The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1890.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXIV, Issue 9168, 30 July 1890, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 30, 1890.

On Thursday evening last the House of Representatives was counted during a discussion on Major Steward’s Dog Registration Amendment Bill. Some amusing little circumstances attended this count-out, and a quantity of good-natured chaff was exchanged next day. Whereat, in the course of a debate which Sir George Grey was ill-advised enough to raise, a number of very solemn and serious persons, some of whom write for newspapers, have been good enough to relieve their feelings and assert their dignity by describing the whole affair ns a farce. A farce, however, it was not. The indignation expressed by poor Mr Hobbs at being locked up in the Whip’s room was farcical. So also was the perfervidly passionate rhetoric in which our oratorical friend Mr Monk declaimed against the wickedness of those who had kept him in durance vile with Mr Hobbs as a companion. More farcical still was the solemnity with which Sir George Grey appealed to hon gentlemen to condemn this little school-boyish prank as one of "the most serious outrages which had occurred since the establishment of Parliament.” The spectacle of Mr Yineent Pyke composedly lecturing his brother members upon Parliamentary propriety with quite the air of a heavy father who had never made a joke in his life was supremely ludicrous. Some of the speeches delivered on. Sir George Grey’s breach of privilege motion were really clever bits of banter, notably Mr Scobie Mackenzie’s. But the count-out itself was not a jest. It was simply a bit of sessional business quietly arranged by the Government, with the full approbation of a large majority of both sides of the House. Tho meaning of a count-out on any particular night is that three-fourths of the House of Representatives do not consider the business sot down for that night worth discussing. On Thursday night last the House expressed this opinion of tho business then set down for transaction. A count-out is the strongest of strong hints to all concerned —to the Government, whose duty it is to determine what business shall from day to day bo set down. Tho House has taken to heart the very pointed rebuke administered on Thursday last. Tho business ou that evening consisted of private members’ Bills. The House silently but un-

mistakeably intimated that it did not want to waste any time this session over private members’ Bills. Yesterday afternoon, therefore, Mr Mitchelson proposed to take Wednesday away from private members for the rest of the session, and devote it to Government business. Mr Mitchelson was quite right, and we are extremely glad to see that his proposal was carried. Private members’ Bills are often premature, eccentric or trifling; they hardly ever become law. There is no reason why they should. Supposing one of them to be useful and necessary, a Government is sure to take it up as soou as the public demands that the matter should be attended to. Until then, the Statute Book may well remain free of it. We do not believe in passing laws for which the people do not ask, much less do we believe in blocking the true work of the session by discursive chattering over Bills which no one dreams of passing.