Political Economy.

Press, Volume LXII, Issue 18724, 22 June 1926, Page 8

Political Economy.

The farmer who writes to us to-day from Waihao Downs praying that the Government will not increase the number of politicians, but rather reduce it, expresses a widely-held opinion. But he expresses an opinion universal amongst honest and intelligent students of politics when' he pleads that the Government should make some effort to prevent the dreadful waste of time involved in the debate on the Address. There is, unhappily, no means whereby the Prime Minister can forcibly cut short the string of speeches. He can, indeed, suggest to the Whips that they should use their influence with members, but there «:e some things which neither Whips nor Prime Minisljers can be 3ure of doing. One of them is the persuasion of a member who has prepared a long speech and who is aching to see it, first in Hansard, and afterwards in the hands of his constituents, that it will be noble of him to scrap the speech and save the country £SO or £IOO. For there are few members of Parliament who would not reply tßat their hour or half-hour of eloquence is worth much imore than that to the country, and the strange thing is that the reply would be sincere. Although, therefore, the power of the Government to curtail debate is, as it ought to be,'very small, yet the Prime Minister can, if he chooses, refrain from encouraging his friends to prolopg those general, and generally valueless debates which empty the galleries and fill Hansard. Parliament costs something near £IOO an hour, and ought therefore to be looked upon by' any Government desirous of saving money as a useful department for the exercise of thrift. I* the House would only reverse its usual practice, hurry over the debate on the Address, the debate on the Financial Statement, and any debates on motions of no-con-fldence, and spend some time on the Bills which are usually passed without discussion at the end of the session, the producers who pay for the talk would not so greatly* mind the cost of the Legislature.