PARLIAMENTARY UNION.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1635, 27 May 1887, Page 2

PARLIAMENTARY UNION.

AcrrvE efforts are being made to reestablish the Parliamentary Union in Hawera this winter ; and those who have taken the matter in hand have received a large number of promises of support. It has been decided that it would be unwise to open it, unless at least 20 members would undertake to attend punctually and regularly. The want of punctuality in attendance was the chief drawback to the union when it was last sitting ; it might perhaps be avoided by the levy of a small fine of say sixpence on any member not more than ten minutes late, and a shilling if over that time. The union has in the past proved a pleasant and instructive place of resort. It was popular and generally well attended. In Wellington the debating society used to adjourn for a qudrter-of-an-hour in the course of the evening and discuss tea aud coffee and biscuits ; and the practice after it had been once introduced proved a popular institution. The Union affoids men of all ranks an opportunity of meeting to discuss topics of general interest ; and so long as it is as carefully c jnducted as it was in the past, it certainly tends to promote good fellowship among all classes. It also affords any man who has a pet hobby, an opportunity of trotting it out, and either converting others to his way of thinking, or of having its weak points exposed and good humored ly held up to ridicule. Members who desire to bring any subject of general interest before the public are compelled to study it and work it up more thoroughly than they would otherwise be likely to do. The Union has thus an educative tendency apart from the training it gives for public speaking. We trust the efforts of those who are working the Union up maj r prove successful.