UNPARLIAMENTARY

Evening Star, Issue 22413, 10 August 1936, Page 8

UNPARLIAMENTARY

BANNED WORDS IN ENGLAND DOMINION'S LIST COMPARED [From Our Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, August 10. A list of terms and expressions used in the New Zealand House of Representatives and withdrawn as unparliamentary was recently tabled by. th« Hon. W. E. Barnard (Speaker). Though there were over 500 example! of expressions considered. improper, the list covered the long period of 23 years and the rulings of four Speakers, and was referred to in these columns as rather a tribute to the respectability of New Zealand’s representative chamber,for none .• of the banned words or phrases could be considered extremely improper except in the light of the high standard insisted upon in parliamentary debate. ‘ Publication of . this list, however, might create the impression that then# was a good deal of looseness about tb« ■ speech of our elected members, and the present occupant of the chair, the Hon. W. E. Barnard, holds the opinion from his experience both as Speaker ana 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,” commented Mr Barnard, “is at least as high as that of the House of Commons, judging by a comparison of the New Zealand rulings with a list of unparliamentary ex* pressions which have been ruled out in the Commons.” As proof a House of Commons list of phrases used and ruled out Was produced. It would certainly be difficult, if not impossible, to par-, allel from the Dominion s Parliament such gems as the following appearing in the House of Commons index “ Bigoted malevolent young puppy. ;! “Brutal and Bloody ”; debate”; “Go to “Infidel blasphemer”; “Murderous ruffian “ Returned by the refuse, of a ,1a coustituenev ” or “ Swindling speech. Members individually have been. re. ferrod to in the Commons as ‘ vermin, “ villains,” “ snobs and swells, poltroons,” “ subserviant creatures, and “ noted for bis debauchery. There are no suck heights or depths, of offensiveness in New Zealand’s expurgation* from the parliamentary records of debate.: