Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED ENERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1897.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume XXIV, Issue 7895, 12 April 1897, Page 2

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED ENERY EVENING. GISBORNE, MONDAY, APRIL 12, 1897.

TIIE SHORT SESSION. The business of Parliament during the short seasion jnat closed has been conducted with admirable despatch, and shows what our legislators arc capable cf performing when they have set their minds to work. There was a distinct absence of wordiness about the discussions and a manifest desire to transact what business there was to do with a celotity unusual to Parliamentary proceedings. The unanimous agreement to sit in tho daytime helped matters on, and it would be well if iv the sessions that are to come tho now Parliament followed out tho course adopted.'sitting, say, from 10 in the morning till not later than midnight. Experience has proved that with the light of duy upon them 'Jiembers are far more capable of and show v much greater disposition to transact business than in the long and weary watches of tho night, when there is an undoubted tendency to maunder, and when tho slightest breeze upon the harmony of the proceedings rapidly swells into a political storm. It has also been demonstrated that much time can bo saved by tho curtailment of tho Addroas-in-Rcply debate, which in tho last few years has developed into a great Parliamentary excrescence. The matters therein discussed havo all to ho threshed out over and over again in the financial debate and in the numerous stages of the various Bills brought before Parliament. A considerable saving of time would be made if members wero brought to realise that it was not neoessury for each of them to make long speeches to their constituents upon this

occasion. It ia unlikely, however, that next session will see any reform in thia direction Parliament will meet some two or three weeks before Mr Seddon's return from his trip, and as no business of importance can be taken in his absence, the time will have to be spun out with the usual platitudes of the Addreas-in-Reply debate. Perhaps the most remarkable feature about the short session was its closing scene, in which the simmering of angry feelings gave evidence of au outburst tha.t iasure to come when Parliament again meets. Several pertinent questions were asked as to commercial and baukinp; matters which have yet to be cleared up, and which threaten to occupy some of the time of next session. In these matters there ia evidently a firebrand on the Government side in the parson of Mr Thos. Taylor, who has expressed his determination to see justice done, and who by his initial speech left the impression thut he is a strong member who will have to be reckoned with in future debates. The choosing of Mr Guinness in preference to Mr Joyce for the Chairmanship of Committees will surely alienate from the Government the sympathies of nt least one member of their party. Reference has only to be made to the records to see how iv the last two sessions Mr Guinness neglected his duties as Chairman, aud it was almost invariab'y Mr Joyce who was called to the Chair ia his absence. Probably Mr Joyce has occupied the chair more often than the member for Grey, and so far as firmness and impartiality are necessary to make a good Chairman, Mr Joyce is generally recognised to be the more capable man of the two. After the manner in which they have utilised his services in tlie past, it was nuher unkind treatment he received. Had the Government not made the mutter a puny queaiion, but left it to the good sense of the House to decide who was to be Chairman of Committees there is little doubt thut Mr Joyce would have secured the appointment and its accompanying honoraiium, and that he and his friends would not have been the dissatisfied men they are to-day. On the other hand it would have been impolitic for Mr Seddon, having ascertained how " the cat jumped" at the licensing polls in the colony, to have thrown in his sympathies with the " tea party " and given them the casting vote of the chairmansnip ; therefore his influence went to Mr Guinness, whose sympathies are well known to be iv the opposite direction. From what our correspondent informs us, there can be little doubt that after the decisive defeat of prohibition, | the Premier has made up his mind to throw overboard his temperance preteusions aud rank in futuro us an out-and-out " inorlorate." Parliament has given Mr Seddou a good scud-off. Without much udo they passed I he necessary bills tor his and his bodyguard's travelliug expeuees, and adopted an address to Her Majesty which uo one would have suspected six University men had a hand in had he not been told so — it reads so much like one of the literary effusions of the Premier himself. No one will begrudge Mr Seddon and family the wish of a pleasant I rip to England and a good time whilst there ; in fact, having paid his passage and provided him with incidentals we expect iiim to make the most of his money and to thoroughly enjoy himself. Meantime we shall sit at home aud speculate whether he will come back as " Sir Richard Seddon."