POSER FOR SPEAKER

Sun (Auckland), Volume 1, Issue 91, 8 July 1927, Page 1

POSER FOR SPEAKER

INTERJECTORS NOT HEARD ASKED TO SPEAK UP (THE SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. A poser was put to Mr. Speaker in the House to-night. when Sir Charles Statham very diplomatically extricated himself from an unexpected position. The Minister of Finance was speaking. and Labour members were projecting persistent but low-voiced interjections across the floor of the House. The result was that the House could hear the Minister’s reply, but not the interjections. Mr. E. P. Lee tolerated this for a time, and then raised a point of order.

“We cannot hear the interjectors,” he complained. “I wish they would speak up. There are some interesting questions being asked, and as we cannot hear them we cannot appreciate the Minister’s answers.’ *

Thus confronted with the possibility of asking for interjectors to speak up, Mr. Speaker hesitated. “I don’t want to encourage interjectors to speak louder,” he said smilingly. Mr. E. P. Lee: The interjections are in the nature of a private conversation.

The Speaker: If members have legitimate questions to ask, perhaps they would, when interjecting. speak a little more loudly in the circumstances.

This diplomatic evasion of reference and Standing Orders was appreciated by both sides of the House, and the debate proceeded more satisfactorily for Mr. E. P. Lee.