IN PARLIAMENT.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1193, 31 July 1911, Page 7

IN PARLIAMENT.

4 DAILY SUMMARY. SINGULARITY AND TAMENESS. Tho session still preserves its original characteristics of singularity and tamcness. Usually it is not until 'he closing days that the Legislative Council meets at any other hour than half-past two. it assembled on Saturday at 11 a.m., and will sit again to-morrow evening. lhC formal object of Saturday's sitting was to pass tho Imprest Supply Bill. ■ -this was done without discussion, and almost tho whole of the sitting, which lasted only twenty minutes, was devoted to a resolution on tho death of Mr. T. b. Taylor, M.F. ... The mover, the Hon. J. M Gowan, dul not mako the best of his opportunity. Had ho prepared his matter less carefully and drawn more directly upon his own experiences iir "another placo" as a fellowmembpr of Mr. Taylor's during almost tho whole of the latter's Parliamentary career, tho speech would have been much jrtor© interesting. If he had mislaid his notes, it might havo been a fortunate accident, for lie would probably have ventured to be himself. The eulogy whaoh he did pronounce was just such a series of elaborate periods as the Council would havo listened to if the Attorney-General, instead of his present substitute, had been in oharge. The motion was seconded by Mr. Loughnan, and the only other speakers were, properly enough, Messrs. Barr and Paul, who, as Labour members, had mncli in common with o the deceased Parliamentarian.

Both Houses will meet to-morrow evening for the Address-in'-Reply. In the meantime, with only three Ministers (Messrs. Millar, E. M Kenzie, and Ngata) in town, the placcs of several members still vacant, and political strife not yet openly begun, the precincts of Parliament are remarkably quiet. Members have not been plentifully supplied with food for thought, as the only Government measure in circulation is Mr. Fowlds's Mental Defectives Bill. This solitary Bill may be regarded as curiously appropriate to the present stato of Parliament, for a feeling which seems to pervade the corTidors may very well be expressed in the language of the new measure. The members," in fact—or, at all events, a considerable . section, of them—lack that "oversight, care, or control" which is requisite "for their own good or in the public interest."