FIREWORKS IN PARLIAMENT.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19530, 13 July 1925, Page 8

FIREWORKS IN PARLIAMENT.

AN ACRIMONIOUS DEBATE. FOUR GOVERNMENT VICTORIES MAJORITY OF FOUR ON QRUCTAT/ DIVISION. (Feom Ode Own Cobbebpondent.) WELLINGTON, July 12. The week in Parliament ended with fireworks. It was Mr Harry Atmore, the Independent member ior Nelson, who set than alight, and they contrived to fizz and splutter and explode from early afternoon until past midnight. Judging from what some of the speakers said, the negotiations in regard to fusion were still going on, notwithstanding the fact that the Evening ' Post and several Liberal papers had stated .on July 8 that fusion was definitely off. *Mr Atmore was out of the Chamber when the time came for him to move his amendment about ihe necessity for a Notional Government. The Prime Minister had riser* to state the obvious—that the Government, according to precedent, must regard any attempt to add words to the Address-in-Reply- to his Excellency’s message as a vote of no-confidence in the administration, when someone pointed out that Mr Atmore was absent. A member hurried out in seal ch of him, and Mr Coates halted in his brief speech until Mr .Atmore made his 'appearance. Mr Coates was courteous but explicit, and when he had resumed his 1 seat no other member rose, and Mr Atmore had perforce to speak or let his amendment go straight to a division. It was evident that he was very much anannoyed, and that he suspected trickery, but not pn the part of the Government . Mr Wilford asked Mr Atmore if he would > give way for a moment. Evidently he ■ Wished to make some explanation, but Mr ' Atmore, in no uncertain manner, made it K’ ‘ i that he would not give way to the ex of the Opposition, who, he said, still had the right to speak, and could make ■rake his explanation when he chose to speak. Mr Atmore was handicapped in that, being taken unawares, he was without his notes; but he sent for them, and in a few minifies they were on his desk. Mr Atmore’s speech consisted of arguments, in favour of a National Government, and one of his somewhat vitriolic attacks on the Labour Party. Mr Peter Eraser, the Labour member for Wellington Central, with the gloves off, dealt with the member for Nelson in a speech more trenchant and sarcastic than any that has been heard in the House for many years. After Mr Lee, another Labour , member, had added a few bombs : to the pyrotechnic display, and the Hon. ' Mr Anderson had brought the debate back to a milder tone, the House adjourned -.lor dinner. Th air was, however, still sulphurous, and members instead of walking out of the Chamber, as they usually do, remained in little groups, and wordy duels, in the course of which strong language - could be heard, continued for some. time. A Minister of the Crown was evidently Wry much annoyed with something an ©tago Liberal had been saying. - Mr. Atmore was annoyed with the Labour Party and the Liberals, and the Labour Party was vexed with Mr Atmore Mr J. C. Thomson, the member for Wallace, who was to have seconded Mr Atmore’s amendment, could not do so because he had already spoken to a prior amendraeAt, so there came to his aid Mr Corrigan, from Patea, a back-bench ■ Liberal of sporting instincts, but no orator as Brutus was, and with whose action his leader seemed none too pleased. Mr Coates and his party were enabled to .- watch the drama in a detached and amused way. The upshot of it all was that Mr Atmore seemed to be left without any friends and stood alone, a party of one, yet compelling jMr Wilford by the - very nature' of his amendment to follow him into the lobby, while the Labour members also were compelled to vote with him by reason of the amendment being a noconfidence one. Altogether it was a pretty mix-up. However, the soothing influence that supervenes upon high tea, the plebian meal that has shifted dinner in Bellamy’s bom 6 to 1 p.m., was noticeable when the House resumed, and Mr Anderson continued his speech. Late* in the night the debate again became heated, and towards midnight Mr Holland put the finishing touches upon Labour’s satirical , denunciation of the member for Nelson. Mr Holland referred to what he termed Mr Atmore’s political inconsistency. He had twice voted con■fldcnce In the Government within the last few days, and just now he had voted ■ against the very principle embodied in his ' own motion, and on the fourth he was going to vote no-confidence in the Government. As to Mr Atmore’s refereorcs to revolutionary Socialists he had actually asked one of those revolutionary Socialists, Mr P. C. Webb, to move a motion against the present Government. At a meeting in the Town Hall he had asked the revolutionary Socialist to move a vote against the Government he, Mr Atmore, now wanted to fuse with. He had condemned the Government as legislating in the interest of class, and now he wanted to fuse with it Mr Holland quoted liberally from Mr Atmoire’s past speeches in proof of his (Mr Holland’s) assertions. He had, said Mr Holland, accused the Government of sharp practice, trickery, and subterfuge. Tet he wanted an amalgamation of the two sides because he recognised they were the same. However, the member for Wellington Central had dealt with the hon. member. “Some years ago,’’ said Mr Holland, “out at Tom Ugly’s Point; near Sydney, there was an old cockatoo—more than 100 years old, and the old bird had shed every feather he had. He was a very fluent talker, not quite so fluent as the member for Nelson, but still a fluent talker, and he would sit on his perch, and, holding his head sideways, would say “God bless my soul. They haven’t left me a feather ’ to fly with.’” That, added Mr Holland, was the position of the member for Nelson after the member for Wellington Central had dealt with him. The hon. member had attempted to attack the Labour Party through the editor of the Maoriland Worker, but that editor had fought in the Boer War as a boy when the member for Nelson was right in the prime of his youthful manhood. But they .had not read anywhere in history that the member for Nelson had gone to the Boer War. _ , . As to the Great War, while it was on the hon. gentleman was doing the fighting in a whare in the bush out Nelson way. He was the man behind the gun—lo,ooo miles behind the gun —and he stayed that distance away urging young men to go. “Imagine him away up in some beautiful valley,” added Mr Holland, “and I know it is a' beautiful place, because I know a revolutionary Socialist who is a close personal friend of his —a man ho takes there sometimes, which shows that he is not even sincere in his attacks on the revolutionary Socialists, because he is associating with them even when he is libelling them.” Mr Holland devoted the remainder of his speech mainly to showing up the inconsistencies of the Leader of the Opposition. It was, he said, Mr Wilford’s vacillating attitude that left so many people wondering whether the measure of his sincerity ever rose above zero in the political thermometer. Mr Wilford was one day condemning the Reformers and the next day wanting to fuse with them. Replying to Mr Holland his not having gone to the war, Mr Atmore said: “Let me tell him that I have brought up a larger family than he has, that I did not dodge the war, and if I had been of the age conscription would have taken me had I not volunteered. I did volunteer, as a reference to the files will show, and I further tried when I was free of my responsibilities to get to the Old Country. The late High Commissioner, Sir Thomas Mackenzie, will tell you of the letter I wrote. As far as my whare in the mountain is concerned, it is a week-end resort where some of my friends go, and as far as dodging is concerned it is right alongside the town.” During the clay there were some tense situations. The debate did not end till half an hour after midnight, at which time there were still numbers of men and women in the galleries, including a parly from Government House —the women of the latter in Mr Speaker’s gallery, and the ■ men on Mr Speaker’s loft in seats on the ' floor of the House usually reserved for distinguished strangers. At one stage the division promised to bo closer than it actually was. for one of the Reform members was missing at midnight. However, the debate was kept going until he put m an appearance, arid then the division was taken. Mr Lysnar walked out and did not vote,' but Mr Poland’s vote cast with the Reformers gave Mr Coatee a.