A SHORT SESSION.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20113, 26 November 1928, Page 8

A SHORT SESSION.

The session of Parliament to open next week will be described in the usual way by those who classify these sittings, as a '"'short'session." This is the term usually applied to any emergency meeting of Parliament, called out of the ordinary sequence. It should, on all appearances, be short also in the absolute sense. The members have been summoned for a specific purpose, so that the test which is life or death for a Government may be applied. That business, together with the election of a Speaker, will be, so far as can he seen at present, all that need be transacted. There is no supply to be voted, and it would be absurd to suggest any legislation should be submitted for consideration. The issue is a simple one A motion expressing lack of confidence in the Government will be moved, debated, and decided on a vote of the House. Parliament met for the same purpose in February, 1012. What happened then is not likely to bo repeated in its essential features next week. Strengths were evenly balanced, the exact intentions of enough members to swing the issue one way or the other were not definitely known. Even up to the last stage of the debate, the issue of the motion was in doubt. Recriminations flew across the Chamber. The manner in which the election campaign had been fought was commented on bitterly. Questions of privilege wero raised. For days the process of thrust and parry was prolonged. When finally the voices were silent arid the division bell rang, the result was that a Government, pledged to reconstruction, was saved from an immediate fall by the casting vote of the Speaker. Predictions aro never safe, I>ut the conditions now existing arc so markedly different from those of 1912, that it can certainly be said the forthcoming session will be briefer, less acrimonious and less dramatic than its nearest precedent. There is no doubt about a majority on the principal motion. The situation becomes less clear only when it has been carried. The true enigma of tho position resides in what is likely to happen afterwards, especially when Parliament next meets for the transaction of business.