Over the Speaker’s Chair.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 956, 27 June 1890, Page 12

Over the Speaker’s Chair.

The opening Beenes of Parliament are always flat, stale, and unprofitable; the opening of the fourth session of the tenth Parliament of Now Zealand was no exception to the rule, except that it was more so, aud that an indescribable melancholy hung like a pall over assembled honorable members. Perhaps this was only natural, seeing that so many of them were shortly to pass away, politically speaking, and be no more seen within those legislative walls.

It will probably not be credited, but nevertheless is it a fact, that even the tough and experienced occupants of the Press Galiery felt depressed and out of form ; but this, of course, was due to the remembrance, that would obtrude itself, how in but a brief space of time they would have to write the epitaphs of many ot those they saw in the chamber below them, and how difficult it would be to do bo with due regard to veracity and the time-honored de mortuis nil nisi bonum.

The continued dejection apparent on the countenances of the faithful Commons when they returned from the Legislative Chamber, is only another proof of how wanting the human race generally is in a fine sense of humour. Viewed from the proper standpoint, the time-honoured Speech from the Throne at the opening of Parliament is of the essence of satirical comedy, and it has generally been understood that only the awe, inspired by the Windsor, consular, and military uniforms, prevented an open exhibition of mirth on the part of the audience.

And surely his Excellency’s speech this year was no exception in either the matter of satiie or of comedy. What, for instance, could be finer in the satirical vein, or more delicately put, than the information conveyed that the Governor had elected to desert the Seat of Government and reside for several months in the other chief cities of the Colony, merely, of course, to extend his knowledge of the country over which he has the honour to preside ! And then as to the satirical low comedy, is it not sufficient to refer only to the eulogistic mention made in the Governor’s Speech of “ the large proportion of happy and healthy children who were prominently put forward ” to join in the Jubilee celebrations ; to the fact that his Excellency was struck “ with the orderly behaviour of the great crowds of people ” who assembled on those occasions ; and to the reference made in the Speech to the “ Sweating ” Commission !

Now it would have been thought that bon members would have returned from the reading ot such an intensely amusing document consumed by meriiment. But they were not. It was left for the Veteran Actor of the House to make dramatic capital of the Speech, even as in the burlesque proper the heavy father takes a leading and appropriate place. Sir George Grey saw his opportunity and seized it. For a brief interval at least he could pose once more as. the champion of the rights of the down trodden serfs and of the unborn millions, and as the leader of the Opposition. All that inimitable pathos was there in bis admirably managed vocal intonation as he pleaded for an instantaneous dissolution of Parliament and an appeal to the country, while out of the corner of his right eye he was hugely enjoying Mr Ballance’s temporary discomfiture. And when the Speaker informed Sir George that the Standing Orders prevented his amendment to the motion for the adjournment of the House being put, the most critical observer, not knowing Sir George, would have staked what was left of his reputation that the Grand Old Man bad never heard of the existence of uch a Standing Order, and was consequently overwhelmed by surprise and an indignant sense of oppression. It wa3 a grand piece of acting, and it brightened the House up,

which was more to the point, from a Press Gallery reporter’s point of view.

For what inscrutable re son the moving of the Address-iu-Reply was placed in the hands of an hon member of whom it is sufficient to say “And he was a Tanner,” it is difficult to guess. Perhaps no one else would undertake the task. But however that may be, the result turned out most fortunately. Everyone will regret that la grippe had Mr Tanner in its feverish grasp, but no one will regret that owing to that fact Mr Tanner was unable to make a speech on the occasion. The Address-in-Reply was introduced with probably the shortest preface on record, and the seconder, Mr Ross, was considerably flabbergasted thereby. Mr Ross is one of the most estimable and respected members of the House, but he does not shine as an orator. When therefore he ha3to address the House at greater length than is required for the mere notice of a motion or question, Mr Ross is wont to write his speech out, and refer very frequently to the copy when delivering his speech. Now, Mr Ross, if report can be relied on, had prepared an elaborate address as seconder to the motion for the Address-in-Reply, and it coinmencedin some such fashion as this :—“ After the eloquent remarks of the hon member who has just sat down, etc., etc.” Mr Ross had learnt this off by heart, and when Mr Tanner, owing to la grippe, collapsed as it were, the suddenness of things was too much for him, and he had no time or self-possession at hand to formulate another lead off to his intended speech. Of course, his reference to Mr Tanner’s eloquent remarks was immensely funny under the circumstances, and Mr Ross, for the first and only time in his life, posed in the character of a humorist of the first water.

Ths absolute barrenness of the criticism by the leader of the Opposition on the Governor's Speech can only be excused by hia following the common course of regarding that speech, which contained nothing solid, as a serious, sober, and important State document. Any ordinary newspaper man would have dealt with the Speech as a huge joke, and made any amount of “light and attractive ” fun out of it.

The Hon Mr Hislop made the mistake of trying to answer Mr Ballance, t who had not said anything, and consequently Sir George Grey had a fair and open field when he followed with a patriotic appeal as an introduction to liis amendment to the Address-in-Reply in the direction of a petition to the Governor for a dissolution of Parliament. The astute old Knight’s appeal differed only from the hundred or so other appeals of his of the same class, with which the habitues of the House are familiar, in that he omitted any reference to the unborn millions. Every pressman in the gallery made a note of this fact, and a well-known and oft-tried “ special ” who had written a synopsis of Sir George Grey’s speech in advance had to recall his telegram to strike out those pregnant words.

Surely it is the irony of Fate when Mr R. M. Taylor, of Sydenham, follows Sir George Grey, but the contrast of style thereby exhibited is a liberal education. Mr Tayior, however, was in a humorous vein—of course there are degrees of humour, but Mr Taylor’s was one of them—and moreover he had elected to stonewall in order to allow absent members a chance of arriving in Wellington and recording their views, if not their votes, on the poiut raised hy Sir George. It is sufficient to say that when Mr Taylor stonewalls the House is adjourned as speedily as possible.