Peeps at Parliament.

Free Lance, Volume XIV, Issue 692, 4 October 1913, Page 22

Peeps at Parliament.

afternoon, and a sleepy House. > Curious point arises as ~' to the rights of -Parliamentary •committees. ■ A committee is 1 considering the* petition of : Mr. Peter Heyes, who •asks for a re-consideration of his case. JVIc. Heyes held high official position in 'the State, and. was retired from 'the* service after a departmental inquiry. < Mr. ', Heyes holds that he was wrongly retired. '■' Tne committee; to decide on the ■ justice or injustice of Mr. Heyes' case, must review the evidence on- "which he was retired. But the Minister, Mr. Bell, declines to have the, evidence produced. On which the committee comes to the House for guidance.' .The matter is held over till the Prime Minister and , the'.Speaker have time to consider the ■fact.:',- ■' , ... . - The position is curious, because if the /■Minister'is upheld, it does not seem that ' "there is much Bense \ in. Parliamentary •committees. A committee may receive confidential; information, and '■■- keep it •confidential; but if the committee is not furnished _with the information at all, it looks as if the committee must be in a •queer fix. Needless to say. there can be no suggestion that any confidential information • held' by the Treasury Department should in any sense be made. pub-. ' Jftc. Plenty of confidential information! goes to such committees in other parts of the world, and there is no breach of •confidence. : "The Right Honourable my friend, the honourable Prime Minister, the hon. members, Mr. Massey."—Extended dea-' fcriptions by Mr. Glover, M.P. . Mr. Colvin is,* on his appearance, the •true patriarch of Parliament. The beard .is fine, but the hat does it. Mr. Colvin ■probably'feels this, for he keeps his hat •on in the House most of the time. It is the sort of hat that Walt Whitman wore, and there is a distinct Whitmanesque suggestion about , Mr/ Colvin when he wears it. It is a democratic b.at,: a v hat; of. dignity. \ When, Mr; Colirin wears it yoG may look where; iyou •will, but your, gaze always travels back "to Mr. Colvin. "It is a fascinating hat, : -a hypnotising hat, a hat there's• no. getting away from. I, couldn't. afford to wear one like it. myself, because if I did T should be mistaken for a poet. -<'. This sleepy afternoon nobody feels like ..<work, and everybody dodges it. So that ■when the order for the second reading of the Aid to Public Works ahd.Lands Settlement Bill is called, Mr. Allen is not in his place. He is away somewhere— studying elocution or sucking amber cbm■fort through a straw, maybe. r ': While'he ia being'looked for, the House subsides into slumber, and snores as one man. After which Mr. Allen is discovered and brought in. He licks his lips and has a pleasing smile. He begins to explain "the BUI, and the House promptly begins

FROM THE PRESS GALLERY.

{Written for the New Zealand Free Lance.by Frank Morton.)

to sleep harder than ever. There never was a drowsier afternoon. Even .when Mr. Allen talks figures il- ■ mstrative of what, he* takes to be the financial condition of the Government, interest, although certainly stimulated, is .still mild. Members and 1011. ..'.-"■ Mr. Wilson/ of Taumarunui, has lost • hia volubility and snap during these past few weeks. And yet not eo long ago there was no holding him down, and he bade fair to become one of the humourists of Parliament. But now Mr. Wilson ; merely sits silent and blinks. -."■ He is grea't in bovine calm. He seems to cherish a secret pain. Something has sad- ■ dened him. He no longer' leaps and sings. He needs a tonic. A'long course of strict party discipline has depressed-, him more,than words can tell: Sir Joseph Ward is an exception this . afternoon. He is wide awake, and very keen and spry. He speaks with astonishing and unusual crispness, actually, catching and rounding-up his parentheses before they have time to get away on the loose.. He says that something tickles, him to death. Don't know what it is exactly—something concerned with the wjzardry of Mr. Allen's finance." He. talks- of political 'flapdoodle. He is graphic and verbally gay. It must be difficult, to get gay in a place like this, on such an afternoon. One can't help not ing that Sir Joe's deliberate style of ut-' terance greatly improves his oratory. Let him stick to it. Mr. Massey,. fresh from the stimulus / of his rural jaunt to Palmerston, is full of ginger, if not exactly gay. Att\this talk about finance is not inspiring \of -pure-delight, because in financial matters our prominent politicians are becoming ; too timid to let their imaginations have full play. The curious thing about these debates on financial matters is that >, no- ' body pretends to follow the speakers at all closely. /While Mr. Massey is'telling of'the wonderful financial'achievements' of his Government, I can only pick out five or six members who seem'to me listening to himf. Sir Walter Buchanan listens, Mr. Hine listens, Mr. AHen listens, Mr, Russell listens. But Mr. Wilson is writing letters; Mr. Rhodes is dreaming of J&iß next speech or • something, a dozen others are turning over papers or just fluffing aimlessly about. _ -Mr. Poland is'frightfully busy about something. Tve been watching him for five minutes, and I'm quite unable to ~ decide what he's doing. He scribbles at a tremendous rate for a few seconds, . then he looks blankly at the ceiling with his eyes screwed up, then he. scratches his nose, then he smiles. Next moment he_ is, scribbling again like anything. I think he must be .writing a poem. Some.thing like this, perhaps— I would I were a jovial king " Of Yvetot, or some gay classy

