WEARY LEGISLATORS.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 74, 24 September 1898, Page 4

WEARY LEGISLATORS.

■ ♦ At the time of writiug the House is still sitting in Committee on the Old Age Pensions Bill, and the Premier is still persisting in his obstinate refusal to report progress. It is quite obvious to all concerned that after a heavy week such as this has been members are not capable at all hours of the night and morning of giving that close and careful attention to the Bill which its importance and the difficulties in its way necessarily demand. On Tuesday the House sat all night on the Estimates, on Wednesday aud Thursday until nearly two in the morning, and now the Premier, by the brute force of an inattentive but obedient majority, seeks to drive through a jaded House a measure which ought to be of the first importance, and whose effects would be far-reaching and perhaps dangerous. Such proceedings cannot possibly tend towards wise legislation, and one is almost tempted to join Mr. Pirani in suggesting fhat the Premier's extreme unreasonableness is due to his desire to kill the Bill. In the circumstances the Opposition aud Left Wing are more than justified in- refusing to proceed with a vital reform when the limits of physical alertness are completely overstepped. The Ministerial tail has apparently abandoned all interest in the measure, and these energetic legislators lend no help in perfecting or throwing light on the Bill, but merely roll up at the sound of the division bell to vote blindly as their leader orders. The condition to which the Legislature has been reduced by the Premier's proceedings reflects little credit on him or his obsequious followers. How can our intelligent " Liberals" expect to solve the Old Age Pensions problem by sleeping in lobbies and merely answering like a flock of sheep to the division bell ?