EXTRACT OF PARLIAMENT

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1847, 31 July 1907, Page 34

EXTRACT OF PARLIAMENT

A FIRST IMPRESSION. —'• A Triumphant Democracy and its Legislators Who are not Orators Yet, but are Here Compared with some Australian Personages of Divers Sorts. The most stalwart and resolute democracy in the world. The country most notable for the freedom of its insticutions, the codrage of its experiments. The pearl of the Empire. Olympus of 'the gods that are to be. All that, I dare say. But the Parliament of New Zealand, on a first impression, does not tremendously impress. The newcomer tui'ns away a little disillusioned. Somehow, the proceedings seem, to lack the proper spirit of ; the great game. These patriots shine less with ardour than with a certain not unpleasing fatness; these tribunes affect the little ways of tradesmen out for the evening- There are no orators. There are no speakers to be. named in the same class witlr men like Alfred Deakin or George Houston Reid, or even with W. A. riolman, oi JNevv oouth Wales: who must not be classed with Air Reid anti tiie brethren, being quite too sincere and trustworthy to taken seriously as a politician, lne oratory of tsir Joseph Ward (winch has >ecin admired by many persons not reis merely tiie iiuency tnat conies irom a long acquaintance with more or less dignmeu assemblies. fair Joseph is a nuent speaker —j ust tnat. In his uuency t lie re are kinks and twists, parentneses unimislied or uroken short, miscalculated clauses tnat totter blindly away into tiie fog, similes stillborn, double negatives, tne tnousand and one'little things tnat on analysis make for incoherence—- : tnmgs, in short, tnat make it impossible to report bir josepii s speeches j ust as he speaks them, in this matter m is by no means singular, bcores or hundreds of good and famous speakei s nave precisely tnesc defects, and woise. ..ne uefects are entirely due to carelessness that has become habitual and hardened into style; and when a speaker has magnetism and force, when he has faith in himself and his star, \v r hen he is able o feign or feel conviction, such defects are noticed only by the man who emits epithets over a snorthand note. It is precisely because these detects are fatal _o oratory that we have no orators in ow Zealand. Our correct speakers are cold or tedious; our huent speakers have never apparently taken painis to be correct. But Mr Deakin speaks with wonderful accuracy, and a verbatim report of Mr Holman at his best is a page of stimulating prose that even the characteristic punctuation of the printers’ readers cannot wholly spoil. Mr Reid, when he rises to oratory, has the trick jf short and vivid sentences, and his humour is of the quality that giv es a „serviceable barb to what in another man’s mouth might be the inanest truism or the least likely lie. In the speakers of New Zealand -Parliament I find much to remind me of a debating society I was once foolish enough to belong to. There were all soits oi iat suburban persons in that society. And. . . well, one rather hates to be reminded of the ’follies of one’s youth, don’t you think? THE SCARCITY OF COMFORT. Showing how a General Attitude of ; Discomfort is Attributed to some Misunderstanding Relative to an Abstraction Known as Bellamy's.

I have formed the (opinion that in a democracy like NevK:. Zealand, where everything desirable is so abundantly assured, members of Parliament ougnt to be more comfortable than these members seem. There is in the general attitude a half-suggestion of a vague unease. In Sydney, in Brisbane, in Melbourne, and especially in blob art, the houses of Parliament are extremely pleasant clubs. While the houses sit (sometimes for days at a stretch) the bars are never closed; and there are always bohemian journalists about the smokmo- - gently willing to improve members’ minds and extend the scope of

legislative anecdotage. But in New Zealand Parliament there are no bars. i hear of some institution or abstraction known as Bellamy’s, and I am told that one of the Dunedin members,_ Mr .Barclay, goes to Bellamy’s occasionally to give other members lessons in elocution and the fitness of desperate words. Bellamy’s, therefore, would seem to be a sort of tea-shop or gymnasium, because I happen to know that Mr Barclay would not go into a bar even for a great reward. Whatever it is, Bellamy’s is important, because when I spoke to one member, deploring the lack of comfortableness in the general or average attitude of these legislators, he assured me that it all came from “blocking Bellamy’s,” and gave me further to understand that this country would go to

the dogs by the 13th J une next unless members insisted in the meantime that the essentially sacred character of Bellamy’s should be respected. Bellamy’s, then, would seem to be a sort of oratory or shrine, and I felt ray interest in it increase- But investigation proved difficult. I went to the Parliamentary Librarian, and he turned the light of his open countenance upon me and assurred mo that he had never heard of Bellamy’s, but would make inquiries. Mr Wilford was closeted with a deputation of esoteric. Buddhjsts in a committeeroom, and after waiting for him on the mat three hours, I retired impatiently and wrote him a note.,. So far, I have received no reply, and I suppose that he also is making inquiries Bellamy’s, 1 am afraid, is a sort ot subjective hallucination, like a certain New Liberal Party I once heard of.

