WIGS IN PARLIAMENT

Hawera Star, Volume LIII, 2 November 1933, Page 3

WIGS IN PARLIAMENT

HONOURING TRADITION

VICTORIA’S UNBROKEN RULE. When Mr Blackburn, the newly elected Speaker^of the Victorian Legislative Assembly, decided to wear a wig, he fell into line with a tradition which has never been broken in the Parliament of his State. The tradition has not been preserved in the Commonwealth Parliament. Mr {J. McDonald, the first Labour Speaker, abolished both the wig ancl the mace. The mace, the symbol of authority, was restored by Mr McDonald’s successor, Sir Elliot Johnson, and it has remained; but the wig disappeared for a period again when Mr Makin became Speaker. Even the President of the Senate, Air Givens, sat for a time without a wig; but when his allegiance to Labour faltered. he adopted the wig. One or two wigmakers in Melbourne were considerably annoyed some years ago, says the “Argus,” by a statement that all. wigs used in Australia were imported from abroad. One of them had particular reason for his anger, because just as- the* -statement was made, ho had completed a wig for a newlv-appointcd Judge of the High Court. The maker said recently that Raccuse,roft, of London, had tlie„ sameli standing ais a wigmaker as Worth of Paris, had as a dressmaker. Many people who desired the best wig sent to London for a first-grade Raveii.seroft; but they paid for the privilege. Even an Australian-made, fullbottomed wig costs £25. The barrister’s wiev costs about £l2. Air Blackburn would ; far more reasons than one, lies tit ate to send abroad for a- wig. Not only, as a Labour man, is he a protectionist, but in these unsettled political times it would be umvise to risk the delay which importation would necessitate. Various statements about the hair employed in the manufacture of wigs are made t but the manufacturer quoted said that' fine horsehair was all that was needed. ’Hie story of yak hair was a- mere tradition without any foundation.

For years there lias been an elaborate fn 11-bottomed wig and a gd\Vn ih the room of the Victorian AttorneyGeneral. The oldest officer of the State does not know who owned it originally. It hn.s remained unworn for half a. century. The present. Speaker of the i\ew Zealand House of Representatives wears a wig while in the chair.