SOLID WOOD

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 70, 15 December 1928, Page 10

SOLID WOOD

PRIME MINISTER’S DESK

A THUMPING ORDEAL It is just as well that the Prime Minister’s desk-top in the House of Representatives is made of solid wood. It came through a severe ordeal during the early hours of yesterday morning, when the Right Him. Sir Joseph Ward thumped, hammered, and banged his way through portion of his reply to the prolonged debate on the second reading of the Finance Bill. The L’rime Minister rose at 2.30 a.m. lie was in vigorous mood, and his style became declamatory when he again referred to his discovery of what he had termed “an ynportant London transaction.”

The lute Minister of Finance Lad left over that matter for him to settle

“That is very unfair,” interjected the Hon. W. D. Stewart. "Very.” echoed the Leader of tile Opposition (Right Hon. J. G. Coates). Bang! An ordinary desk-top would have been splintered like matchwood, but the solid Umber of the principal Treasury bench withstood that, and the subsequent blows, as the Prime Minister, using his left hand as a hammer, and brandsihing his pince-nez with his right, warmly retorted: “Apparently the honourable gentlemen are taking their deleat rather badly. I said to my colleagues before we took possession that there was something in (he air. If our friends opposite think we had not noticed that they must think we were very unobservant indeed.” “What on earth is the right honourable gentleman talking about?” inquired Mr. Coates. “He might at least be frank and candid.” “You ask your ex-Minister of I' inance to be candid,” retorted the Prime Minister, who was proceeding in the same strain, when Mr. Speaker reminded him that he must address the chair. A little later Sir Joseph Ward referred to Mr. Coates as the Prime Minister —not his first lapse of memory since the Reform Government vacated the Treasury benches. “You called him Prime Minister’ said a Reform member. The Prime Minister (with a smile) : Then I made a mistake. I apologise to the Prime Minister 'Government laughter.) Mr. J. A. Nash (Palmerston) was the next to incur Ministerial displeasure. ‘‘Who is that interjecting?” demanded the Prime Minister sharply. “Let him come and see me afterwards and be educated. lam talking to the honourable gentlemen of the House at present. ’ The desk-top again came into prominence when Sir Joseph Ward branched otr into an explanation of the circumstances of his appointment as Minister of Finance in the National Cabinet. “What is the use of trying to twist history.' lie asked, hammering at the desk anew. Papers fluttered to the floor. These the Minister of Education quietly retrieved. Once more C Prime Minister was drawn into a personal encounter, this t;-,• with Mr. F. Waite, .-horn he described as the “Brilliant, powerful, brainy member for Clutba. ’ who had made a fifth-rate speech.” and who had been “teaching his grandmother, figuratively, speaking, how to suck eggs.” (Laughter.) With' a smile Sir Joseph Ward later drew a little character sketch of himself. He was a good actor, he said, in seeking to dispel hn assertion that he was annoyed. He never looked annoyed when he was, he said, and sometimes when he showed bis teeth he was not angry. fI In"concluding the Prime Minister said he would close by calling the Opposition “his dear opponents?,” for whom his party had a great deal of regard and from whom they expected the same consideration as was given to them.