THE POLITE ASSEMBLY.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 42, 13 November 1907, Page 4

THE POLITE ASSEMBLY.

* "ALL HONOURABLE MEN." THE LANGUAGE OF COMPLIMENT. There may be assemblies more polite than tho Legislative Council of New Zealand, but one would look for them only in China or Japan, or, perhaps, in Heaven. Ti.o members of our Upper Houso very rarely uso unparliamentary language, they haidly ever call each other unpleasant names, and seldom indeed is one of them called upon to withdraw anything. They aro all friendly, and they are all " Honourable." If tho prefix is not quite consistent with tho strictest—or, as some might say, tho crudest—democratic sentiment, it docs at least tally with thoso manners of equal fellowship and impartial courtesy which mark all tho proceedings of this quiet and decorous Chamber. Nowlyappointcd Labour representatives from a Southern city, life members from the broad acres of Rawke's Bay, speak of each other as " my friend, tho Honourable Mr. So-and-So." To sit for a fow quiet aftoruoons on a leathor-oovered bench in that stately Chamber, with its crimson curtains, and tuo white and gold of its pillars and galleries, would give io the harshest-mannered politician tho Govornmout could take olf the streots something of roposo and gentloness. Tho Hon. Wirumu Pore feels tnat the Council is not like "another place" where he used to sit. Ho says ho is now among gontlomen. Even tho oratory of Mr. Barr assumes, within theso walls, a quieter tone, though sometimes, when bo is speaking, you may shut your eyes and think you sco Christchurch Cathedral in tho background, and in front a policeman who is obviously about to request speaker and audience to movo to another part of the Squaro and not obstruct tho traffic. As for Air. Paul, bis matter is indeed that of a Labour member, but his manner is not. He speaks with tho calm confidence of a bank director, tempered with an engaging modesty which is all liis own. '.' ' > ' Showers of Compliments. " It has become tho rulo in this Council," said tho Hon. Mr. Wigram tho other day (seo Hansard, vol. oxli., pago 520), "to oomnienco a speech by showering complimonts on all thoso speakers who havo precedod ono in tho debate." Now this habit of compli-ment-making is cortainly ono of the most conspicuous features of tho discussions in the polito Chamber. Every member declares that tho speeches of other mombers aro thoughtful, or eloquent, or dignified, or moderate, and if ho is about to riddlo thorn with shafts from his own intellectual armoury ho only praises thoso preceding orations tho more. These things must be borno in mind if ono would appreciate tho full force, tho crushing severity of tho words of thoso two Councillors who, only, a few days ago, declared that tho expressions of another honourable friend wore unworthy of attention. Legislative Councillors aro friends, ho it romembercd, not brothors, liko counsel learned in \ tho law. Whon tho AttorneyGqneral was reported to havo said that a certain speech was characterised by the best "love," the printer had blundered. "Tono" 'was the word. Polito and, friendly as Councillors arc, they are not oponly affectionate. Ambiguous Courtesy. These expressions of mutual admiration, though thoy may sometimes mildly vex the businoss-iike soul of Mr. Wigram, havo thoir pleasant and evon their delightful aspects. When a compliment is just a compliment and nothing more, it is dolightfu! to the recipient and pleasant to his friends — "and in the Council thoy aro all friends. But when it is something more' or something other than a complimont, it is delightful to one's friends, though.it may or may not bo pleasant to oneself. Whatever.a Councillor has to say, ho generally manages to put it in this courteous form. If ho would complain that another is trying to block his Bill, he refers in tones of admiration to his' honourable friend's " artistic elucidation " of tho measure. Plain-spoken Mr. Aiistey'nia'y ' declare that tho extremely lengthy remarks*' of tlio. Hon. Mr. Samuel on the Waitara Harbour Bill, togothorwith tho enormous amount of •utterly extraneous matter with which ho has overloaded his speech, havo thrown him (Hon. Mr. Anstoy) into an almost hopeless state of bewilderment, but tho Hon. Mr. Louisson, who, .as tho member in ohargo of tho Bill, has most reason to complain, shows himself more deeply imbued with tho spirit of tho. crimson-curtained chamber when ho protests that his friend the Hon. Mr. Samuel has displayed tho eloquonco of a Demosthenes and the resolution' of a Napoleon. This particular example was riot the most successful of the compliments-that are not complimonts. It left the honourable obstructor still on top. Nobody can rival the Attorney-General in. tho art of piling tho Ossa of adulation upon tho Pelion of flattery, until tho victim does not know whether to blush or smilo or writhe. A Master of tho Art. ' Compliments may mean many things. Thcfo is a complete language, of compliments, and Dr. Findlay is master of it. This proves , his fitness for tho leadership of tho polito Chamber. Hear him, when someone — say tho Honourable Mr. Cocksfoot—roally ought to have percoived that his ignorance of tho statutes relating to noxious weeds has caused tho. wasto of twenty good minutes of tho Council's time. "My friend, tho Honourable Mr. Cocksfoot, with his _ oxhaustivo knowledgo of the law on this subject, will, I am sure, readily agreo„with mo," says tho Attorney-General. 'Nobody smiles, and it is probably quite half a niinuto before tho esteemed ahdy woil-bcloved Cocksfoot realises that what, ho has just heard was not exactly a pure and unadulterated compliment. Sometimes theso polito expressions seem to be meant especially and peculiarly for tho oars of a third party. A certain member, strangely forgetting his Council manners, has annoyed another with dorisive interruptions. Tho Attorney-General, in replying to tho dobatc, singles out that ono speech for special • praise, and calls it thoughtful, earnest, valuable—which, of course, it was, and it may bo well that tho interrupter should know it. ' . A Dexterous Feat. On another occasion/not in the Council this time, but. in his own room receiving a deputation, the • Attorney-Goneral, by tho dexterous arrangement of a few facts, placed a certain well-known politician on tho horns of a dilemma. Both horns wore very sharp, hut while tho unfortunate politician was wondering which of them it was that was hurting him, his tormentor lifted him off, so to speak, placed a largo, soft cushion of compliment on the spot, and then put him' back thero again—and, behold, tho erstwhilo victim was in the scat of honour. In the Council, there is no one who can so happily as its leader 'ticklo it into good humour with graceful allusions to Mr. Rigg's confirmed bachelorship,%Mr. Jenkinsbn's low opinion of Justices of the Peace, or Mr. Thorno George's profound studios in the management of infants. And when there is just causo to indulge in "the noble, pleasure of praising," no ono else can fit tho phrases so neatly or make them ring more true. Surely tho most pronounced unicanieralist, the most persistent advocate of Legislative Council reform, must admit that tho honourable friends in tho chamber of crimson, white a'nd gold have at least learnt tho lesson which tho smoking philosopher sought to impress upon Lnvengro—" That the decencies and gentlenesses should never be lost •light of, as the practice of tho decencies and gentlenesses is at all times consistent with independence of thought nnd action."