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Marlborough Express, Volume XLVI, Issue 280, 25 November 1912, Page 7

I Lord Islington told the members of the New Zealand dub on Tuesday that when he first went to the House of Commons it was a common thing to see half the members present wearing their hats. In later years the practice died-out to a great extent, a change due to a growing belief that anyone who constantly wore a hat was apt to find his hair receding. While on the subject of hats, Lord Islington related that the teormination of one of his early speeches in the House was signalised by tremendous cheering. Members were not applauding tke speech. The outburst of cheers was provoked by the fact that the orator, on concluding his speech, had sat down upon and hopelessly squashed his hat, carefully deposited upon his bench before he commenced to speak. Another Parliamentary story told by Lord Islington was about the representative of a borough constituency who waa very slack in attending divisions and recording his vote. Finally, his constituents formally protested that he was neglectng his duties, and asked him for an explanation. The defaulting one arranged with his brother member for the same borough to hold a meeting, and on the night of the meeting asked' that he should' be allowed to speak first. This, he was allowed to do, and he proceeded to say to his constituents that some of them appeared to think that their members had been slack in attendance at divisions. To dispel any erroneous impression that might be lingering in the mind of any constituent he would tell them that there had been 520 divisions during that session, and that their members had attended no fewer than 504 of the number. "He did not add," remarked JLord Islington, "that his conscientious colleague had attended 500 divisions and he had attended four!"