POLITICAL NOTES.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIV, Issue 65, 9 November 1912, Page 2

POLITICAL NOTES.

POLITICIANS AT PLAY

The humour of inversion was given free play in the House of Representatives for forty minutes on Thursday evening, while Mr Speaker was away getting the Governor’s assent to the Appropriation Bill. Sir Arthur Guinness had no sooner disappeared than the usually orderly House became a scene of merry turmoil. Members were present in strong force, and the galleries and floor were crowded with spectators. A new Speaker appeared in the person Mr G. J. Anderson, who had arrayed himself in a Maori mat. The duties of mace-bearer were assumed by Mr G. R. Sykes, who also wore a mat and bore a serviceable knobkerry in place of the glittering ornament that ordinarily graces the table when Mr Speaker is in the chair. Another attendant of Mr Speaker was a dignified messenger, bearing a long spear decorated with tassels. Mr J. -Robertson assumed the black robe of the Clerk of the House. .He rang the bell at inopportune, moments, sneezed very loudly, and made unseemly noises, but in all other respects was a most efficient Clerk. Members scattered themselves haphazard over the House, but there was a general tendency for Ministers and leaders to occupy baccj benches, while back-bench-ers took over the Treasury Benches, and other scats of honour. The position of Leader of the Opposition was not definitely allocated. Dr. Pomare and Mr C. K. Wilson both claimed it, and the r conflicting pretensions had net been settled when the sitting tc-r-

minated. The business before the House was the Auckland Domain Model Par Bill, a parody upon an Auckland Local Bill which has given rise to heated controversy at some recent sittings of the House. The Model Pa Bill was in charge of Dr. Te Rangihiroa, who explained that it was intended to revive “the splendours and grandeurs of the neolithic age, and destroy the accursed civilisation from which we are suffering.” The pro- : cecdings were happily mixed. Mr W. D. S. Macdonald, his name altered to “Te Rickety Roa,” was installed as Chairman of Committees, and ruled with what Mr A. E. Glover described as a rod of iron. Mr Sykes strutted up some time after the Speaker had left the chair, and stowed his wickedlooking knobkerry under the table. Wild hilarity reigned for a space. Any members who spoke more than a dozen words was incontinently ruled out of order, and Mr Glover, who displayed a persistent desire to make himself heard, was suppressed from time to time with the Speaker’s discarded x - obe, topped off with a waste-paper basket. The mace-bearer, using the aforementioned spear as a persuader, endeavoured to eject Mr J. Colvin, who was uproariously hailed as “Professor Dowic” when lie came in and sat at the table. Mr Colvin explained that there was a misunderstanding. Ho vas a Hansard reporter. Scenes of hilarious riot came suddenly to an end when it was announced that Mr Speaker had returned from, bis visit to the Governor, says the “Dominion.” A commission to inquire into the best methods of afforestation is to be set up during the recess. This' was announced by the Prime Minister in the House of Representatives yesterday. He stated, in reply to Mr G. M. Thomson, that his attention had been called to the unsatisfactory conditions of forests in the Dominion, and that he considered it advisable to get a couple of practical men to look into the matter and report. Befoie the Legislative Council rose on Thursday the Hon. J. Jenkinson, m speaking of the good work done by the Speaker of the Council (the Hon. Sir Chas. Bowen) the Acting-Speaker (the Hon. W. C. F. Carncross) and the Acting-Chairman of Committees (the Hon. T. Thompson), and the officers of the Council, paid a tribute to the manner i n which the Council had been led by the Hon. H. 1). . Bell. Their leader had raised the tone of the Council since ho had been in charge, and whilst he held that office, the Council would not lose any of the honour and dignity it had enjoyed in the past. In fact, said Mr Jenkinson, under their present leader, the lustre of the Council had been added to. (Hear, hoar.) Several? other members spoke in similar strain':. In reply, the Hon. H. D. 801 l said the few months he had spent in the Council had nothing but the most pleasant'recollections for him.