PARLIAMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 116, 19 May 1933, Page 2

PARLIAMENT.

MACHINERY AND CUSTOMS. " V ADDRESS BY MR. M. J. SAVAGE, M,P. Mr. M. J. Savage, M.P., addressed the members of the Leys Institute Literary and Debating Union last evening on the "Machinery of Parliamentary Government." He said that, to a layman, much of the procedure of Parliament and the s-tanding orders guiding it seemed unnecessary and antiquated, but it had to be remembered that they were the result of experience extending over hundreds of years. The old adage that a bad workman always quarrels with his tools was as applicable to the machinery of government as to anything else. Parliamentary government, like any other system of government, had an economic foundation, and generally speaking, reflected accurately the economic conditions of the time. For that reason criticism which was aimed at the party system was misdirected. While divergence of economic interest and opinion existed in the community, it was bound to be reflected in Parliament. Briefly sketching the various stages a bill passed through before it became" law, Mr. Savage next considered the Legislative" Council. This, while possessed of powers of initiation, was supposed essentially to be a House of review, but owing to the frailties of human nature, it. was. apt to develop into an auxiliary of the governing party which was responsible for its appointment. "The Legislative Council may throw out a money bill, but it cannot amend it," he said. "In other matters its powers, while circumscribed, can delay the passing of legislation. In the event of a disagreement between the two Houses, managers representing each House are appointed to consider, and, if possible, to come to an agreement on the points in dispute. They generally succeed." There had been a tendency of late years to delegate dangerously wide powers to the executive. The recent Public Safety Conservation Bill was a case in point. Parliament should ever be jealous of maintaining its own prerogatives. Asked as to the existence of constitutional checks over the action of Parliament itself, Mr. Savage replied that the New Zealand Parliament possessed powers, as wide as those of any other part of the British Empire) and was not 'ike Australia, which had a written constitution. and where governing authority was divided. At the conclusion of the address the chairman announced that the Leys Insti- 4 tute's first debate in connection with the Athenaeum Cup debating tournament was to be held next Thursday. The proposition under debate will be "That Socialism is Incompatible With Liberty."