LEGISLATION FOR LIVING

Waipa Post, Volume 42, Issue 3303, 30 May 1931, Page 5

LEGISLATION FOR LIVING

TOO MANY PROFESSIONALS. In bidding good-bye to members of the Constitutional Club in a luncheon address in Melbourne the other day His Excellency the Governor (Lord Somers), who laughingly described his presence at the Club as " positively his first and last appearance," expressed the opinion that there were too many members of Parliament who regarded their membership as a good means of earning a living. He had watched, he said, with very great interest the work that was being done by the Constitutional Club—a very important and necessary work. In these days of pictorial newspapers and' large headlines many people relied on them for their opinions. There must be growing up all over the world a type of person who was gradually losing the art of thinking and who was developing the " herd " spirit without any line of reason. Anyone who, like members of the club, I took the trouble to think things out for himself was really doing extremely valuable work for the community. Some were no doubt preparing themselves for a parliamentary life. He hoped that all members of the Constitutional Club were doing so. The work of a member of Parliament was such that it demanded practically his whole life. It had becom'e a profession, and some people that it was a good way in which to earn a living. The disadvantage which arose was that some endeavoured to see how much could be got out of it. Every person who took the trouble to think things out was laying a much sounder foundation than those who went at them " bald-headed."