“OFT IN THE STILLY"

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 43, 13 May 1927, Page 8

“OFT IN THE STILLY"

| SESSION’S PROSPECTS NIGHT SITTINGS EXPECTED RISING FOR BREAKFAST INHERE will be no change in the Parliamentary hours CUr . ing the coming session, and the prospect remains of long sitting ' and rush work with breakfasts * the heels of night-long toil. " (From Our Resident Reporter) WELLINGTON, Thursday With the approach of the date io, the opening of the 1927 Parliameatan session—June 23—many members o' the House of Representatives, as as others whose calling necessitate! their attendance at the deliberations of the highest court in the land, jg, ■■ wondering whether late sittings »ii] be the order of what is usually termet “The Long Parliament,” or the niidau f'i session. Although the middle session is usn. ally represented to be the workfe, session, none c'ould suggest that thf work accomplished during the first session of the present Parliament tras in any way below a reasonable output for the three short months that the House sat. On the contrary f le volume of documents was almost a record for such a short sitting. 73 WHAT THEY DO IN U.S.A. Congressman G. H. Tinkham, 0 f U.S.A., comes to New Zealand belief, ing that the afternoon is the most effi. cacious and most profitable time for state legislators to sit. In Congress he says, members begin sitting at noon and Congress rises at 5 p.m., night sittings taking place only in emergency periods or toward the eud of a session. The Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. J. G. Coates, has no intention of changing the hours of sitting in the New Zealand Parliament, however, and THE SUN man who approached him on the subject had to retire with the old, old vision of much work, breakfast-time-sittings, and a general stiff time ahead. “Do you want to get to bed early?" asked Mr. Coates when the inquiry was made. Pie received a very definite assurance that this was so. “But,” the Prime Minister added, “we have to be very careful what we do with the ancient pillars of our constitution.”