AN ANNUAL COMPLAINT.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CX, Issue 13216, 27 August 1903, Page 4

AN ANNUAL COMPLAINT.

Late sittings, we know, were nob uncommon in Parliament twenty years ago. The journals show that the House of Representatives often went on with its work till two-or three o’clock in the morning, and that even the Legislative Council was sometimes infected-hy the vicious habits of the other Chamber. But the old. bad ways seem now to be. regarded as necessary for the proper conduct of the country’s affairs, and though the members of Parliament cannot enjoy them or approve of them they acquiesce, it appears to us, with absurd complacency. The House sat continuously for ten hours from half-past seven on Tuesday evening, and as members had already been transacting the colony’s business in the morning- and afternoon we, need not inquire as to their physical and mental condition at the end of the sitting. It is highly desirable that members should discuss the Estimates fully, but their discussion can hardly have been very pointed or very intelligent at five o’clock yesterday morning, and there is ho other conclusion to be drawn than that the Government wished to force through a particular section of the votes. We cannot imagine an excuse for such methods. It would surely be far better that Parliament should remain in session till Christmas than that legislation and administrative business should be pushed on at the expense of the health and temper of the people’s representatives. As a matter of fact the House spent the earlier part of its long sitting doing work that should properly fall to a. Civil Service Board, and when it came to the general votes, which afforded an opportunity for tho discussion of such subjects as the administration of the Cook Islands, it must hive been thoroughly tired out. This, we are afraid, is only a beginning. Judging by past experience the House will shortly bo moved to sit on Mondays and to take new business after midnight, and then we shall have to deplore a succession of late sittings with all the evils they bring in their train. It is not surprising that our legislation should be so full of anomalies and blunders when the legislators are called to the consideration of difficult and delicate questions at the close of a silting of nine or ten hours. Their minds are then in no condition to distinguish fin© shades of meanings. Concentration must ho well nigh impossible, and we can only protest now, as wc have done in previous years, against this outrageous manner of conducting the people's f flairs., Ministers may have the best

intentions in tlie world, but during lata sittings they are no more competent than private members to appreciate the importance of new points or the value of new suggestions. The practice ot late sittings is injurious to the health of the members, and, what is of greater importance, it is gravely prejudicial to the interests of tho colony.