"PRACTICALLY NOTHING.”

Taranaki Daily News, 10 March 1932, Page 6

"PRACTICALLY NOTHING.”

The new member for Rangitikei, Mr. A.

Stuart, began his maiden speech in the House of Representatives on Tuesday 'by expressing regret that so much tune ■was 'being wasted in “talking about practically nothing.” It was a very natural observation to come . from a new member, and a very sensible one. The House was elected three months ago, after candidates had spent some weeks in the electorates expounding their views on every subject under tiie sun. Those who were successful at the polls have now been called together for the ostensible purpose of taking measures to meet a state of emergency in the Dominion’s affairs, yet the first thing they do is to repeat, so far as tae rules of debate will permit, all they had to say on the campaign platforms. It is little’wonder a newcomer should see in this procedure a mere waste of time that might be far better employed. ■But the pity is that the new memiier as a rule quickly loses his enthusiasm for work, follows the line of least resistance and becomes either amiably silent or, more frequently, as talkative about nothing as his colleagues.. It is true that the formal debate which has been dragging on in the House on this occasion has not been altogether useless, since a number of speakers have put forward suggestions calculated to help the Government in its difficult task of framing a policy to meet abnormal conditions, but such ideas could have been promulgated more aptly, and. certainly with better prospects of receiving, adequate consideration, during the discussion of concrete legislation. In that case, moreover, the members originating useful proposals would have been the more likely to gain credit for them. If ever there was a time when it was not only impolitic but also unnecessary for members to air their random political views it is during an emergency session in a period’ of economic and financial stress. Of what concern to the country is it to know just now that Mr. H. Atmore claims to be a “Liberal” and is willing to prophesy that “notwithstanding the fact that the party is very ■sparsely represented in the present Parliament there is a great middle. party in New Zealand, which will spring. to life the moment there is any indication of new organisation.” Even if there is ground for Mr. Atmore’s belief, who cares? What is wanted in Parliament now is a team of men who will get something done, not an assemblage. of idlers dreaming party dreams. Nothing better, of course, could be expected from the member for Nelson, who asserted in the House last year that business men were not needed in Parliament, and who now accuses the Cabinet of procrastination and shilly-shallying. Mr. Atmore of all men! Mr. Atmore took office as Minister of Education on December 10, 1928, and soon afterwards announced that within six weeks he would propound a new education policy. He retired in September last on the formation of the Coalition Cabinet, and in a little more than two years and nine months he succeeded in evolving one plank of the promised policy, the statement that education should be given “an agricultural bias.” Even that one lone idea was not original. There is cause for complaint when the country’s money and Parliament’s time are wasted by such speeches as Mr. Atmore’s.