AN ILL-DIGESTED MASS.

Auckland Star, Volume LIII, Issue 89, 15 April 1922, Page 6

AN ILL-DIGESTED MASS.

) To a parishioner who complained oi , I the length of his sermon, a clergyman replied: "I hadn't time to make it shorter." The lesson of this little story ' is one tbat we wish were taken to heart by people and institutions too numerous to mention, from the public speaker who takes half an hour to say what could be just as well said in ten minutes, to "Parliament, which spends so much of its time making ill-considered laws. The Statute-book for the session 1921-22 is just to hand. It is a large volume of 783 pages—the largest ever issued. Its nearest rivals are the volume of 1013, which has 71G pages, and that Of 1020, which lias 702. Does anybody outside Parliament believe that anything like adequate consideration wafi given to this mass of legislation'; Everybody knows that much of it was rushed through with unnecessary haste in the last weeks oi flic session. It is the same story every year, except that this year the offence was rather greater ' than usual, but Parliament seems unable to mend ite ways. Ministers openly take bulk as their standard, much as a sportsman judges the result of a "drive." "A very satisfactory session: we passed so many bills,'" as if quality did not count. Of course the Reform Government ilid not begin this sort of thing; the habit of judging a session by tho size of the Statute Book dates back many years. It is really a manifestation of one of tho inherent weaknesses of what passes for civilisation— the worship of bulk and numbers. People are aceustojned Oo judge everything, from Kmpirea to cricket, by size. An Empire must be grcsit merely because it is big, and the making of a century on a t„s,t true ground against poor bowling must be a finer performance than fifty on a howler's wicket. Judged by fhis 'tandard. the sctfskm of 11121 -22 was a huge success.