WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 7 August 1934, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS

MENDING PARLIAMENT

BY INEXPERIENCED HANDS

(Special Correspondent.)

WELLINGTON, August 4

It is not a particularly happy compliment the Prime Minister and his colleague the Minister of ' Finance . tiave paid to the members of the House of Representatives in declaring that tho life of Parliament must be extended from three years to four in order that the beginners may have four years in place of three to acquire the details of their business. ' The House of Representatives, it may bo' remembered, was established in 1356,- and Sir John Hall, after figuring with eighteen Prime Ministers, with periods of from thirteen days to five years and forty days, on October 8; 1879, retired from the Legislative Council and joining the House of Representatives became the nineteenth Prime Minister. lie occupied the position until April 21, ilßß*2, when he retired on account of ill health and was succeeded by Sir Frederick Whitaker who was subsequently followed by Sir Harry Atkinson one of the Dominion’s most distinguished publip' servants.

Sir John Hall, whose title had been anticipated, was an early., settler 1 in the province of Canterbury, but his aspirations were not towards the acquisition of land and money alone. He was Colonial Secretary in .the first Fox Ministry in 18 )6 fa matter of a week); Postmaster General in the Stafford, Ministry of 1885; - member of the Executive Council in.t^gs, r Fox, .Ministry 0f'1869; Colonial Secretary in the Waterhouse Ministry of 1872, and then .passed to tho Legislative Council where he remained, in various capacities, until he returned to the House of Representatives in 187!) as already'stated. His return was no wish of his own. He would have preferred to remain in the , Legislative Council and to have scon one «of his former yolleagueS in the House of Representatives repairing the mistakes he thought, the tottering Government of the day had occasioned.

Previous to Sir John Hall’s leadership no period was fixed for the length, of the maintenance of; the country’s Parliament, Approximately the' 'first Parliament occupied one year and four months;"with prorogations,.'icf bburso • the second! four years and seven months; thmthird four 'years and l four-, month's"; the fourth four years and three' months'; fifteenth four , years and 'two'months' and the,' sixth, three years and ; two months; . Since .1879, • feßdivihg'ySif- ' John .-HaiEs systefn, -the life 6f\ a* iParliameiitdids not exceeded three " iwith itheoxT ception of the war period-between IJuhe--24, 1915, and November- 7, 1919, which occupied four years and five months; two months less ' than ■ were'- spent by Parliament between April 1856 and November 1861. The Bill shaped; by Sir John. Hall and through- both Branches of" Parliament was placed oil the Statute Book in December 1879; it rested undisturbed till Mr Forbes and Mr Coates'developed other ambitions 1 . 7 > It is fifty-four years, more than half a century.,ago;;lthat' Sir John Hall-de-tached ■ himself ’from the Legislative Council and, at; the request of- some of his- political friends,' took a seat in- the House of/Representatives' from whence he; stepped 'in 'a very shbrt time into the Premiership- ousting Sir ;George Grey and his colleagues by the narrow' majority of two seats. ;The striking speeches that wore delivered in this contest were, those from Sir John Hall, Sir Georee Grey and Mr Alfred Saunders, who twenty years'later were fast and earnest friends. Fifty-four years later Mr Forbes and Mr Coates, the leaders of the Coalition Government of to-day, are conj,plaimng that the average member of the House of Representatives is unfit to discharge the first and third sessions of his duty and that he must be supplied with four sessions in order, that, he may have two for work and two for rest. It was not so fifty years ago. ..... ; c.. , ••