LONG HOURS IN HOUSE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 109, 10 May 1932, Page 5

LONG HOURS IN HOUSE

SOME COMPARISONS

NOTABLE PROCEEDINGS

RECORD IN REPORTING

The sitting of,the House of Representatives on. Thursday last—which extended from 130 p.m. on Thursday to midnight on Saturday, or 57-i hours in all, with only; such :breaks as were required'for meals—was one of the long--est of recent years, but does'not establish ji record by its length. One veteran member of the Legislative- Council has an impression-that there was a sitting of 72 hours* duration about thirty years ago when he was in the House,, but cannbt; ■recollect on what ,Bill "it took plaee,'~arid a search .of the Parliamentary records of that period fails so far to discover .it. - •

The proceedings, on the original Old Ag& Pensions Bill were, notoriously long drawn out, and it;has been suggested that ,thjey\iiiusfr constitute, a record; for contiiiuQus-.w.orlc-.in the House. -That, however,- is a, mistake. The,:debate on the second reading of that measure began on 2nd. September, 1898, and extended over three days, well separated, ■withMio, sitting -beyond the small hours of the morning. It was in the Committee stage that the strongest resistance was shown. There were eleven sittings in Committee, but none of them went beyond 2 a.m. Thethir^d reading was disposed of in one.sitting which lasted from 7:30 p.m. to ,2.30 a.m. THURSDAY TO TUESDAY. Another sitting notable for its length ■was that, on the -Legislature Amendmeni;:Bill,:in,l9i3,:the first year of the ilassey Government. The Bill was contested only in the Committee stage. The proceedings in Committee began at .4.15 p.m. on^Thursday, 20tlr November, and extended to midnight on the following Saturday, when the Chairman of Committees, Mr. A., S. Malcolm, formally left the Chair. Discussion was resumed on tlie Monday at 2.30 p.m. and was continued until-3 a.m. on the Tuesday, when the Bill was reported from Committee. In. the Parliamentary sense, therefore, the Thursday sitting extended from Thursday 'to Tuesday morning, or for 80 business hours in all. On another day the third reading debate occupied about twelve hours. ■ The bone of contention'in that instance was a clause for the repeal of the Second Ballot Act, which had been placed on the Statute Book during ,the caTeer of the Ward Government, and the proposal to jettison it was resolutely resisted by the Liberal Party. The Massey Government had during the same session brought in a Bill for the repeal of the 'Act, but had abandoned it, and it was- the Government's introduction .of a new clause into the Legislature Amendment Bill to effect the same- purpose that brought about the long sittings. , .... EXHAUSTING DUTY. The distinction between these oldtime struggles and that of last week lay in the fact that this 'time a large part of the . discussion, occurred with the Speaker in' the Chair, and the further point that the proceedings involved very little actual "stonewalling," but were in the nature of serious discussion of the provisions. of what may fa-irly be described as a '/multum in parvo" measure. The fact that Mr. Speaker was in the Chair entailed the reporting of the proceedings by the <<^ansarji v 'J < stan*-7-ralways- the hardest "worked section of the 'Parliamentary officers, seeing that during a long sitting their colleagues of the Legislative Department are mostly at leisure waiting to record the results of the proceedings. In this instance the short-hand-writers were continuously on duty from 11 a.m. on Thursday, when the Legislative Council met, until 4.15 p.m. on. Friday, when the House went into Committee; during that period the staff was steadily , taking and transcribing notes of the speeches in the House and the pressure was increased when occasionally boih chambers of the Legislature were sitting simultaneously. Tew members of the "Hansard" staff have experienced a more '!*ruellin£,trlay..as it happened that at a time .^•Tien they were approaching a state of exhaustion they were obliged to record the speeches of some of the most .rapid speakers in. Parliament. This period of 29 hours of heavy reporting must constitute a record for the New Zea< land "Hansard" staff. ~ ' ' !' ■ ' -