PLAIN TASTES

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 111, 6 November 1929, Page 10

PLAIN TASTES

LABOUR IN POWER

SOME MACE STORIES

(From "The Post's" Representative,) SYDNEY, 31st October. Labour's nominee for tho Speakership an the House of Representatives (Mr. l Makm) has announced that if elected" ho will not wear the official full-bot-tomed wig that has never been scorned by ttie Speaker selected by any other political party in Australia. Tho announcement is typical of Labour's attitude towards the trappings of Parliament. Members of the party declare that the time for symbolism is past, and that fashions of dress of long ago serve no useful purpose in a modern Parliament. It will, of course,' be impossible for Labour to overcome most of the formalities of Parliament, but it is anticipated that the .party will find means of greatly simplifying the procedure, and it will not be surprising if it flies in the face of tradition, and goes its own way. Labour likes to be'different—to show the way in true democratic style. The chief symbol of the British Parliament is the mace. It is a sign of the Speaker's invulnerable authority as servant of the House. No greater insult to the House of Commons could be imagined than Cromwell's'"Take away j that bauble," yet in Melbourne pranks have been played with the mace, both in. the State and Federal Parliaments, without being taken, very seriously. Many years ago, indeed, the mace was stolen from the Legislative Assembly, and was never recovered. The police, it was whispered at the time, had a very shrewd idea that one or two of the wilder members had carried it with them to a house of jollification, to amuse some boon companions. A Royal Commission investigated the stories, but without effect, and the disappearance of the niaee has remained the one Parliamentary enigma in the State's history Then, when the Federal Parliament sat in Melbourne two sprightly members of the House of taking advantage of a false ringing of the bells, hid the mace uuder the front Opposition bench, thus shocking- the Speaker and causing great commotion ana, it must be confessed, no little amusement.

The Sergeant-at-Arms, who guards and carries the mace, would, presumedly, have to use it if necessary in defence of the Speaker. Of course, no one would think of the mace in such an emergency. There would simply be a call for a constable, who would use his own mace, better known as a baton. Mr. Makin, who is a giant, can hardly be blamed for refusing to smother his personality as well as his principles under the • full-bottomed adornment which has survived only in Parliament and on the Bench. New Zealanders will find it hard to believe that such things could happen to the mace as are here recorded, but they must not judge all Parliaments by their own. There may be some dignity attaching to the Federal Parliament, as there is attaching to the New Zealand Parliament, but in the State House in New South Wales dignity is an unknown quantity. More often the Labour members make it a "rough house," and there are some Nationalists only, too ready to help them.