AS OTHERS SEE US

Dominion, Volume 19, Issue 166, 10 April 1926, Page 22

AS OTHERS SEE US

“A DAUGHTER PARLIAMENT”

(By

Captain Anthony Eden.)

Captain Anthony Eden, M.P., who i represented “The Yorkshire Post” at the Imperial Press Conference, de- ; contributed to that paper several articles dealing with his experiences ' while abroad. In the following article he describes the New Zealand Parliament :— r The Dominions of the Crown have ■ many links that form the chain which ‘ clamps their unity, and holds them one; links of taste, of sentiment, of speech and habit, of hope and preju- • dice, of race and character. Of these ■ one is often mentioned, though not so often studied: Parliamentary institutions.

j Let us travel.on the wings of the night ato a Dominion which is our i vis-a-vis in die Pacific, and alight in its capital. /There Parliament is at j work. It is well housed in a building that is impressive, though as yet incomplete. Its position is com- ■' manding, and its approach more so than that of Westminster,, though it lacks the river frontage. The flight of ; steps is long, and climbing it we enter at a swing door: first sign that some . changes await us, though they prove to be but lardmarks that flourish the identity. We are met by a dignitary with all the grace and heraldry of his counterpart in our own House. We are led with the necessary circumstance instilling awe to seats of honour, those of us who are members of the Imperial Parliament on the Speaker’s left on ! the floor of the House. We murmur our thanks for so graceful a compli- ' ment. We bow, we take our seats. We sit np, we rub our eyes, we pinch our- • selves. We look at each other questioninglv. Is this in fact New Zealand ? Are we quite sure? Confidence has flown. We clutch reality. On our right the Speaker reclines in chair and wig and gown as majestic and commanding a figure as ever awed presumption in any other place Within t the orbit of that eye can none sustain a vagary and few coquet it. Under him a table upon which lies the mace, the very bauble to the very Oliver, and at which sit the clerks to whom it is

added—a departure this from ancestral i custom—the recording scribe of Hansard. The House is spread horse-shoe shape before the Speaker—the Government on his right, the Opposition on his left divided into two sections, and all upon time’s honoured plan. Above are the public galleries admirably constructed for the convenience of their

occupants, and where the listener may hear—another departure this from the I Mother of Parliaments—every word that is vouchsafed below. i As we gaze round the House we notice an air of content, of ease almost 1 The members do nqt seem uncomfort- ' able or unconscious, the twin states - between which a British member of Parliament alternates We notice the reason. Every, member is seated in ; pampered luxury on or in a deep settee. He has an .. inviting arm into ; which to snuggle. No tired twenty j years of back bench work to secure a stringy skeleton, but a stout, wellpadded arm on which Morpheus .may ■ conquer memory. Before him is a ‘ desk laden with pens, papers, ink, and every adornment of stationery; here may a member write while his ' colleague speaks and listens to ne’er ’ a word.

The front bench, too, have their desks from which emerge from time

to time softest murmurings or isolated exclamations in connection or contradiction of their opponents' oratory. Doves of kindness these must be sent out to the relief of an orator beleaguered by the scratching of the pens. When a member speaks he uses the übiquitous desk to lean upon, a. prop to his words, and a tempting, if not always a graceful, position. We are not surprised that the New Zealand Parliament has found it necessary to institute time limits to speeches, or that the limit once fixed is usually reached. Seldom, we learnt, is the warning note of Mr Speaker’s bell pot heard in the land. Base has its disadvantages though less renowned than Spartan virtue Rut physical comfort members of Parliament in New Zealand certainly enjoy The buildings are admirable within and without; the libraries havens of peace richly endowed, the committee 100 ms and other necessaries on a similar scale. In the Chamber itself the desk and the aforementioned settee, one of the latter to everv two members, are snares to the flesh such as the British member of Parliament can scarce conceive. All night sittings in Wellington, and t'hev have them there, too, can hardly be a purgatory. But however much we may envy the comfort we appreciate that it never can be ours to share; such pandering to human frailty is only possible when the number of members is small, and each may occupy his allotted place. It would not be feasible, even were it desirable, in Westminster. It is difficult to believe that the effect of a debating Chamber is not marred by these desks. They bulk too large. They must detract from the atmosphere of a big debate. They must add to the weariness of a dull one. It must be discouraging to even the most impassive orators to hear the quill drive, to hear the blotter thump, as he' reaches his most critical period. But for the desks how alike it all is. Shut your eyes and lean back and you may hear the Opposition complain how the Government has failed to carry out when in power the policy it preached when in Opposition, how its outlook and its opinions have changed since it changed benches. You may hear the Government’s supporters challenging "and what did you do?” You may hear the Government's defence that whatever their shortcomings the last who has a right to challenge them on this score or on that is the verv Opposition which, when it was in power. ... ■Another party rises. It also is in Opposition. The land tenure is wrong, too few people own the land, it should be subdivided, it should be made available for the people. Its present holders do not get the best out of it: and the Government smiles, and, perhaps, the visitor smiles also, for where, oh where, has he heard all this before ? The matter may be thousands of miles away, 'some of the occupants of those desks mav ne’er have seen it The spirit has travelled and will endure. We had near forgot New Zealand has no single Chamber Government. Here, too, are the scarlet benches, and here, too, they sit in majesty, and here, too, Is a large public gallery, but no large public, and, indeed, no ntiblic at all. Perhans here, too. the noble have learnt to' whisner in that tone which onlv these an mi st and awful precincts could successfully render both majestic and inaudible.