CUTTING THE TALK

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 713, 12 July 1929, Page 8

CUTTING THE TALK

SHORTER HOURS FOR PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE’S PROPOSAL (‘THE SUNS Parliamentary -Reportwy PARLIAMENT BLDGS, Thursday. That the standing orders of Parliament should be completely revised and daylight sittings in. itiated, shorter hours worked, discussions curtailed, and businaaa done with more dispatch were recommendations made to the House of Representatives today by the special committee set up in the short session to go into the ques* | tion of standing orders. The House will discuss the alterations immediately on the completion of the Address-ir.-Reply debate. The report was presented by Mr. £. W. Smith, chairman of committees. In regard to sitting days and sitting hours, it is proposed that on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays the House will sit from 2.30 p.m. to 10.10 pm., with a break between 6.30 pan. and 7.30 p.m. for dinner, and that on I Friday the sitting hours will be from • ! 10.30 a.m. to 5.30 p.m., with a luncheon I break from 1 pm. to 2.30 p.m. Busi- | ness will be interrupted at the time I appointed for closing the sitting, and i where debates are concerned a time | will be fixed for their resumption on & I future sitting day. Motions for the I adjournment of a debate or of the I House will lapse. i However, provision is also made for I the House, when in committee, five I minutes before closing time, to report I back’* in time for the proper adjoum- ! ment of the House. Formal interruption of business will not affect pending announcements of results of divisions, either in the House or in committee, and there will be no restriction on the right of members to ask, immediately before the rising <jf the House, questions concerning the next day’s business. The present prohibition on Sunday sittings Is retained and also the bail on the introduction of new business after 0.12 a.m. should the House continue to sit after that hour. LIMITED SPEECHES Proposals with regard to the imposition of time limit on speeches were agreed to by the committee with a view to avoiding, if possible, the application of the principle of the closure which has been adopted by a number of other Parliaments. Members will still be entitled to speak for one hour on the Financial Statement, but on general motions before the House members will be allowed half an hour each. That suggestion, if carried, will involve the curtailment of one hour speeches in the Address-in-Reply debate to half the time. In the discussion on replies to questions the individual limit will be five minutes. The Minister will be allowed ten minutes in which to reply, and the whole debate is not to last longer than two hours. In committee of the whole, each member is to have the right, as at present, of delivering four ten minute speeches on the short title clause of a Bill, but thereafter this is reduced to four speeches of five minutes’ duration. The rule, however, is not to apply to the speeches of a member in charge of a Bill, a Minister delivering a financial statement or a Minister replying to discussion on the Estimates. No member is to speak for more than ten minutes in any discussion on a report from a Select Committee before it is tabled, or for more than 15 minutes on a motion to introduce a Bill DEBATES ON DOCUMENTS A departure is to be made in regard to the presentation of Parliamentary papers. There will be no debate on the motion to table the documents, but a list of them will be placed on the Order Paper for the following day, when they will be debated in turn. Each member will be allowed to speak for 15 minutes. Provision is also made for a member to utilise the forms of the House to raise a question of urgent public importance. This is done in a formal way by moving the adjournment of the House and only the one subject can be discussed. The motion is not to revive a matter previously dealt with or to anticipate a subject appointed for future discussion. The mover of the motion and the Minister replying may speak for half an hour each, but other members for only 15 minutes. latter days of the Roman Empire, of throwing Christians to the lions, but we are making progress in that direction. And “Christians” are helping to lead the way. I notice that the Minister of Defence says the young men are not sincere in their objections. It is very easy for Ministers of the Crown to make remarks of this sort. Messrs. Richards and Miller are not in a position to answer back. Perhaps Mr. TV ilford thinks it presumptuous for young men in their twenties to have convictions on any matter, and that they should place the whole of their worldly conduct under the ultramontane and ultramundane guidance of some of their elders. Richards and Miller apparently believe that the authority of God transcends that of the State. Such beliefs have always been unpopular. The Minister has no more to accuse them of insincerity than to accuse an archbishop of failing to believe in the Trinity. The whole business leads one to the melancholy reflection that, despite the little trouble of 1914, and the; noble resolves of 1919, Shelley’s words still hold good: War is the statesman's game, the priest’s delight. The lawyers jest, the hired assassin's trade. A. R. I). FAIRBURN. BEET SUGAR Sir, Having read the speech of the Governor-General on the immigration question which was a plain, commonsense one, and your sub-leader which was to the point, may I ask if there is no other great industry we can establish in New Zealand to give work to thousands of persons? I think there is. The cry at present is that more men must be placed on the land. If that is so, let us get them there. At the present time New Zealanders help to keep thousands of Indians growing sugar for them in Fiji. Fiji is to all ; intents and purposes an Indian colonyI say, let us grow our own sugar-beet and give work, both in the growing the milling to thousands of our own people. In England and Ireland sugar-beet is being grown in large quantities, increasing each year, anti it is becoming a godsend to the people of those lands. Some may argue that we have the cheapest sugar in the world, and that if we grow our own it may possibly be dearer. I would remind them that there are many other things we can procure more cheaply by employing coloured labour. A te* months ago I read how sugar-beet growing was encouraged in America. In any given district where farmer* undertake to produce a certain amount of beet, in the season, a mill is erected by the authorities. Let us profit by this lesson. SUGAR.