THE POLITICAL BROWSER.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE POLITICAL BROWSER.

Mr. W. E. Parry thus criticised a recent Parliamentary .speech: "That member wandered all over the field of politics, taking a bite here and a bite there, and in the end it was very badly digested."

Some of my fellow-members arc obsessed with high finance, Their one unending topic Is "the banks," While others talk about "the land" and never lose a chance Of demonstrating what a lot of cranks The people send to Parliament. Why, every time they speak It's rabbits, wool, or butterfat or cows, And every observation is a legislative freak Of wild extremes—on which I love to browse.

While other speakers emphasise, with super heated air Their own peculiar brand of panacea, I loftily decline to be a party to a scare No matter how the croakers persevere; For as their verbal dynamite expounds some petted scheme (Or demonstrates some pre-election vows). Their wild harangues impress me as the debris of a dream ' Whereon sarcastic critics ought to browse.

My speeches thus may not contain those harsh discordant notes, Those stern philippics or those caustic Jibes Which rouse the ire of Labourites and wake the wrath of Coates To cause commotion 'mong the Hansard scribes. No, as I lightly summarise the story of the , past, My legislative listeners droop and drowse, While Press reporters breathe a prayer each phrase will be the laßt And wonder why the Ppeaker lets me' browse.

I nibble here, I nibble there—Ngaroma, and' Defence, f Nw lobbb, Samoa, Royal Commission fad. The income tax. the meat control, the railways and expense, . And what a record Labour always had; I comprehensively review each legislative "lurk"— They doze and listen—hut what-ho for rows, If political, dyspepsia gets in its deadly work, s Or I have bitteh where I meant to browse. — « —IB. A* $