GOSSIP IN A LIBRARY. Wilson will not Sing To-night; but the Library is Approved, Enfranchised Woman is Encouraged, and Mr Barclay is Horrified.

These notes being largely by way of introduction, I may as well get rid ofl the Library at once, as I have alluded to the Librarian. Mr Charles Wilson greeted me cordially, assured me that there were already so many newspapermen about the House that the advent of a new one had ceased to cause him any special pain, and asked me whether I had any special inter est in Montmartre. I admitted it, and mentioned that her name was Olympe and 10, we were friends at once. He said that he was very sorry that he had not a piano in his room, as it became necessary for him to defer the pleasure of singing to me; and I said that I would wrestle with my disappointment and hope on. He said that if ever anything happened to trouble or distress me. I could rely on his sympathy and help. I said that it seemed that nothing of that sort 'was going to happen at once. Then wo dropped into conversation, and under pressure he intoned his latest poem. The introduction was accomplished. The library is very fine and fireproof, and I have it on good authority that some of the books are read quite a lot. And it is a pleasure, surely, for any legislator to have at his hand a library where all the books are within reach. Tiiat is the case in Wellington; and it is not the case in any other Parliamentary library that I know. In most other libraries of the sort, it is necessary to climb rickety ladders, and the lighting of the upper shelves is often so bad that one has to bring down books experimentally to scrutinise titles. And half the time, you can’t find the ladder where you want it, and you have to search for it in odd corners, disturbing dreamy old country members who are taking copious notes from the Benares burton, and generally making yourself absurdly unpopular and pitifully out of breath. The new Zealand Library, quite the most convenient, seems to be otherwise one of the best, and if one or two professors were appointed to stand by and explain doubtful passages a fitting coping would be put to the generally excellent effect. Some day, when women get into Parliament, the Library will be made perfect by the necessary note of varying colour. The women of this country are becoming, ill the political sense, a shade too modest and retiring. That is a mistake. Lf you lie on your laurels too long, the laurels fade and wither. Passivity is a fault, and the ambitions of the gentler sex must be of a limitless scope. Non est forma satis; nec, quae vult bella videri. debet vulgari more placere sibi; as Hr T. E. Taylor remarked to a woman’s meeting on a famous occasion. He was right. Yes, indeed!

The women are needed in these legislative halls. At present, there is a too great placidity in the atmosphere, a too enfeebling calm. 1 - 4s I was coming from the Librarian’s room, I met Mr Barclay, and asked him to direct me to Bellamy’s. He seemed horrified, and hurried on. The mystery deepens.

THE PLACE OF PROPHETS. A Text of Mr Chesterton (who is really a very Foolish Person) is applied with Humility to Grave and Eminent Persons making Law. With the general tendency of modern Prophecy, Mr Chesterton has dealt. The passage is to be remembered. "The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playing at children’s games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow np. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called ‘Keep to-morrow dark,’ which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) ‘Cheat the Prophet. The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clever men have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. Then they go and do sometldng else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.” That seems to mo to be very well and tersely put; although at • least one dear old lady has pointed out (an the Otago Daily Times”) that Mr Chesterton is really a very foolish person. Ones sympathies go out to the writer who has not been fortunate enough to be educated in Otago. But I still think that Mr Chesterton’s point regarding the ordinary sort of prophet of this date is very well and tersely put. New Zealand is full of prophets. Some are in politics and some are not. In a world of traps and subterfuges, there remains always something to pe thankful tor. Mr Massey is an incorrigible prophet, and Mr James Allen (to one other) is a very incorrigible P r indeed. These and theor disciples prophesy, and their forebodings are recordeu In black clouds of type by.the Opposition newspapers. But notning m particular happens (except dividends), and the public of this. dommipn ; is so far removed from acrimony Qjf ( , .spirit that the prophets often die ...natural deaths. Then they are buried and . wailed over, and there are tombstones set up to inform the innocent and young that these were patriots. It is all very satisfactory. And a little sad.

