WEEK IN PARLIAMENT.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume VII, Issue 2018, 3 August 1920, Page 10

WEEK IN PARLIAMENT.

AN UNEXCITING PERIOD. [From Our Own Parliamentary Reporter.] WELLINGTON, August 2. If one were asked to name, the three] outstanding features of last week's! politics, one should not be far out with this choice: (1) The Public Service; i (2) Mr L. M. Isitt; (o) the rhinoceros beetle. Perhaps Mr Isitt and the beetle ought to be coupled, for they were in verv close associatien all through Friday night. To the Public Service, Par-: lia'ment really justified its existence; last week —the power of money is almost unlimited! After Thursday evening, the average employee of the State would not have cared what the rhinoceros beetle did to either Samoa or New Zealand. The House began lazily, because, although the Budget is, to the country. one of the big things of the Session, the night that the Financial Statement is brought down is a very light oie, so fur as hou. members are concerned. All that the common or garden politician has to do is to sit still and listen —or, at any rate, make a pretence of listening —much of it is pretence. When the Minister of Finance has finished reading, the House adjourns, and hou. members go out to applaud or criticise the Budget, according to what their party may be. There is a full week allowed in which to digest the state of the country's finances. Avalanche of Questions. Wednesday brought the usual replies to questions, and, of course, the accompanying expressions of dissatisfaction with those replies! It would not be considered at all the thing if any hou. member accepted without protest more than two of the replies given to his ■weekly sheaf of questions. A private member must preserve some of his rights! In the asking of questions, it is occasionally possible to seize a little party advantage. For instance, a Labour member gives notice of a question regarding some matter on which all members have been circularised by some national institution, say, the Returned Soldiers' Association, but he does not state that he has tbtained his information from a circular letter. "I have received a communication," is the usual method of introduction. A few minutes later a Liberal rises to give notice of another question covering the same ground, but differently worded, only this time Mr Speaker is told that hon. members have been circularised on this matter. The Labour man "looks daggers" at the other; but the laugh is soon shifted, for presently a Government supporter comes along with a question, without notice, bearing on the same thing—and the two

first inquirers are left lamenting. That] is not always the order. Now and again t it i 3 the Liberal who gets in last and Who laughs best; but thft Labour sup-: porter is usually the one '' left." As ! to questions, there are far too niauyl being asked without notice. Strictly' speaking, only those questions relating; to matters uf urgency are supposed to be put without notice. All others are ■ -answered by written reply on Wednesbut during, the period of the War considerable latitude was allowed. The unfortunate part of it is that members, given an inch, are inclined to take an ell; and Ministers are altogether too easy and obliging. A few more re- j fusals to answer any question that is not of real urgency would steady hon. i members —and especially those ob the ■feffbour side—a little, an.l save much wasting of valuable time. A Eeserved House. Each succeeding week of this Session has served to emphasise that the House of Representatives can, when it cares to, put through the maximum of business with the minimum of talk. One does not look to the first Session of a new Parliament to be particularly loquacious as a general thing, but this year the House has excelled itself so far. Perhaps, however, it is just as ■well to touch wood, because it has been ehown that hon. members have not forgotten how it is possible to spend much time in saying many words with precious little substance in them. The smart manner in which the previous ■week's work had been put through left "the Order Paper fairly light at the commencement of last week, and Ministers were not keen to go on with anything important with the Budget coming down in the evening. So the word was handed round that the House could have a "fling" on the annual report of the Immigration Department—and a fling it had! More "Hansard" was filled that afternoon than over any other item in the week *s business, save the Imprest Supply Bill, and, of course, that was voting a'matter of £40.000,000 odd. Railways Criticised. When it came to the Imprest Supply Bill, hon. members readily settled down into certain set lines of debut,'. To start with, they hud all to compliment the Government on its de.-ision to grant these salary increases to the Public Service —there is a Public Service vote in every electorate! Then, lest any

