HOW PARLIAMENT WORKS.

Press, Volume LXV, Issue 13610, 20 December 1909, Page 8

HOW PARLIAMENT WORKS.

ANOTHER ALL NIGHT SITTING.

OPPOSITION PROTESTS

(special to "the pbess.")

WELLINGTON, December 18. The House commenced business yesterday morning, at 10 o'clock, and with the usual intervals for meals, sat continuous in Committee till 5.20 this morning—a stretch of over nineteen hours. Members -wended their way homewards to snatch a few hours repose before resuming their work at 10 o'clock on Saturday morning. At five minutes past 3 a.m. Mr Massey pointed out that the House had been sitting for about fifteen hours, and the manner of conducting business was becoming a public scandal. It was really unfair to the people of the country to deal with their business in that way. "Just look at the state of the House," said Mr Massey, and. a casual scrutiny showed that out of 80 members there were not 20 (which is a quorum) present. There were only eleven sitting upright on their seats. The others were lying down—some of them asleep, and occasional snores were heard. A little later one member was so sound asleep that another member used his head as a writing table, and even this did not wake him up. The Prime Minister said it was ins desire to finish before Christmas if he could, but if the House adjourned and left the Estimates unfinished he did not see how it would be possible to do it. "The question," he added, "is entirely one for hon. members.' , Mr Massey moved to report progress with a view to ending the sitting. The division cells were rung and members trooped in to vote. There were in all 47 out of WO members in the building, and the motion was lost oy 31 votes to 16. The House half-emp-tied itself again, and a bare quorum, half awake and very tired and brainfagged, settled down once more to vote away the country's money in thousands and hundreds of thousands of pounds. At 4.20 a.m. Mr Atiassey made another appeal to the .Prime Minister to report progress, but the latter declined. The Estimates, he said, could be finished Mr Massey said it simply amounted to this: that ho would either walk out of the House and place the responsibility on the Prime Minister, or they would discuss the Estimates as tney ought to be discussed. He was not going to allow them to be rushed through, as the Prime Minister suggested. "I have just about had enough ot it," he added. "'I think tliis is just about the most unreasonable proceeding I have known in the New Zealand Parliament. I have protested against a great deal of legislation by exhaustion, but 1 have never witnessed anything so bad as this." ixe moved to report progress. The motion was defeated by 29 votes to 15.

At 5.20 a.m., when the votes for iue Labour Department had been disposed of, Mr Massey again protested. "We have just about reached breaking point," he said. "We have been as natient as, men could be all day, and it is time the Prime Minister told us what he proposes to do. lam willing that I should go home now and come back at 10 o'clock, but I am not willing to go on with the listimates now; it is too much to ask."

The Prime Minister said he had wanted to put the Estimates through, and then, adjourn till 2.30. He had no objection to take the other course, But it Jooked to him as if they could not carry out what he had proposed to do in regard to other works; he would not hold himself responsible for not doing it.

- The sleeping members were shaken and aroused by those who were still half awake, and the weary legislators trooped home to bed long after the dawn.

At ten o'clock on Saturday morning the weary grind was resumed. Mr T. E. Taylor, speaking during the afternoon, when hours were being spent in the discussion of possible scenic reserves, asked if all these eloquent speeches on the Estimates were part of a deeply-laid plot to make it impossible for the Defence Bill to go through. He., was willing to see the Defence Bill held over for six months, but he would rathex have a straightforward understanding to that effect than have the result effected by a protracted discussion of the Estimates. A member, suggested that the House could go on after Christmas. "I don't care what goes on/ Teplied Mr Taylor, "and I think the House is pretty reckless now." If they had to come back after Christmas, he hoped that provision would be made on the supplementary Estimates to pay members for ifcheir extra work. There was he said, a secret and surreptitious compact to prevent the Defence Bill coming on next week. Mr Hogan, who'had "been speaking very frequently on the charms of the Wanganui River, said he had. no knowledge of any such compact. Mr Taylor: ''Then you are being used for that purpose." Evidently they had heard so much about the Wanganui River, that his head was full of the old refrain ,about the Swanee River, and he wondered that Mr Hogan did not burst into song. "The machiavellian member for Wanganui" was a further reference made- by Mr Taylor to Mr Hogan.