TIME LOST IN TALK

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIX, Issue 21324, 27 October 1932, Page 13

TIME LOST IN TALK

MR. WILKINSON'S YIEW CABINET PARTLY TO BLAME LEGISLATION NOT READY [nY TELEGRAPH—SPECTAT. REPORTER] WELLINGTON, Wednesdny Do members of Parliament talk too much ? Different answers to that question were given by successive speakers in the Budget debate in tho House of Representatives to-day. Mr. J. Ilargest (Government—lnvercargill) said that, as a new member, he was perturbed by the attitude of some newspapers in urging that members should be moro frequently silent. Ho came to Parliament to take part in the council of tho country. He had no other way of doing so except by speech, and he intended to avail himself of that privilege. He had been struck, however, by the lack of responsibility shown by some members. When Supply was to bo voted such members wasted the day in tedious repetition on all sorts of subjects and then voted millions in a matter of minutes. Looking back on tho legislation of tho past few years, ho thought members had spoken not too much but too little. If members had said what they thought about somo bills and voted accordingly, some laws now condemned would not have reached the Statute Book. A different note was struck by Mr. C. A. Wilkinson (Independent—Egmont), who followed Mr. Hargest. Mr. Wilkinson said Parliament had been in session for over a month, but so far no legislation .had been passed. In his opinion a good deal of the criticism levelled at Parliament in respect to its conduct of the country's business was justified. It was time members applied themselves in a businesslike way to the conduct of public affairs. If they went along at the present pace it would be impossible to complete by Christmas the business they had been called together to transact. Three weeks before Parliament met the Prime Minister stated that no consideration had then been given to the legislative proposals for the session. It was the duty of the Cabinet during the recess to consider every legislative measure it was intended to place before Parliament, and the bills should be ready when members assembled. There had been far too much delay this year.