A HISTORIAN NEEDED. An Aching Vacanacy Cries Aloud for one Smiles, and seme Great Men are Presented in Epitome. The is immediate need for a New Zealand historian of a new genre: say (for suggestion) a sort of Samuel Smiles. What may be called the personal lessons of this Parliament should be imperishably recorded in sixpenny editions without further delay. I mentioned Mr James Allen just now. He is a shining example of the fact that a persistent man may acquire a certain atmosphere of dignity, if he only persists long enough and is of strong confidence. Mr Allen is one of those correct speakers I spoke of—the speakers cold and tedious; but the atmosphere he has laboriously ar--1 ranged is such that it avails to cast an adventitious golden or coppery glow on even the greyest platitude and advertise his straightway for a man of character. Then there is Mr Sidey, who stands tor the visible victory of modesty over matter, a sort of deliberate Demosthenes triumphant over bleat. His is a great achievement. Then there is Mr torn Mackenzie. For political purposes, he has achieved a sort of as a humourist. He is, in truth, a very serious man, until a very serious faith in Mr Tom Mackenzie; but he knows better than to let any man think that; and as a result of his system he is able to sit quite comfortably astride 'of a fence, even when the fence has spikes. This also is wonderful. And Sir Joseph Ward's shrewdness is a weapon worthy of celebration in an epic, it is doubleedged, and of exquisite temper. More useful weapon politician never had. It is the veritable sword of the' spirit of Ward. When he has not time or ingenuity to deal with an opponent s argument strand by strand, he cuts through it. When, he cannot use tne sword effectively to clip a coterie's wings, he sticks it neatly through die gizzard. Otherwise, Sir Joseph is a great example of the wisdom of being amiable. He plays with edged tools conflicting or converging forces with an ease that is as delicate as sale. He can hoodwink an adversary so gently that the adversary will carry away a comfortable sense of having been coaxed and complimented. All these things, and many other such things as these, ' the Smiles of Maoriland might put into the sixpenny editions. _ I feel almost inclined to Smiles myself.

- THE INITIAL DIFFICULTY. ; The Woes of an Outsider are Suggested, a Dreadful Proposal is Scouted, and an Impudent Babu (possibly dead now) is held up to Ignominy. The - greatest initial difficulty of the simple outsider in this sacred place, lies in his ignorance of faces; so that, at the outset, he can only store up impressions • and be discreet. A rural oracle must be named by his name, and not offered for identification by a reference to his facial angle or hands conspicuously spatulate and sad. 1 cannot beg for your serious, consideration of a fluffy old gentleman with a bald and pinkish scalp and oddly self-conscious trousers, or ask you to rejoice with me ov.er the extraordinary phenomena displayed by a slab by young man with lips uneasy and unquiet eyes. Fair comment on a politician is legitimate and wholesome; but you've got to know 'im fust. I once rode in a hansom with a colonial governor who told me that his name was Brown; and ivhat would have happened if I had judged and advertised his Excellency as Brown, 1 still tremble to Conjecture. I know a newspaper editor in Australia, a splendid fellow and my friend, who is loved by a cityful of folk, and who still would get twenty years in any court of law on the unsupported testimony of his face. This journalism is a delicate business, appalling delicate at times. It makes you careful, doesn't it? as Mr Balfour remarked in one of his famous orations to the Philatelists' Society. To enable the outsider to judge dispassionately of Parliament on a first view, it would be necessary to make all the members wear dominos, or long cloaks and motormasks ; and that would place some members at such a horrid disadvantage that the suggestion only needs to be breathed in order to be scouted. Standing in an ante-room of the Viceroy's Council Chamber in Calcutta one day, I heard a member speaking on some matter concerning the taxation of rayat6. He spoke with telling enthusiasm, in a voice resonant and fine. He was rapid but intense; so that you could feel and enjoy his commas and semi-colons, and thrill to the admirable adjustment of his adroit parentheses. I knew nothing about the rayats then, or about anything else in particular; but this invisible orator made me feel that the rayats were my brothers. The deep notes of his voice were sd compelling that I could feel a little tremor in the furniture, such as the diapason of a great organ causes. Then I went into the chamber to take my turn, and found the veporter I was to relieve chewing his pencil in a fine abstraction. The speaker was Surendra Nath Banerji, a mere Babu! The bitter curse of Asiatic imitation is that sometimes.it seems to be finer than its original: a thing intolerable that every honest Anglo-Indian deplores. When a man speaks English better than the English, you may take him straightway for a bad fellow. No member of the New Zealand Parliament commits any fault so heinous. Next week, if Parliament still exists, I shall begin to know somebody. That will be very enjoyable. ... ■•■■■■. '• —-F.M.