvement aad development of pur country.