ANY SUIT NOW WORN IN HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17832, 28 April 1926, Page 10

ANY SUIT NOW WORN IN HOUSE OF COMMONS.

Until recent years the House of Comn} on s w as a well-dressed assembly. Members used to go down to Westminster in what was supposed to be the attire suitable for important and ceremonial occasions.

Black coats and high hats were worn by almost everybody. That stately, though now obsolete, vestment, the frock coat, was much in evidence. On the Front Benches it was the recognised official costume. Ministers wore it all the time, except after dinner, when they might appear in evening clothes. Flowers were occasionally worn in button-holes. Joseph Chamberlain was seldom seen without an orchid from his own conservatories.

Tt is a much more miscellaneous crowd the beholder looks upon in these days, says a writer in the “ Dally Mirror.” The frock coat has gone and its respectable younger brother, the black morning coat with tails, is rare. Honourable and right honourable gentlemen wear anything they please. Xo one is surprised if a Premier or a Chancellor of the Exchequer rises from the Treasury Bench in a lounge suit. It is a spectacle you woulcL hardly witness in any foreign legislative assembly. In France. Italy, or Germany no Minister would address the Chamber arrayed otherwise than in sober and decorous black.

It was the changed mode of men’s headgear which broke down the old practice. The “ topper ” was in keeping with the atmosphere of Westminster, but bowlers, soft hats with a dent in the crown and cloth caps were so obviously out of place that members preferred to leave them in the cloak rooms.

The legislative hat is one of the last remaining links between our Parliament and the Anglo-Saxon tribal and local councils. These old English “ moots,” or meetings, were held in the open-air. The persons who attended the councils or “ Parliaments ” wore their head-cov-ering to protect themselves against wind, rain, and sun; and they continued to do so even when roofed halls and chambers had superseded the “parliament hills ” and “ parliament oaks.” which are to be found all over the country.