THE TALK SHOP.

Auckland Star, Volume LIV, Issue 213, 8 September 1923, Page 7

THE TALK SHOP.

TONGUE-WAGGING IN HOUSE. SPEAKERS RUN TO SEED. A WEAKOTESS TO THE FLESH. One of the amazing- features of Parliamentary life is the ability of members to "talk. Indeed their chief aim seems to be to talk about those [ things they ought not to talk about and leave undone the tilings they ought to have done. The rules of the game — and it is only a game after all—give the widest facilities imaginable for discussion, and the manner in whicb speakers run to seed would be pathetic were it not so discreditable to a body which is supposed to have foregathered for the purpose of conducting the affairs of our country. At times, however, there is method in this madness, for the party spirit not infrequently prompts this or that course of action. Time and again the Labour party, for example, occupied many hours of precious time, filling Hansard with voluminous speeches for no apparent purpose. and" calling for divisions on some side-issue or other. The object was doubtless to strengthen j their position at the next election by I being able to point to reforms for j which they and they alone were Tβi corded as having supported. That their ideals would probably be subjected to j severe restrictions if they were in power is a possibility which they neither face nor their supporters consider. • Opposition parties, however, do not by any means have a monopoly of talking. Much of the past session's time was occupied' by Government member*, who lost no opportunity of provoking ! their opponents into replying to their criticism. Ajid indeed, in spite of the Prime Minister's repeated assurances that he was ready to go on with some bill or other there was a feeling occasionally that Reform members showed a decided inclination to fill in time on more than one occasion. XO REAL "STONTCWALLIXG." The duty of the Official Opposition is of course to keep a watchful eye on the Government. This naturally necessitated a considerable amount of criticism, much of which was constructive, and some of which, put forward by way of suggestion, was accepted by the House. There was, however, nothing like the "stonewalls" of by-gone sessions. Indeed, Mr. T. M. Wilford, Leader of the Liberal-Labour part|', achieved distinction on one occasion, by compressing his speech on a bill into one sentence. The measure was the Gaming Amendment, which was a non-party matter. I r.deed, it might almost have been termed a personal matter, for Mr. Massey said it was introduced simply because he had promised it would be introduced, it I wasted a lot of very valuable time, and ■ was dead before it was born. But the loss of many hours mattered nothing to the Premier; he had kept his word. The delay in withdrawing the Gaming Bill goaded one Labour member to enter upon what sounded very like a. "stonewall" speech, for lie wandered from raee?»rses by devious ways until he was discussing steamships. A weary House, however, took the hint and the bill was shelved, an hour after sunrise. Perhaps the most tedious work of the "talk chop" is when members repeat their speeches. This is generally done after the House has been sitting in committee, for speeches made during the committee stage of a measure are not recorded in Hansard, and any members who wish to record their views for the benefit or otherwise of posterity must repeat them when the Hansard reporters resume note-taking. REFORMERS' RESPONSIBILITY. One feature of many of these long debates is that the majority of members appear to take not the slightest interest in the proceedings of the House. In the early weeks of the past session particularly, the benches were very sparsely occupied, and those members who did remain in their seats were generally reading newspapers, books or Hansard proofs, writing letters or dozing lazily. At time 3 Ministers of the Crown were conspicuous by their absence, particularly when members wore supposed to be addressing them. Some of the (government's most severe critics were on the Reform, benches, although few of them had the courage of their convictions when it came to voting. They had a legitimate riglrt; to a certain amount of "time, but there were on the other hand many other Reformers who seldom missed an occasion to extol the Government to the skios until they became a weariness to the flesh. Speeches such as they made were nothing more or less than a. challenge which no Opposition could ' ignore, and in that way Reform contributed its full share to the output ol the Dominion's talk shop.