THE CONFERENCE HABIT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18849, 25 October 1924, Page 10

THE CONFERENCE HABIT.

The labours of the Municipal Con- j ference in Auckland have resulted in the passing of 140 remits in 450 minutes. Many of these remits affected important matters of principle, but the average time devoted to them was a trifle over three minutes. This suggests either that there was a remarkable degree of unanimity among members or that consideration was scamped. Moreover, despite the mass output of resolutions, complaint is made that the Government does not give proper attention to the decisions of the conference. The wonder is that the Government can give remits any attention at all. It is not only the boroughs, but the counties, and the farmers, the employers and the workers, the temperance and the liquor advocates, the sportsmen and the churches, every possible organisation in every possible interest— all these have their conferences, district, sub-provincial, provincial arid national, and all pass their remits. A great many are directed at • the Government, a paper deluge descending on Parliament House. The thing has become a sort of ritual. Every movement, however small, must have its conference, and the conference habit breeds the disease of "remits." This malady has two easily recognised symptoms, the use of the words "protest" and "urge upon the Government." No administration can hope to deal seriously with these thousands of protests from dozens of conferences, nor can it seriously examine the remedy "urged upon" it in place of the subject of the protest. It follows that much conference "work" is beating the air, sheer futility. The municipal delegates have admitted as much, and are seeking so to organise that their deliberations may be more effective. Indeed it is time that a general stock-taking of conferences was made. In the aggregate, they must cost public and private organisations a great deal, and value should be asked for money spent- It would seem that first the pruning knife should be applied ruthlessly to order papers. Subjects should be cut down to six or a dozen first-class issues, to be thoroughly examinedConclusions so reached would carry more weight, not only by, the thought given to them, but by the emphasis attaching to small numbers. The time thus gained in the conference chamber could be devoted, in the case of local bodies at least, to demonstrations of what is being accomplished by the. municipality in which the delegates are meeting. The educative aspect of conference should be made its salient feature. Instead of talking at a higher'authority through an infinity of remits, time would be more usefully spent in observing what brother boroughs are doing. The conference should be less a talking-shop and i more a school. . ' v^