WORDS AND WORK.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXII, Issue 24, 28 July 1911, Page 3

WORDS AND WORK.

A PEEP AT PARLIAMENT. GLIMPSES OF THE OPENING DAY. (By Eareye.) One may summarily dismiss the opening of a Parliament with a phrase "the same old thing," but such cursory treatment would be unfair as well as unduly harsh. It would be jusfc as unreasonable as i-eferring to the coming of spring as "the same old things," to the horror of spring poets innumerable. Indeed the opening day is a sort of legislative spring. After the greyiiess of the recess the Parliament Buildings are a romp °of colour (the military otticers and the ladies), and there is a murmur as of bees through all the corridors. Birds may not be there to sing, but they are lepresented by "members" (both left and right wings) and tails. This writer declines to confess whether it was a man or a woman who wore the biggest bunch of feathers yesterday. The Governor's Speech is expected to be a bud* cling and blossoming tot the legislative fruitage, so that signs and symbols of a legislative spring do not lack. It is a day when the press lags more or less superfluous on the stage at the back of the Press Gallery in the Legislative Council. However, the faithful recorders have Ho cause to be disgruntled by seeing lovely ladies m their chairs. The sophisticated'pressmen have no excuse for attendance at the spectacular function, because they can get plenty of copies of the Speech, It can be said at once, without disrespect to the Governor, whose Speech is the Government's, including the grammar, that seeing is more important than hearing to the ladies and other interested onlookers. Some of the hearing is enjoy ed— the galloping of the armed escort, the order for the .Royal salute, the footsteps of His Excellency and staff, the lattle of scabbards, the swish and froufrou. THE LAGGARD COMMONS. The Governor was seated, and all eyes were upon him. The ladies' gaze flitted from the plumes, to the epaulettes, to the orders on his breast. His Excellency was a little nervous under the kindly but searching scrutiny. He was waiting for the Representatives, and they tarried. The "hopurable" gentlemen of the Legislative" Council" were in their places^ but "the gentlemen of the House of Representatives" were dallying somewhere, and one hoped that it was not Bellamy's. It aeems to be a time-honoured privilege of the "commons" to hold-up the ceremony for five or ten minutes. It was the same last year. Is there an antiquarian to prove that this right dates back to the suppression of King John at Runnymede oi* the execution of King Charles at Whitehall ? There was some disappointment about the Speech, again without discourtesy to the King's representative, who was in duty bound to express the Government's thought. A hint had come from high quarters that the harangue would be brief, but it ran the full twenty minutes usually assigned . to this discourse. For the first quarter of £»l hour ifc road so much like an annual summary that a few oi the uninitiated might have suspected that one of the departmental reports had strayed by mistake into the Governor's hands. It was a distressing thing to suppose. What would be done in such a case ? Would the whole opening have ito bu done d« novo. starting from Government lluuse, with the escort? The Crown Law Office has not yet had to knit its brow and thumb its tomes over such, a conundrum. Howevetf it was the Speech, as the conclusion demonstrated. SIB WILLIAM STEWARD'S HAUDY ANNUAL. i It has been a long recess, but soon a-fter the prayer had begun the business day _in the Houte of Representatives j the interval evaporated, and last year's I opening day was a thing of yesterday. Sir William Steward had given notice to move to introduce his Marriage Act Amendment Bill This is the one with tho complication about deceased wives' nieces and deceased husbands' nephews, with a prayer that one of these nieces should be permitted to wed the widower or vice versa, and so on for the widows and nephews. This- notice is as much a featmre of the. opening day as the Governor's Speeen. One felt that last year's rumour of Sir William Steward's retirement was premature, for he still had that Bill 'to pass. One cannot imagine tha.t as long as the Knight of Waitaki has a voice for the platform he vvill cease to try to get elected for the fiake of those lorn, widows and lonely widowers, those sighing nieces and crying nephews. It is a mission, it is an obligation of gallant Knight-errantry, and it is certainly not Sir William's fault that his brother legislators (including Knights withal) decline to sympathetically regard his widows," wicfOwers, nephews, and nieces. THE DELUGE. Sir William, however, with his notice i was only one pebble on a much-littered | beacft. The pent-ur> currents of curiosity of seven months had a sudden' escape, and Mr. Speaker was overwhelmed by the torrent Members at their desks were 1 like soldiefs at their posts, firing relent-, lessjy at an enemy. The air rumbled and creaked with "I beg to give notice that on next sitting day I will ask— — -'*' No more slack time .in the Government Printing Office, no more hours for brownstudy (if ever there were) in departmental om'rer.«. This is the season of query, the springtime of question, and the harvest will be sheave* of papers which some people may read aud some may not. It is wonderful the number of things that a million people can do to more or less warrant a constant clamouring for statistics. New Zealauders have lbs distinction of being the most-figured, if not the bestfigured, people on the earth. The man in the streets gets into Parliamentary figures much more often than he thinks. Do not the harried Government clerks and .officers Know it? As it is a preelection seseioti the hunger for "returns" will bo more insistent than usual. THE SAME itERRY BUZZ. While some members, with their eyes jon (he hair-trigger were trying to snap the SpPttker'* favour, others \reic talking—not ul the chaji. H win ih« ssnio old merry chatter, a? much suggestive of old times as Sir William Steward's Bill or tho gliUeiing Mice. This time, howovrr. there was better, excuse than usual. The members Meie rager to give greeting to Mr. T. M Wilfoul, who was in his old plaoo iifier w eeks of illness. He had a.heartr levee, which must have lifted him far along the road of convalescence. Members trooped from both sides of the : House to congratulate him on his re- ' noverj*, and to wish him vigorous health for (he session and after. THOUGHTS OF MH. T. E. TAYLOtL | When Sir James Carroll applied for four weeks' leave of absence for Mr. T. E. Taylor, a pad gfaveneas was on the faces of his hearerf. There was a feeling that the summons had come for the great fighter, wh639 tiprv words nad burned into many an audience in and oub of Parliament. 7 his heaviness increased | when the House rose, for ib was known then that Mr. 'I'aylor'si leave of absence rrt»w P»,rlkra«it would bo fop evqi'i 1 though th?, flna^dftjk massage ]u4 gob

yet arrived. There was nob one heart among Ministerialists and Oppositionists untouched by the blow that had stricken down a stahrarfc fighter. Politicians who had once- winced under the Taylor lash wished sincerely that their opponent was in nealtii again. Mr. Taylor had enemies in life; ho had no enemies in his last honrs.