constituent should think this a tardy j recognition of his claims, every hon. member had to add that this provision should have been made long ago. After that, there was the railway administration to be criticised. It was Mr A. S. Malcolm (Clutha) who brought in the question of the General Manager's salary of £:'.000, and Mr -W. A. Veitch (Waiiganui) who said quite plainly that the railvvavmen must get credit for having won the whole service these increases, by their action in taking extreme measures. Some there were who said that the late General Manager (Mr F. H. Hilev) had done very little. Hill. T. .1. Timelier (Christchurch Fast) said that, he had done nothing at all. Others were of opinion that the imported officer had justified his appointment, but not at 'a salary so high as that paid to him. Still oithers had no fault to find; and then Mr ,1. Edie (Bruce) spoke. "I feel," he said, "that we. must give the devil his due" —Mr Hilev being the devil iu this case. But Mr Edie was certainly an exception to the general rule, for he had a good word to say for the Dominion's railway svstem. Other hou. members who spoke had all kinds of grievances. The cities wanted night shunting abolished, so that people could get to sleep; the suburbs wanted a Minister of Railways who would give them a more convenient train service; the country districts wanted greater consideration from district railway officials; and Dr Thacker wanted the Main Trunk expresses heated. When there was nothing left to say about the railways, one or two aired' their views in regard to other branches of the Public Service, and Mr I). G. S'llivan (Avon) headed an expedition for Queensland, but the fire hail gone out of the House and the debate quickly collapsed. Chinese or Beetle? On Friday the Rhinoceros beetle invaded the Chamber. He comes from Samoa, and it will be sheer reckless bravery if ever ho tries to establish himself in New Zealand, after the trouncing that he received from hon. members. The beetle is to the coconut palm what the slug is to the amateur gardener's cabbage plants, if he is not stopped. At present Chinese are keeping him down in Samoa —or trying to. Now, Mr H. .E. Holland (Buller) does not like Chinamen in Samoa. Equally, Mr L. M. Isitt (Christchurch North) does not like the rhinoceros beetle. So it came about that the debate on the Samoau question was largely a matter of Mr Holland's frenzied shout, "Banish indentured labour!" and Mr Isitt's answering slogan, '' Scotch the beetle! " Those hou. members who were not very decided one way or the other had to consider which was the greater evil—the Chinaman or the beetle. They gave the honours to the beetle for the time being.

High-class Debating. j In the course of this discussion, there jwas some debating of the class that one j looks for in Parliament, although far too often in vain. Mr Isitt was splen!did. Usually when that hon. member I attacks Labour there is a touch of biti terness running through his remarks. j There was on Thursday of last week, ; when he followed Mr Sullivan on the Imprest Supply Bill. But on Friday Mr Isitt's were honeyed words —but they got home, perhaps, even better than his more cutting references of the previous j day. Mr K. .1. Howard had put forward ja claim for the right of the Samoans to live as the Tongans do. "Dear little Tonga." lie called Iheir home. When it came to Mr Isitt's turn, and ho had put up his defence ot indentured labour in Samoa, In; asked what the Labour Party had to offer in its place. They lhad iio workable alternative, to suggest. I All that they could say was to gush, "Dear little Tonga! " And the voice lin which the hon. member for Christ church North came out with that " Dear 'little Tonga!" —for all the world like a 17-year-old ".flapper" enthusing over a new dress—fairly brought the House down. Leaving out altogether the question of who may have been right and I who may have bee, wrong, Mr Isitt's Imethod of dealing with the opposition's arguments was "out ou its own." But the best speech of the debate was still to come. The Hon. A. T. Ngata (Eastern Maori) supplied that. It was fittingly so, for the House was considering the future of a native race perhaps second only to the Maoris themselves in all the things that go to make a fine people; and Mr Ngata, a Master of Arts and a Bachelor of Laws under pakeha training, is still heart and soul with his own people. He struck hard at some of the accepted beliefs of the white world, but there was no more reasoned speech in the whole debate, nor one that made a greater impression on the House. Here was a man pleading for his own folk, pleading for their right to live as they had lived, and for their right to be happy in their own i way, and it is seldom that a better lease is made out on the floor of the I Chamber.