MARKING TIME.

Press, Volume LXVI, Issue 13821, 25 August 1910, Page 6

MARKING TIME.

In the absence of any adequate explan- j ation, it is difficult to understand the exact reason for the waste of time in j the House yesterday afternoon. Lr is probable, however, that among the private Bills, which were the next order of the day after question time, was some measure which, the Government did not r/ant to bo brought forward, and hence, either at the instigation of the Government, or with its connivance, a deliberate stonewall seems to have been set up on the proposal to remove the reservation on certain State foroscs. It is one of the anomalies of Parliamentary etiquette, by the way, thai a member may refer to a debate as "a '"deliberate waste of time,' , but may not describo it as a "stonewall." A '•'stonewall' , implies, of course, deliberate intention to waste time with the object of preventing Parliament going on with the next business, wlieress a charge of mere waste of time m-jy re?t on the fortuitous delivery ot a number or speeches of no legislative or other value. Deliberate or otherwise, thereis no doubt as to the waste of timo yesterday, and the position was not improved when Mr Carroll, then in charge ot the House, solemnly declared the necessity for taking the earliest opportunity of amending tho Standing Orders, so os to ,; prevent the unneces"eary taking up of time on private " members' days." There is not the slightest necessity for any amendment of the Standing Orders in that respect; tho Government could have stopped tho flow of unnecessary speeches yesterday in a moment if they had wished, to do 60, and the blame for the wasted, afternoon must lie at their door. Unfortunately tho Houso seems, through long disuse, to be losing tho habit of hard work. It is all very well for tho Premier to say that if tho House will "get into working order" and enable business to bo done, all tho Government's policy measures can be carried this session; tho question is, in what shape will they be passed into law ? There is very little* solid work to show for the eight weeks that Parliament has been in session, and it is not in tho, kast likely that having been allowed to get into a lazy Jfcood, tho members will be ohle to deal effectively with the huge legislative programme that the Government has in its mind.