PLANS FOR FASTER PROGRESS WITH COMING LEGISLATION

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVII, Issue 23367, 25 September 1950, Page 4

PLANS FOR FASTER PROGRESS WITH COMING LEGISLATION

(Special) _ WELLINGTON, Sept. 25. Parliament’s progress on the legislative programme last week was trifling. There were so many distractions and the absence of both party leaders, who were attending the funeral of Bishop Bennett, resulted in a programme designed to fill in time. Consequently, one clause in the Local Election and Polls Bill sufficed to keep discussion going on in dull fashion through the Friday all-day sitting with nothing achieved except the second reading and a Ministerial promise to look into the possibility of amendments before the committee discussion starts tomorrow afternoon.

There is to be no more Parliamentary drifting; this session. The financial debase, with its hour per member, chance to talk, ends tomorrow night. The Prime Minister, Mr. S. G. Holland, will then speed up the machine. The customary 10.30 p.m. adjournment will he abandoned at once and Government business will take precedence and when the Government sees a risk of a protracted talk on policy measures it will secure urgency for them. Discussion is not necessarily curtailed, but members must keep the sitting going regardless of physical discomfort till the particular task set by the Leader of the House is completed. In this way it is hoped to make the pace without depriving members of their useful privilege of returning to their electorates every weekend. The Rule of Law

How Statutes Pile Up Three formidable consolidation bills embodying a complete statute law relating respectively to the Army, the Air Force and our harbours are in process of overhaul by Select Committees and will come back to the House in due course. Between them they cover nearly 600 clauses. Though the consolidation process always effects a compression the many clauses illustrate how a “principal Act" becomes in process of time almost submerged in amendments, because the laws should not be of cast iron inflexibility, but must change with circumstances.

Thirty years ago a gigantic consolidation of all our laws was carried out by a legal committee over which the former Chief Justice, Sir Robert Stout, presided. The modern process of simplification is to consider each main question in turn, every Parliament doing some consolidating in the time it can spare from passing more amendments to “the principal Act.” Mr. Algie Thinks Aloud The Minister of Educatino. Mr. R. M. Algie, has a disarming way of discussing his Ministerial problems as if he were thinking aloud. He puts one view and offsets it by other arguments. He seemed to be taking the whole House into his confidence as he moved from one thought to another in his Budget speech. However, his conclusions were not so aimless—they always fell into line with Government policy. Mr. Algie laid himself open to the gibe from the former Minister of Education (Mr. H. 0. R. Mason) that he had been dreaming though Parliament wanted action. But Mr. Algie does more than think aloud. He can kick restrictive regulations aside if occasion justifies.

The question as to who should govern was being discussed in two places at once in Parliament Building last week. The Ministerial conferences with the watersiders’ representatives went on in the Prime Minister’s office and subsequent _ meetings of shipowners and watersiders under the diplomatic chairmanship of the industrial magistrate, Mr. J. A. Gilmour, also centred on Parliament Building.

One of these conferences was proceeding while the House itself was considering the broad issue of the enforcement of the rule of law. The House faced up to this basic principle of democracy when tiic Prime Minister moved the motion confirming the Government’s action in declaring a state of emergency.

It had been decided between the leaders that the subject would not be thrown open to general debate at that delicate moment in the negotiations. There were only two speeches on each side.

An hour was taken by the Prime Minister in a factual recital of waterfront industrial history and the declaration that every member who listened to him had the personal responsibility of seeing that the fundamental principle of democratic rule — the rule of law—must prevail. Mr. Holland fvas deeply moved when speaking of his own sense of responsibility. The Opposition role was delicate. It stood definitely for the rule of law, but hoped that things would not be carried so far as to split still wider the rift existing in the trade-union movement. The Opposition did not vote against the confirmation motion, but showed its attitude by a very quiet chorus of “Noes," which Mr. Speaker correctly interpreted when he announced: “The ayes have it.” Mr. Speaker

The Minister confessed that when he had to make a decision on the question of_ the transport of country schoolchildren he found the regulations hampered an equitable course, so he ignored them.

“How do you get over the Act?’’ inquired an Opposition member in a shocked tone which was nicely assumed.

“I think I do as Nelson did with his telescope,” answered Mr. Algie with a smile which, like his speech method, was very disarming.

Pleasant little social functions provide a reminder that early next month Mr. Speaker, Mr. M. H. Oram, and Mrs. Oram will be leaving for England to participate in the opening of the new House of Commons. The Speaker of Parliament in every country of the British Commonwealth will attend and New Zealanders can confidently look forward to their own representative filling the role with dignity. The Deputy-Speaker, Mr. C. G. E. Harkcr, whose usual duty is the piloting of bills through the committee stage, will then conduct the proceedings of the House, and as a barrister he can don the wig and look the part as well as capably fill it. Mr. Harker, when a private member, was prominent in helpful suggestions to improve the phraseology of legislation and they were not viewed dubiously by the former Government as "gifts from the Greeks.” It was a good preparation for the responsible position of Speaker, in which impartiality is so imperatively needed.