Old duke; but not for anything Would lb© "William Frederic Massey. • It really must be very hard , To talk about the State's finances,' When's one financial face is scarred, < . And sour and grim the cold world's, glance is. - ' 1 think there is some more, but I can't guess for the life of me what it is. i only know that Mr. Poland beams.like a contented Christian gentleman and appears well content' to keep his own name. , . Mr. Russell is in good form, but I wish to goodness he would not be for ever quoting poetry. Poetry and politics don't go well together, espec ally when one is no poet. Mr. Russell seldom quotes effectively; but when he is content with plain talk without frill he hits shrewdly. , Mr. ; Rhodes, of the Thames, is worth watching. _ Never * was a busier little man., He is never still for half a minute. He frisks and flutters like a bantam pullet. He says <I understand) that he was once a newspaper-man; but he has apparently lived it down. .Nowadays he issaid to 'be full of ambition. H«. yearns for splendid fame as an orotor, and he loves to think that some day he may be mistaken for Mr. Lee, of Oamaru. It is a noble and uplifting dream. In their moments "of wildest hope I suppose that both. Mr. Rhodes' and Mr. Lee have faith to believe that some day they will be distinguished, public nien like Mr. Escott. Dr. Newman gets up in a merry mood tu assure Mr. Russelt that he is the cieverest member of the Opposition. The little doctor is in hijs characteristic joyous after-dinner mood. He doesn't pre- . tend to know anything much about finance, but he chirps as confidently as if he'd, invented it. But there is a quite delicious honesty about Dr. Newman. He says that if there was no such thing asparty there would probably be a lot of sense talked in the House. He is the most lukewarm" apologist of" the Massev Government—the most lukewarm apologist that any Government ever had. The fact is that Dr. Newman is rapidly becoming the enfant terrible of the Government Party. Mr. Fisher enjoyedthat distinction for a few months J but now he sits back and says nothing. But whenever Dr. Newman begins to talk, Mr. Ma6sey and Mr; Allen look" nervous. There is no telling at what minute Dr. Newman will reveal some dangerous secret of the prison-house. If Dr. Newman were as silent as Mr. Fisher, his chief would feel happier and safer. ,»' *..«••.* Mr. Allen, by "' the way, looks more and. more clerical as every bill passes. He' reminds me of a divinity student extravagantly grown- up. when he geis up to speak I have an odd feeling that he is:about to plead for bibles and blankets for the Afghans. He-does nothing of, the sort. He has wonderful self-con-trol. - . One way and another, it is a dull day for the ingenuous paragraphist. No humourous incidents, no scandals, no A.long talk on finance—much ,bf it, most of it, even the merest verbage. Finance is most emphatically one of those subjects on which a member should only •speak when he has something to say

On Wednesday afternoon a lot of talk about the necessity of preventing civil servants from doing anything to supplemen their incomes. Still no reason disclosed/why they should "be prevented at' -vr ml servants have small salaries in .New Zealand, and sometimes large families. If such can better their position by industry practised in their hours of leisures-why not? ,If a civil servant owns a cow, and has to feed and tend it, who is harmed if he .sells-a gallon of milk? Nobody ever objected to Mr. Hubert Church or Mr. Johannes C. An-- , derson writing verse for Australian aiewspapers. Why, then, if one man sells a sonnet, should another be.- prevented s from profiting by the product of - his cow? .What Earthly harm can it'do if x a civil servant teaches music in his spare t:me. instead of following the races and "vK o^^ti- 1 ?? bars ? Ecn ° answers. Wnat?' — what! ."Noted as.a blessed sign of his increasingly angelic temper that Mr. Massey's - scalp shines a bit more; brilliantly every day It reflects .the lights-ln pointe tpat dance when he moves. When he" waxes eloquent arid moves a lot, those ' £lT Dff ™ ntS an ? dazzling to behold Thus may a sober and reverend legislative personage fulfil his destiny on be trusted to keep all suggestion of fireworks out of his -speeches.