"HANSARD'" IN TROUBLE.

Colonist, Volume LVII, Issue 14196, 7 June 1916, Page 3

"HANSARD'" IN TROUBLE.

The great resources of the State seem impotent in face of shipping difficulties "in the Pacific. Newspapers find it difficult to secure adequate supplies of paper,,,and the Prime Minister finds that "Hansard," the Parliament-' ary record, which only comes out for a few months in the year, has only six weeks" supply of paper on hand. "1 shan't be. sorry if it stops," declared the Right Hon. W. F. Massey in the House. "It's a waste of time, and its publication is a waste of the country's money!" Of course there was the inevitable Payne interruption. He flatly differed;from the Prime 'Minister, and ■was backed up by a score of members. Hansard" appeals to most parliamentarians as an absolute-necessity They are fully reported in it, whicli they never are in any other publicatioru During a stonewall, Dry-as-dust M.1., will spin out the dullest topic -lnta :■ a .dreary waste of -words" ■-and ■"Hwnsard" takes it all down' - for P1' 1"*1 "^- A dozen n:en earning 'from £350 to £400 each, busily report eVery yorct; trifling or; momentous,' and' the free circulation of this parliamentary newspaper is ;by; ton weight each member of •tW House1 W Representatives being entitled to,hkve 70 copies, sent by post to his constitubnts: Knowing the extent of his: reading' circle. the member ; makes sure of. figuring in "Hansard", regularly, '-and a^ eighty are doing thi S> ihe '.. "tally o f words reaches dizzy, totals "in "an average session. ■ -;