Political Points.

Southern Cross, Volume 12, Issue 15, 9 July 1904, Page 7

Political Points.

The collapse of the Address-in-Reply, after a discussion lasting eight hours, was welcomed alike by Parliament and the country at large. The debate is really a useless and cumbrous custom, with little beyond age to recommend it, and the sooner our Legislative Assembly becomes a practical working body, and not a slavish copy of old-world obsolete models, the better, more especially as every hour of debate means a cost to the taxpayers in salaries and other expenses of about .£3O, with little or no corresponding benefit. It is not too much to say that iu the aggregate enough money has been talked away to make a good many miles of the Orepuki or Waimahaka lines. *** . The state of the Premier’s health will force on the House renewed consideration of the question of the duration of the sessions and the length of the sittings. A limit should be put to the time occupied by speeches, and members should exercise a little self-denial. In the House of Commons, “ The Mother of Parliaments,” speeches are generally confined to the leaders and a few of the experienced statesmen on each side. If the 600 representatives in the Commons were to speak on each bill the sessions would last most of the year. *** Of course as long as constituents harbour the delusion that a member’s worth and capacity are to be judged by the number of speeches to his credit in Hansard and the press, just so long will there be an avalanche of loquacity. When the electors value a representative for his originality, fearlessness, and coramonsense, longwinded orations will be less frequent, to the great relief of all concerned, for very often the speaker is bored as well as his hearers. # * * According to *Mr T. B. Taylor, speaking on the Midwives’ Bill, many highly-educated women know little of physiology and anatomy—so little indeed that as mothers they hardly know the bead of an infant from its feet. * * * The above measure, by the way, was very favourably received on both sides of the House. In the debate Mr Sedden strongly condemned the false modesty exhibited by some narrowminded persons when the great national subject of maternity and infant mortality was under discussion. It was in the highest interest of the State that mothers should be able to command every care and skill. It would mean the saving of maay lives and prevent not a little misery and anguish. On the whole the Premier made a most impressive and humanitarian speech in favour of the bill, which aims at the establishment of State maternity institutions and the proper instruction of nurses in midwifery. # * * Messrs Hanan and McHab, the members for Invercargill and Mataura, were among the first in the House to give notice of questions on two important matters. Mr MeNab, who is regarded as a leading authority on land settlement, and administration, wants to know “why the sites reserved for dairy factories on Edendale Estate, recently purchased by the Government, have already been sold for cash, although half the new tenants are not yet on the ground, and none of those there are understood to be members of tbe syndicate to whom the land bas been sold P” * # * Mr Hanan, who has made educational and social reforms, a special study, was equally prompt, asking tbe Minister of Education if he will refer the new primary school syllabus to the Education Committee with a view to its revision ?