SPEECHES IN THE HOUSE

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28936, 2 July 1959, Page 13

SPEECHES IN THE HOUSE

Hansard Reporter’s. Observations “The Press" Special Service HASTINGS, July 1. Hansard, the official record of Parliamentary debates, did not contain exactly what members o«. Parliament said, Mr F. H. Reid, a former senior Hansard reporter, told the monthly meeting of the Hastings Rotary Club.

He said the reconstruction of sentences and the editing of speeches to conform with the Queen’s English were essential parts of a Hansard reporter’s work.

Nevertheless, he did not think Hansard could be dismissed as worthless. It was better to publish what the member intended to say rather than to be faithful to his errors.

Mr Reid quoted,some examples of original speeches from his scrapbook. According to one member, a lawyer: “Australia has a wonderful wealth of metals, all kinds, practically, including petroleum.”

Another said: “As a result of Dr. Tilyard’s investigations; woolly aphis is a thing of the past in New Zealand, and it has been sent to many of our sister Dominions.”

“I hope I have a little donkey sense,” declared one member of Parliament whd, while sitting on a committee of the House, asked a witness to speak up because the “accouchements” in the room were unsatisfactory. Prime Minister’s Phrase

Then there was the Prime Minister whose pet phrase Was “in regard to.’ This was a typical sentence: “It is the same in regard to the general statements in regard to the landlords in regard to their tenants in regard to their rents.”

Discussing the iron and steel industry, a member announced dramatically: “If the people want to socialise the whole thing well, that is the stone end and the final finish.”

Another member interjected “The honourable gentleman has incorrectly misstated the wrong facts in the case” A country member said: “The Labour Party must be very hard up when it has to go outside this Dominion to get an unborn British subject appointed to the board.”