Political Paroxysms

Observer, Volume XVIII, Issue 1026, 27 August 1898, Page 18

Political Paroxysms

• Thwbe are as many men in the colony mentally incapable of occupying positions in this House as women.' — Tommy Taylor.

Hon. Dr Grace : Every time you Btrike a blow at the marriage law you deteriorate the moral force of the people in general.

'The Premier laughs. I believe, like Nero, he wonld laugh if the city was burning '— Capt. Russell.

Mr Montgomery, referring to the refreshment room of the House : There is no carpet on the floor, and the furniture has apparently come out of Noah's ark.

' I qnite agree that there are a number of persons placed in onr asylums who are not really lunatics, and who would not have been for a moment committed in England.'— The Premier.

Mr Carson: What particular sanctity is there about this Chamber that women who are able to take their place in all other bodies should be excluded from this ?

• I have never in the course of my life known a woman who did not jump upon a table or a chair when a mouse appeared upon the scene. Honourable members may langh, but it is true.' — Soobie Mackenzie.

Mr T. Taylor : In connection with charitable aid it is a scandal that some women who have b^en well cared for and tenderly brought up have to go and expose all their want and all their shame to a committee of men.

1 The day on which we affirm that men and women are equal politically will be the darkest day that ever dawned for woman in this or any other country.' — Mr Lewis on the ' Removal of Women's Disabilities Bill.'

Captain Russell, referring to the Bank of New Zealand : ' The old man of the sea,' I believe, will cling round our necks till it almost strangles ns, unless we are wise enough to sell it when we can get a reasonable offer.

' You will often find that in bankruptcy cases a wife lends bee husband money to keep him going in bQßiness, and it has to be repaid, but you never hear of a man lending his wife money : it iB always a gift.'— Mr Lewis (Christchurch).

Hon. Mr Scotland ; How many men, to support the extravagance of a thoughtless, reckless wife, has, in an unlucky moment, been driven to commit a crime which has brought him within the meshes of the law, and entailed upon him seven years' imprisonment ?

• I know for a positive fact of a gentleman who contested an electorate, of whom his good lady said she did hope he would be returned; and oh some one asking her " Why 1" she replied, " Because he is such a nuisance at home." ' — Mr Flatman.

Mr Meredith : There are in some districts Domain Boards, the majority of the members of which have been upon them for eighteen or twenty years, and, instead of being a" help to the district, they are Bimply an incubus.

1 If you take the legal profession in New Zealand — taking the whole body of them — I do not suppose the individual members are making £200 a year each. lam quite certain, iudeed, that they are not making that.'— Hon Mr Scotland.

Mr Gilfedder : It was pointed out by the honourable member for Dunedin City that women are very timid — that they jump on tables and chairs at the sight of a mouse ; but I have seen men jump higher than any table at the sight of not a real mouse, but a sham one.

' Women are now eligible for election to Education Boards, Borough Councils, Charitable Aid Boards, and so forth. As a rnle, they are not elected to such positions. That is because the persons who have the privilege of electing them do not choose at the present stage of our existence to place them there.' — Scobie Mackenzie.

Hon Dr Grace on the Divorce Bill : All these Bills, Sir, are traps for catching clients They are traps for catching litigation, for destroying domestic happiness. A woman goes into a devil of a temper about some small thing or other, and hits her husband a slap on the nose, which is very likely a good thing for him, and he or Bhe — the circumstances have been reversed — runs off to some contemptible, pettifogging, sneaking lawyer, who immediately commences proceedings, grabs her legally by the back of the neck, and holds hex noße to the hot iron of the law. Have I not seen it ?

' Thank God, I have rescued many a woman out of the hands of the lawyers.' — Hon. Dr Grace.

Mr Crowther : The Premier never gets on his feet but he has something to say against our local bodies.

' There is no place in the world more unsuitable for the purpose of nuptial bliss than Bangitaeke.'— Mr Stevens.

Captain BnsEell: In the days of. the Commissioners the railway traffic was conducted much more comfortably than it is at the present time.

Hon. Dr Grace : There iff nothing more difficult in the world than to decide what is cruelty between husband and. wife.

' The whole of the traffic on the NapierWellington line is absolutely and shockingly inconvenient.' — Captain Russell.

The Premier: The sooner the Bank of New Zealand i? disposed of, and is away from the Government and Parliament of this colony, the better I shall appreciate it.

'No public bodies or private individuals should have the right to let any land to individuals without giving them compensation for improvements at the end of the leases. I—Minister1 — Minister of Lande

The Premier : It can't be supposed that the Government will allow large tracts of country to lie unoccupied if the Maoris cannot themselves cultivate it, and if the white people want, to go upon it.

Mr Meredith : The number of lunatics and others that are in onr asylums suffering from maladies produced by preventible causes within the control of the people of this colony, is assuming very alarming proportions.

'I hope the Premier will be able to announce that in the very near future provision will be made for the election of members of Charitable Aid Boards by the people who provide the funds they have to administer.' — Mr Graham

Mr Scobie Mackenzie : I could go on for a whole evening giving instances in which the Premier has, in the most deliberate way, thrown the responsibility off his own shoulders and placed it on those of any person he could discover to bear the burden for the time being.

' Goodness knows the responsibility respecting this bank and banking legislation is such that it has been greater than that connected with any other thing since I have been in officiallife.'— The Premier on the B.N.Z.

Mr Lewis : Who ever heard of a man suing a woman for breach of promise and getting damages ? On the other hand, a woman gets damages from a man time after time.

Mr Taylor: There have been isolated cases of men getting damages. Mr Lewiß : lam pleased to hear it, and am sure they were isolated ; but perhaps my honourable friend can tell me whether they got the money. Tommy looked the other way.

'We have always recognised that the Btrength of woman has lain in her weakness, and so have not been actuated by logic and cold, hard, common-sense ; but if she is to come here on a footing ' of equality with men the first step to take is to place her on a footing of/equality in all respects, and . then let her fight for what she can get.'— Mr Lewis on the Removal of Women's Disabilities Bill-

Masterton Hogg, referring to a gushing speech by Scobie Mackenzie on the Removal of Women's Disabilities Bill : ' Icongratnlate the honourable member for Masterton on looking on the bright Bide of things; he has never yet had his hair combed with a three-legged stool. Some day, if he lives long enough and comes across a good masculine woman of fourteen or fifteen stone who can handle a moderate-sized man, he may live to repent his temerity.'

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