RULES OF DEBATE.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIX, Issue 68, 17 February 1939, Page 6

RULES OF DEBATE.

LIBRARY CONFERENCE'

VALUABLE GUIDANCE,

One of the features of the New Zealand Library Association Conference, in Palmerston North, which has just concluded, was the strict Parliamentary procedure adopted in the transaction of business. The president (Mr T. D. H. Hall, C.M.G., LL.B.), is Clerk of the House of Representaties, and he thus brought to his office ail unusually sound knowledge of the rules of debate. Delegates, of course, were given every opportunity to express their views, but there was a time limit on speeches and each delegate was allowed to speak only once on the same subject. If a motion for extension of time was moved in favour of a , speaker, the chairman, in typical Parliamentary phraseology, sought the “pleasure of the conference.” Invariably it was a ease of “There appears to be no objection,” although one delegate, on one occasion, humorously sought to pose as Mr D. G. McDougall, who was notable while a member of the House for opposing extensions of time. Motions were put and the results declared in the language typical of Mr Speaker, while Mr Hall’s rulings and explanations as to when an “amendment” was not an amendment, and rather a direct negative, were interesting and educative. On the first occasion, when the conference went into “committee of the whole,” the president sought the pleasure of the delegates as to whether he should remain in the chair or whether, as is done in Parliament, he should give way to a chairman of committee. To those delegates who had never before sat under the chairmanship of Dir Hall the experience must have been an interesting and valuable one. A great deal of business was transacted and the fact that throughout the two days of the conference the time-table was adhered to reflects credit on a very able chairman. At the conclusion of the conference a motion expressing appreciation of Mr Hall’s efficiency, impartiality and sound judgment was carried by acclamation.