LIFE OF PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22887, 16 November 1937, Page 8

LIFE OF PARLIAMENT

By bringing in a bill to restore three-year Parliaments, the Government is doing what the Prime Minister lias repeatedly pledged that it would do. In a statement last March Mr. Savage said he and his partv had undertaken to repeal the legislation providing for Jouryear Parliaments. He did not put it altogether that way before the election. He did give a pledge that it they were put in power they would return to the country at the end of three years. That could have been done without altering the law. However. in view of the objection taken to what the previous Government did or rather to the way it was done -Mr. Savage is being consistent in following liis present course. It puts the fulfilment of his pledge beyond doubt or question. The Prime Minister has also shown himself favourable to the idea of a longer term, provided the issue is put to the people beforehand. There is much to be said for his view. Those best acquainted with procedure realise how the echoes of the previous election campaign affect the first session, how the shadow of the coming contest lies over the last, leaving only the middle session of a three-year term for work free of such distractions. Those conditions, and the saving of expense in the course of years, are the chief arguments for a longer term, four years being a reasonable span. The Prime Minister may be able to have itdiscussed dispassionately, tested, and, if approved, given effect without all the factious argument that has marked its consideration hitherto. All this ought to be possible without the cumbersome referendum Mr. Savage mentioned as a possible device.