The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. THREE WASTED MONTHS.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 28 September 1910, Page 2

The Chronicle. PUBLISHED DAILY WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 28. THREE WASTED MONTHS.

i'.viu.iAMKNT. r.-iw in the third month c! the cm rout, session, has next U> ii.,tl:ing accomplished in the way ol business, though tli: 1 volume ol' Hansard I'ci - 1!)10 already fills quite the a\erage dimension of a single session's publication. The annual Parliamentary uecriiniiiations have commenced, and on Friday last New Zealand had t<!io sad .spectacle of tho Loader ol' the Opposition srolding the Government Whip because the latter bad spoken unkindly of Mi Massev and Mr Merries; of Sir -Joseph Ward assisting Mr Laurcnson in his Jiebuttal of Air Massey's allegations against the Government Party; and last stage and .sorriest, a dryasdust resuscitation of the dispute as to wheither the dominion gained or lost by the loan conversions made many years ago by the lale Mr 15allance\s Government. K is an extraordinary state of affairs, that public men 011 either side of the House can find it in their hearts to murder time in this manner. Such discussions, to the mind of the pre sent writer, recall the practices of a hundred and fifty years ago, when lire-eating "young bloods" were went to quarrel, secretly and ireal- ! I.v, over some certain fair one or another; and to quarrel in public, with pistols 0;' sworcis, seemingly becaus:. l one gallant had asserto'.. that tlv other gallant's shoe-buckles wero in execrable taste.

I Boiled down to the truthful resi <1 11111, the Parliamentary Opposition's grievance is based '011 tb.3 Governmental unwillingness to quit the Treasury benches; an;t the dispute* : oncerning Return D 2, or the Loan 1 Conversion matter of 1890 or thereabout, are so many rod herrings dragged across the real politica,. scent. What is most necessary in ie<r,nd to .New Zealand's Parliament is a limitation of opportunity foj what witty Irishmen have termed "blatherskite." Even with membeis who are disinclined to wordiness the practice of being compelled •to sit for ten a,nd twelve hours per f ay on five or six consecutive days |or louir or five consecutive months i< a great inducement to loquacity. But when such inveterate "windbatigers" a.s Mr Poole, M.P., aiK ] Mr El], M.P., surrounded by a few slightly lesser gaseous bodies, arc included in the House,. continuous opportunities for talk (running into twelve hours per diem) are direct inducements to wearisome verbal wind-beating. The Parliament of New Zealand should get into line with the New South Wales and Victorian Parliaments, by sitting foi j shorter daily periods and for a greater number of months in the yeatr,