THE TUMULT DIES.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17382, 10 November 1924, Page 6

THE TUMULT DIES.

SESSION AT END.

MR LYSNAR AND A NEW PARTY. (Special to the “ Star.-”) WELLINGTON. November 10. The 1924 session of' Parliament has come to a very timely end. It has certainly been a hard session—from the point of view ol arduous talking. There has been too much prolixity and not enough important legislative work performed. The session opened on June 26 and concluded on November 6. I lie actual number of days on which the. House of Representatives sat was eighty-three, and in that time it contrived to pass ninety-one public Bills and six private | measures. Members of an inquiring , turn of mind asked 441 questions, hut it cannot he said that they all received a similar number of satisfactory answers. AY HAT HAVE AYE DONE?” Some members spent the hour or so while they were waiting lor the return of the Appropriation Bill I rum the Governor-General in asking one another what they had done unring the preceding nineteen weeks. *' AYe’ve passed a Gaming Bill." was the one admission that in any way seemed to stand out prominently. Perhaps the most important Bill put through, next to those which effected various reductions in taxation, was the Mortgages V inal Extension Bill. This was only got on to the Statute Book after some manteuvring with the Legislative Council, and although it nomiuat March 31 next, it virtually protects mortgagors until at least the end of June. The majority of the House strove for the end of July, so the compromise reached must be regarded as general I v satisfactorv. The Motor Vehicles Bill was another important enactment, in that it laid down a schedule of fees which is to be tried out for a year. If they are found to he unworkable after tlio local bodies have < I rafted and put into effect the regulations which are to make them operative, then an amendment of the law will be made next session. A measure which it had been in- , tended to submit to the House was one proposing an increase in the duty on fiour by ten shillings per ton in order to give some measure of protection to the wheat growers. This would have necessitated an amendment of the Customs Tariff, but for some reason or other it appears to have been overlooked in the final end-of-session rush. Had it come on there is no doubt but that it would have produced a great deal of discussion. TRUSTS. COMBINES AND A NEW PARTY. Before the curtain wa» rung down finally, Mr Lysnar once more opened out on I he Government on the question of trusts and combines, ad essayed to put up a plea for the formation of a new party by the fusion of the best elements of the present two main parties. It so happened that lie was out of order at the particular stage of the Bill which was under discussion when ho introduced this phase, so be was not able to proceed very far with it. but the interesting fact lias so far not been disclosed that, following his 1 first 1 iff with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Agriculture over the trust issue, Mr Lysnar at once busied himself amongst several disgruntled members of the Reform Party in an endeavour to induce them to go in a body to Mr Masey with an ultimatum calling upon him to make wav for some one else. It is stated that Messrs F. J. Rolleston. A'. H. Potter. A. R. Harris and J. M O. Dickson were amongst those whom he approached, hut- that his overtures were not received in that whole-hearted manner which Air Lys- . nar perhaps expected. The humorists about Parliament Buildings suggest that Mr Lysnar may have been actuated by a desire to place himself at the head of the proposed new pnrtv. which would have been onlv somethin'*’ worse than having Mr Holland as Prime Minister instead of Mr Massey. An amusing feature about Mr Lysnarhs intrigues was that though they were highly confidential, it was not verv long before the Prime Minister knew all about what was going on. and that members of the Liberal Party tabooed Mr Lysnar entirely. This was about the only interesting “ tit-bit ” that occurred in the dying stages of the session, hut for some unknown reason it never obtained publicity on the floor of the House. “ COxftDENCda ” I x Tll E CO UNCI L. from -Air Lysnar to the Legislative Council is ;i pretty broad jump, hut in view of the strictures of the leader of the Opposition and others on the J value of that cog in the political machine it is interesting to read what the Hon Sir Francis Hell had to sav about the efficacy of the Council when I saying 1 are well to Councillors on I Thursday He said he was glad to know that the Council had the con- ! fide nee. of the public. “ Thougli. like all Second C handlers, it is sometimes field up to ribald attack.” declared Sir 1 Francis. yet behind that form of comment there is. 1 believe. in the country, a feeling of safety and confidence in tins Chamber, which has no party, and whose decisions are determined irrespective of party feeling.” AA'oll. the session is at an end. hut with the unseemly rush which occurred at the finish, and remembering the I lamentable waste of time which occurred in the first month, there is a feeling that the House* lias only ‘ slummocked” through, and that next year, being election year, it can he confidently expected that it will he something worse.