HIGH STANDARD

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 35, 10 August 1936, Page 10

HIGH STANDARD

PARLIAMENTARY CONDUCT

CONTRAST WITH COMMONS

A list of terms .and expressions used in the New Zealand House of Representatives and withdrawn as unparliamentary was recently tabled by the Speaker (the Hon. W. E. Barnard). The' list covers a period of 23 years, and the; rulings of four Speakers.

Mr. Barnard holds the opinion from his experience both as Speaker and as a private member that the standard of debate is high, and that there is no reflection on past Parliaments involved in the setting out of the long list of unparliamentary words and phrases.

"The standard of speech in the New Zealand Parliament." said Mr. Barnard in an interview, "is at least,as high as that of the House of Commons, judging liy a comparison of the New Zealand rulings with a list of unparliamentary expressions which have been ruled out in the Commons."

As prootf, a House of Commons list of phrases used, and ruled out, was produced: It would certainly be difficult, if not impossible, to parallel from the Dominion's Parliament such gems as the following appearing in the House of Commons list: —"Bigoted malevolent young puppy"; "Brutal and bloody"; "Dirty trick debate"; "Go to

": "Infidel blasphemer"; "Murderous ruffian"'; "Returned by the refuse of a large constituency"; or "Swindling speech." Members have been referred to in the House of Commons as "vermin," "villains," "snobs and swells." "poltroons," and "subservient creatures," and one member was said to be "noted for liis debauchery." There are no such heights or depths of offensiveness in New Zealand's expurgations from the ' Parliamentary records of debate.