Summer Time Landslide

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 417, 27 July 1928, Page 8

Summer Time Landslide

HOW THE DAY WAS WON

(I'll E SUN’S Parliamentary Reporter.) WELLINGTON, Thursday. A SWARTHY Argentine sailor from the President <■ Sarmiento slept all through the Summer Time debate in a corner of the public gallery. But he was probably only there because he had nowhere else to go. and his attitude differed widely from that of others who followed the discussion.

When a Parliamentary audience is carried by its enthusiasm across the half-hour supper adjournment, that is a good index of its interest;.and it happened last night.

THIRST to extend the hand of friendly sympathy to Mr. T. K. Sidey, after a division returning 33 to 28 had wrecked his hopes that summer time would, at least, be given a further trial, was Mr. A. Harris (Waitemata), who throughout was Mr. Sidey’s earnest lieutenant in the closely-fought campaign, and who may by now have reached a secret determination to be the leader of the summer time factions when Mr. Sidey, who is retiring, is no longer at their head. Mr. Sidey himself may perhaps have faintly regretted the amount expended in the liberal entertainment of friend and foe alike after his success last session, particularly when Mr. W. S. Glenn said, almost with a touch of rancour, that the celebrations would this year be on his side; and they may have been, but they did not take the generous and comprehensive form of Mr. Sidey’s happily-re-membered party. In an analysis it is easy to see why summer time has fallen. Earlier in the session Mr. Sidey was confident, but it later became apparent that the opposition was strengthening its forces. Even last week Mr. Sidey had fears —though not for publication, lest the morale of his followers be weakened —that there would be a majority of three against him. As it happened, this was an optimistic estimate, the ultimate adverse majority being five. One member, Mr. Lee Martin, who was not in the House to vote last session, this session cast his vote against summer time. Though a Labour man, he voted with a host of Reformers, the only Labour man to do so. In this instance his feelings as a Waikato dairy farmer doubtless overcame even a shuddering reluctance to be caught in the same lobby as Mr. Coates.

Of the others who helped to turn the scale, by forswearing their last session’s allegiance, nearly all represented primarily rural constituencies. Messrs. Ransom, Waite, Walter, Bell, and Girling are essentially the representatives of the open spaces. Even Mr. Kyle, another of the converts — who in the eyes of Mr. Sidey probably seemed more like renegades—has concern for a large number of rural constituents.

With the city members without exception voting for summer time, it was left to the farmer-members in the House to provide the real sinews of the opposition. It was round the standard hoisted by Mr. Glenn, with the declaration that if he were 20 years in Parliament he would still oppose summer time, that the forces of the “noes” were rallied, and even Mr. Sidey’s offer to concede compromises in committee did not alter their unswerving opposition. “HEART-RENDING” The debate itself produced very little new evidence for or against. The opposition plainly relied princi-

pally upon the tribulations of farmers under summer time, though a harrowing note was introduced by Mr. A. M. Samuel who, with picturesque loyalty to his cause, described the suffering of women throughout the coui|i try, last summer, as “heart-rending.” Often the discussion was kept on a humorous plane by interjections and analogies of an amusing character/ and there was persistent mirth throughout the House during the extraordinary and at times incomprehensible speech delivered by Mr. W.

D. Lysnar, whose anti-summer time effort was later scathingly criticised by the Leader of the Opposition. At midnight the debate was wearing thin, and Mr. Glenn went across for a brief chat with Mr. Sidey, a case of the lion lying down with the lamb. In anticipation of a division, members were now returning to the House. Mr. Lysnar and Mr. Rhodes were sitting side by side, both in evening dress, with Mr. Rhodes, during Mr. Sidey’s reply, interrupting so persistently that even his fellow members called for order. Then came the division, with the Ministers, who had not contributed to the debate, nearly all, with the exception of Messrs. Wright, Young and F. J. Rolleston, casting votes against summer time. Whispers as the members returned to the chamber confirmed suspicions that summer time had lost the day, and so went the Speaker’s verdict.