PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20583, 5 December 1928, Page 8

PARLIAMENTARY PROCEDURE.

We quoted, in the preceding article, a reference to the " rigour" with which Sir Charles Statham has, inthe capacity of Speaker, applied the Standing Orders in the last two Parliaments of the country. There may perhaps he an occasional temptation on the part of members to contrast this "rigour" with the laxity that is permitted in other Parliaments. The Standing, Orders are applied, among other things, in the prevention of j irrelevance, of reference to previous debates, of reflection upon tho proceedings of the Legislature, and of disorderly language. The application of them demands not only a precise know-. ledge of their terms and of the rulings of previous Speakers concerning them but it also requires the exercise of the closest vigilance on the part of the Speaker. Upon the firmness of the control shown by him, as well as upon the fair and even-handed manner in which he had dealt with the of the House,. Sir Charles Statham was justly complimented by the Prime Minister at the close of last session. It is, in reality, a distinctly Arm con-;, trol to' which the members have to submit. "The reader of Hansard may possibly be disposed at times t6.think ; that the censprship that is imposed upon members is severe. If lie; had f the opportunity of reading, also, the. Hansard of New South Wales, he would learn that, whereas a member in New Zealand is not allowed to describe a Bill as the most hypocritical piece of legislation ever introduced in the House (although he may substitute for this description of it the statement that there are no' words in the English language strong enough to describe the Bill), the leader of the Opposition inNew South Wales is allowed to tell the Legislative Assembly that he wants "the House to know what sort of a hypocrite is this gentleman who is parading as .the Premier of N this cjuntry." Not in the New Zealand Parliament would a member be permitted to say, as a member of the NewSouth Wales Government said a few. days ago concerning a member of the Opposition,, that he "grovels so far down in the political filth of this country that, although he is a tall 'man, his nose never gets out of the muck." Nor would one be allowed, like a member of the New South Wales Legislature,;, to speak .of .another member as'having," the" House to a clownish, exhibition and a display of the utmost stupidity," to say that this . member, . having mentioned monkeys, had "introduced a reference to his relations," and to describe a member as having " a reputation that nobody could feel'proud of." . On the contrary, it is a violation of parliamentary usage in New Zealand when a member complains that another is " not honest" (in the sense of being not frank), or states that an action by a Minister does "not redound to his credit." It is disorderly, even, to charge the Government as a body with " lack of courage" or to allege that certain conditions are " a disgrace to it" (though, curiously enough,, it is permissible to say that they are "a disgrace to any Government"), and from this it naturally follows that a member who cried " shame on the Government " had to withdraw these words. Sir Joseph Ward is the only member of the present Parliament who held a seat in the House at the time of an exciting incident that led to. the resignation of Mr Bryce—the incident of the passage, on him of a virtual vote of censure because of his use of the expression, in an unfinished sentence, that Mr Ballance ought to be ashamed of himself. In that case the Speaker of the day did not intervene when the offending words were used and the records of the period respecting the incident are imperfect since the Speaker adopted, in his discretion, the unusual course of ordering that the galleries should be cleared. An incident of such a description is hardly imaginable under a strict control such, as that which Sir Charles Statham has, with the support of Parliament, maintained during the past six years, and, even though he may seem sometimes to be very exacting, it should be generally agreed that it is much better that it should be so than that there.should be such license in debate as is allowed in some other Parliaments and in one Assembly in particular.