RULES OF THE HOUSE.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVI, 12 February 1927, Page 9

RULES OF THE HOUSE.

npHE iR-t. Hon. J. Wheatley, M.P., who was Minister of Health in the Ramsay MacDonald Government, has a Parliamentary record for • impatience. In this article he explains the reason for his vexation. . The traditions ol the House of Commons arc outworn, unreasonable, and ridiculous, he says. Rules and procedure such as those which govern the British House of Commons arc the despair of every earnest reformer. Tories, Liberals, and Socialists alike chafe at its delays, its einptv forms, and time-wasting methods. ' Now and again some impatient soul asks that something ibe done to speed up the machine. Ho is invariably met wdth a rebuff and a reply which in substance means that what was good enough for our greatgrandfathers is good enough for us. The rules of the House can be divided into.two categories: those which are merely absurd and farcical and those which by their design waste time and energy and money. Many of the rules in the first category arc vexatious and irritating. They servo no purpose whatever except to irritate and annoy the new members. The absurdity begins from the moment the House is opened by the Speaker. The Speaker’s robing-room is in a-direct v linc with, the Chair, and almost any' business man going to take the chair at a business meeting Avould take the shortest and most direct, route to it. . „ , Mr Speaker, however, is not allowed to do that. The bright minds who designed Parliamentary rules have . decided that Mr Speaker with his retinue shall trudge up a long corridor and then enter the House at the end farthest from the Chair. I believe this ivas originally done in the belief that the passage of the Speaker up the floor of the House would ha\’e a salutary and sobering effect on the members. If so, it. has failed in its purpose. I think it. is safe to sav that there are greater display's of high feeling at question-time than any' other, yet questions are taken immediately the Speaker is in the Chair. , . , Another of the absurd customs. which still pertain is the imxed question of whether one should or should not, speak Avith a hat on. A member cannot rise to a point of order, when a division has boon called, unless he or she is wearing a liat. Incidentally, to rise to a point of order a member must remain seated. Ridicule cannot kill this custom or it would now be dead as mutton. There was the recent ease when a member wished to put a point of order, but had no hat. There was no gentleman’s headgear -within reach, but someone laughingly stuck Miss Wilkinson’s toque on his head and he was at once in order. Another member on a similar occasion covered his head with a pockethandkerchief, but the Chairman of Committees could not accept that as sufficient. The dignity of the House had been strained to its very limits by a toque; a handkerchief would have been the end of all things!

Take again the size of the Chamber itself. What business house would appoint 615 employees and provide them with a building which could only hold fOO? Or, again, would anybody else have the inlet for its ventilation on a level with the river and its smells, while the outlet was up in the roof among the pure air? The rules iu the second category are much more serious. It is generally ac:,v eopted that, no matter which Government is in power, measures for the good of the country generally must occupy a considerable amount of the time of Parliament. But, with the best intentions in the -world, no Government can find time to fulfil the programme which it may quite honestly have contemplated.