Spirit of the Press.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 606, 15 September 1883, Page 17

Spirit of the Press.

The efficiency of a Parliament in expressing the national sentiment depends far more largely than is generally supposed on its choice of the best methods of procedure. If the modes in existence do not allow of sufficient time for measures to be considered before they are discussed, or if, on the other hand, the time which can be spared for discussion is wasted by bad management,' the quality of the legislation decided upon necessarily suffers. A short time back we called attention to the first of these eyils, as shown in the habit which has grown up of printing Bills a long time after their first reading, and only just before their second, so that, as a matter of fact, the Press has no opportunity to comment on Bills at the very best occasion for doing so, and members are almost obliged, or think they are obliged, to speak first, and think over the subject afterwards. We trust that before long the evil we complain of may be remedied, and that it may be ordered that all Bills shall be printed forthwith as soon as they are read a first time. A remedy for another parliamentary evil of a different kind, namely, unnecessary loss of time, was suggested almost accidentally by what occurred on the last day ot the session just closed. It had been generally assented to that on Thursday last the work of the House of Representatives should finish. There were, however, in addition to the other business on the Order Paper of the day to be disposed of, no less than thirty-four questions to be answered. It was at first suggested, that all these should be postponed until later on in the day, and then take their chance of being put. This, however, was strongly objected to. Accordingly Mr Seddon proposed, and Major Atkinson assented on behalf of the Ministry, to a resolution that the questions should all be merely asked without comment and apswered without comment by the respective Ministers. This course was adopted, and all the questions were disposed of in about three-quarters of an hour, instead of about three times that period. Seeing the good effect of the new method, Mr Shaw gave notice that he would move at the beginning of next session that a similar course in future should be regularly adopted with regard to questions. This amendment is so obvious an advantage in the saving of unnecessary time, that we trust it may be carried into effect. A member of the House likely to be well informed on the subject assures us that on the average an hour and a-half every day during the sessio i is lost by the present method of allowing extraneous matter to be introduced in asking questions and replying to them. .It would be very easy in future, when the Order Papers for the day are being printed, to add the answers eriven by the Ministers at feet of all of the questions. The additional expense in printing would be next to nothing, and the saving of time, if our Parliamentary friend’s estimate is correct, would be no less than 90 hours in the course of even a session as short as that which has just transpired. Another saving of a large quantity of time which is at present thrown away would be effected by adopting a suggestion recently thrown out by Mr Steward, the member for Waimate. He proposed that, instead of allowing, as at present, all Bills at whatever stage they mighthavehad arrived atthe end of the session to be dropped, and commenced de novo the next session, the work already done by Parliament with regard to them should be utilized, and they should be taken up at the stage to which they had goneand carried on from that point, unless objection was taken to so doing. This seems only reasonable. Bor just in the same way as when Bills are completed by Parliament, they are not supposed to be taken in hand again the next year and reviewed, so also when they have been only partly completed should they be considered as properly dealt with up to that particular point at which they have arrived. It is an idle waste of time to throw away all that has been done already, the more especially as a Parliament is not a fortuitous concourse of individuals, but a body having a continuous existence. It ought to be assumed as a matter of procedure that what it has done it has done pi’operly. Under the present system useful Bills are postponed sometimes for years, passing through the first and second readings, and perhaps through Com-

mittee, and then dropped, beeauso the end of the session is at hand, and there is no time to pass them through the remaining stages. Take, for instance, during the present session, the Contempt of Court Bill brought in by Mr Tole. Surely little argument would be needed by most reasonable politicians to show that this attempt to remedy the monstrous injustice at present existing, of placing the judges of the land outside o£ and above the law they administer, and giving them power in matters in which they personally interested, without any legal process whatever, to sentence men to fine or imprisonment for life, if they think fit, is one of those measures which ought to be passed. Well, this Bill has passed its first and second reading, and been ordered to be committed. But under the existing rules it has been dropped, merely because the session is over. A similar fate has befallen the Married Women’s Property Act and other useful measures. Surely much useful time might be saved in future, and reforms admitted to be necessary be more readily effected, if the existing procedure were altered. Many years ago, in Canada, the practice was amended in the direction we have referred to. The sooner it is altered here also the better.