THE BIG "POW-WOW"

NZ Truth, Issue 873, 19 August 1922, Page 6

THE BIG "POW-WOW"

Pertinent & Impertinent Palaver

A Question of Privilege.

MARKING TIME. The House wound up the week m characteristic style by side-stepping all that heavy business which the Government is continually telling us is ready for. deliberation. This was due 'to that, regular and detestable practice of. week-ending, a habit which has grown into what amounts to practically a conspiracy. on behalf of all parties to let each other go home from Saturday to Tuesday, and devil take the business of the country. Friday, which later m the session is regarded as one of the heaviest working days of the week, m the earlier stages simply degenerates into a farce so far as getting business any fprrader is concerned! As the result of a day's hard labor last Friday our exhausted members passed the first reading of the Mosgiel Borough Empowering Bill, toyed daintily with The Land Tax Bill m Committee, put the Rotorua Borough Bill through its remaining stages, read the Swamp Drainage Bill a second time and adjourned at 8.45 p.m. too" exhausted by its efforts to catch trains and boats to do anything further. THE FINE ANCIENT STATEMENT. The beginning of the week saw Mr. Massey m the limelight, proudly clothed m his Financial Statement, which is one of the longest on record, and fortified with a bag of peppermints and a bottle of hooch to permit his fulfilling the time-honored but absurd duty which demands that the Prime Minister shall read aloud to the House every word of his Statement. This he did with a fidelity worthy of a" better cause ; end the operation occupied two hours and a half of his valuable time and -yards of his laryngal appliances. The reading left the House only mildly impressed, for the state- • ment carried about as much wool as the average Pomeranian pup and just about as much body. The halfpennyworth of bread provided for consumption with this intolerable deal of sack showed a revenue estimated for the current financial year of £26,250,000, as compared with an estimated expenditure of £27,938, 215, and a transfer of £2,000,000 from those nebulous accumulated surpluses is proposed to make up the deficiency. For the rest this complicated document, about which there will be much more to say, covered arid uncovered a multitude of sins and forecasted a plenitude of economies and other alleged virtues. It went at great detail, into £he various departmental processes, many of which had already been dealt with m reports, and the conduct of the .economy campaign, the further reduction of expenditure, the suggested juggling with the public debt and an invostir gation of the pensions system, ih view! of the immense increase m pensions expenditure. Furthermore, it mention-, ed that the proposed Dominion con/ tribution towards Naval Defence would be a cool half-million a year. OUTFIGHTING. When the unfortunate Prime Minisert had hoarsely staggered through his peroration it was proposed to take the debate on the Statement upon Friday, another sop to the Cerebus of precedent, but the Leader of the Opposition, who is nothing if not practical, hind - legged up and angled for a postponement until Monday, m order that the Liberp.l Party might have a fair and reasonable opportunity,,, to digest the mass of figures and statistics and reports and demonstrations covered by Mr. Massey's sermon m seven acts and a prologue and epilogue. For once the PIM. was m a generous" mood and had no hesitation m agreeing to this very reasonable request. Thus has another little tombstone been erected to mark the grave of Precedent. % "THE TAIL OF ME COAT." "Birds m their little nests agree," said Dr. Watt senteritiously, and as a rule members '"of the House devote' Wednesday, which is "private members' day" — presumably meant for members' private day — to the discussion of joyous trivialities, such as what '< education test shall be applied to the Borneo borer or whether the cost of charladies for the Buildings is a curtailed extravagance. These are raise*! per medium of a substantial list of printed answers to questions, which is issued first thing m the afternoon, and j with which members are permitted, to dally until the night session. But this week there was something wrong with the temper of the House. Ip pursuit of the advice of the Duchess, Mr Massey was the first to Get angry with your little boy, , And slap him when he sneezes; He only does it to annoy, Because he knows it teases. Jimmy McCombs was the little boy whom he proposed to slap and , the slapping /he wished administered by Headmaster Speaker was all' on account of Jimmy having issued an explanatory memorandum -with his Proportional Representation Bill, which the other Bill deemed to contain matter constituting a breach of privilege. Mr. Speaker reserved, judgment, and Jimmy is as yet unexecuted. The next row arose over the suggestion that union accounts should be audited, and there were mutual recriminations between Labour benches and the Government, each pot suggesting that m this matter the kettle was black, whilst each kettle responded that the pots were far from being auburn. • The interchange of politenesses and "You're anothers" was barky without being bitey, and ended nowhere. Mr. Mitchell's moderated Child Sustenance Bill got a more sympathetic hearing, until the headmaster ruled 1^ out of order as It contained a provision for ' an appropriation, and this little innocent went down with all hands to the bottom of the submerged tenth. In desperation the House passed the Hutt Road Amendment Bill, and,, adjourned. , , TRE JAMBOREE OVER JAMES. The House met licking its chops on Thursday afternoon, m eager anticipation of the. imminent spanking of Jimmy ■ McCombs for having: ;<3one those" things that he ought not to have done, m connection with the notorious memorandum of "explanation" attached when circulating his Proportional Re-

presentation Bill. The Speaker had slept on James overnight—metaphorically speaking, of -course— and he delivered hB sentence early m the afternoon, holding that a prima facie case ' of breach o<£ privilege had been made •out. He then threw Jimmy into the arena for the lions to "wrastle with." The lions were evidently hungry, for they got busy at once andt spent most of the sitting gnawing Jimmy's 'bones and fighting for the scraps- The Prime Minister 'had first bite, and moved formally that James had been guilty of a breach of the privileges of the House. Thereafter the Reform members set out to show that the erring member had been guilty of lese majeste, and twins, and sedition and housemaid's knee andother horrors affecting the alleged dignity of the House. Also that he was a Sohnorrer and a hoodoo and a Galifornian thistle and generally just a hunk of political immorality. In :betv/en their chorus of "ain't 'c a 'ound" the Liberal and Labor members took hands and danced round the mulberry bush proclaiming that James was a martyr, and a Daniel come to judgment, and a prophet without honor m his own country and the original of Tom Bracken's "Not Understood," andthat he ought to have a piece of cake instead of a w-hipping, and generally extolling virtues that James never knew before that he possessed. Finally late, late m the evening they got tired of the game and took a division on Bill's motion, which was carried by 44 votes to 21, so that Jimmy is a little over two parts good to one part bad. The Prime Minister administered the final kick and put the boot m on the prostrate James by contemptuously moving the adjournment of the House, and the worried terriers wandered home, leaving all the honors to the culprit who had succeeded m getting m his little spoke and going unpunished. A TAME SAVAGE. Mick Savage, who is" the most in-' appropriately- named man m the House, for when away from the undesirable company he keeps he is the essence, of tameness and diffidence, and can blush Hike an elderly spinster when occasion offers, got momentarily m the public eye' when he introduced his Motherhood Endowment Bill. How he ever screwed his courage up to the stage of even mentioning the word 'mother" this scribe cannot understand, but he took the whole plunge and proceeded to explain that his little Bill provided that every man, married -or single, should be entitled to receive the ■ basic Wage designed to support a family of four and that the Government should pay the mothers for extra children. As Mick himself is a singularly modest bachelor he iiad no axe to grind m venturing his j ■oposal and was entirely disinterest- 'j ed m the matter, buL his eyg j.u.uo.! to hatch out, as the proceedings were interrupted by the breach of privilege debate, a matter of far more vital import to the country than the welfare of its motherhood, and which, per- : force, had to take precedence. This heard of no more this session, so far as Mick's mothers and his children — political ones, only, of course— will be heard of no more this session so far as his admirable Bill is concerned.