DEPUTATION CRAZE

Marlborough Express, Volume LIV, Issue 167, 17 July 1920, Page 4

DEPUTATION CRAZE

• MINISTERS OVERWHELMED

[from our correspondent]

WELLINGTON, <Tuiy 16. As a practical protest "againsi the overwhelming flood of deputftions which have ta.ken up most' of. his time this session, Mr Massey had to make the announcement to,the House that he must limit Ins reception of deputations to the. Monday and forenoon o[ Thursday in each week. He was obliged to this action because lie was unable to give time to important business. He had indicated earlier ni the afternoon that the prepara,tion of the Financial Statement had teen delayed through pres o ure of business, and he now"" suggested that deputations need not 'concentrate upon the., head of the Government^ but could get aai eaually intelligent hearing from other members of the Cabinet.

Both the Prime Minister and the Hon. Mr Cbates, Minister for Works, have had a serious burden of deputations to hear. Delegations anuve ij'om other parts of Ithe Dominion who make a. point of -*■ seeing the J'nme Minister as well as the Minister directly concerned, thus doubling the Ministerial work Mr Massey commenced ' receiving deputations on the 30th and to-day continued to hear representations tium six different sets of visitors till •nearly one o'clock, two of the deputations occupying over an hour eacli. y" *"© previous day four deputations I iup c wllol» mornirigy though the longest only dealt entirely^ with •educational matters- and th.<#efore concerned primarily the Minister for l'.duc-ation, who attended practically as a spectator. The Hon. Mr Cbates has been receiving deputations for several days m quick rotation, one waiting aside i-ntil those which preceded it had put their case- and received a promise of Ministerial consideration. Even white the House sat the Minister would occasionally rush away .in a slack moment to hear another deput;ilion. Business has grown so alarmingly that the average working day of several Ministers most in de^ inand, together with their staffs and members of "the Press Gallery, extends, from 9.30 a.m. till the House rises some time next morning. Members of Parliament whose duty it is to make preparations from their districts are reduced to nominal activity as masters of ceremony. Their senting, though it must be admitted that deputationismg i s a flash, in tHe-l-an. lhe pennanont results are usually secured by the persistent private work of the members.

NO BUSINESS FOR THE HOUSE,

WELLINGTON, July 16. Iho proceedings of the House of Eoprase.ntatives came to a sudden ™rf fh ♦"X to~"1£}:ht' owi"g to the ;,,r-t that the Government had not perpaiPed enough business to keen w.n S . The Order Paper was fl Wted o f minor Bills, the next to he consideraed being an amendment <o the Arms Act, in charge of the Prune Minister, but instead of moving the tecond reading Mr Massev ..cone-Red that he had been utteSy * t.«o1o to find time to read the meal-•su-rw xmkm it was returned from the Jaw draftsman.

I bn.ve found it. to he impossible," h-i ronohidefl. "to prepare the business of .-the-House as it ought- to be prepared. Therefore I movo the adjournment."