A LEGISLATIVE SCANDAL.

Press, Volume LXIII, Issue 12967, 21 November 1907, Page 6

A LEGISLATIVE SCANDAL.

On tha sth of this month the Premier, after mentioning some forty-five or fifty Bills that the Government meant to go on with, expressed the optimistic belief that it would be possible for the session to close in fortnight. A fortnight has" passed—a fortnight of hurried legislation, in which the adoption of the vicious system of passing a Bill through all its stages at one sitting has enabled something like forty measures to be rushed through the House. Somo of them 'were trivial, but others were important, and deserved far longer and moro careful consideration than the Houso was willing or able to give them.* Not content with the Bills he enumerated. Sir

Joseph and his colleeguet, to say nothing of private members, introduced a number of others, s6me of them of considerable importance, but none ot them likely to receive the criticism that they deserve or that the country has a right to expect. At the end of this strenuous fortnight the Premier finds himself with nine Bills on hand, which he wants to push through by Saturday night. The Tramways Bill and the Arbitration Act Amendment Bill, two of the admittedly contentious measures to which the Premier referred in his previous statement, are to be dropped, and no harm will be done if the former never reappear*. But the nine measures which the Government hope to pass in thj-ee days include more than one of great importance. It is . nothing less than a scandal that the House should at this stage of the session, after Parliament has been sitting for twenty-one weeks, -be discussing the Native Land Settlement Bill, a policy measure which took front rank in the programme for the session. "We were to have no more of the botched native land legislation that disfigures the Statute Book; the question that" above all others most vitally affects the Maoris was to be dealt with fully and adequately, and after all these fine words ' the Bill that embodies the Government's native land policy is inexcusably delayed and finally brought down for discussion by a tired and thin House that is not physically or mentally fit to deal with it. Mt Wigram and other members of the Legislative Council very properly took exception yesterday to the Speed ait which Bills were being, thrown into the Upper House. The system, lie Mr Wigram said, does no* give the members a chance of properly considering the Bills, and he instanced the legislation passed the previous d&y aa not being a credit to the Council. Mr Ormond confirmed this hy stating that several of the Bills referred to had already been found to need amendment. Foroed to detfend the Mmicfta-y, Dr. Fijidlay could only say. thait there seemed to he "something inherent in "the syvtem" thst annually produced the "end-of-the-sessioft" rush—an excuse that surely sounded the depths of inanity. Iho fault is -nob in the system of Parliamentary Goran-men*, but in the way in whioh it is administered, and for that the Government are solely to blame. The manner in which legislation ia paused im New Zealand is a disgrace to -the party in power.