WELLINGTON TOPICS

Waikato Times, Volume 94, Issue 14613, 14 March 1921, Page 6

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE SHORT BEBBION. THE BEGINNING. (Special Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Friday. The ceremonial part of the opening ' "M Parliament yesterday presented no new feature, with the exception of a Governor-General, who already lias l won his way into the hearts of the I people, making his first official appear. ance within the legislative halls. Lord Jellicoe looked and played his part well. He was punctual in his arrival, cordial in his reception of the plaudits of the crowd, prompt and precise in the performance of his allotted task, and self-possessed and confident in his . retirement from the Chamber, lie bore himself, in short, just as one would expect the hero of Jutland to do, and won his way still further in the esteem of the people who watched the readiness with which he has adapted himself to the reciuirements of his high office. The Speech. The speeoh, in addition to having the great virtue of brevity, was singularly free from the platitudinous phrases which two generations! of politicians have placed in the month of the representative of the Crown on such, occasions. It might have been constructed by Hi» Excellency himself, and certainly savoured rather of the quarterdeck than of the Treasury Benches. Its dominant note was the insistence upon the importance of the Prime Minister of the self-governing Dominions in general and of Mr Massey in particular, being present at the Imperial Conference in London this year. This, of course, is the whole raison d'etre for the short session, and it is presented with much greater fore:! than it could have been In mere words. Mr Wllford's Protest. • Mr Wilford's proposed amendment tb the Address-in-Reply may or may not be a good tactical move as such things are counted in party warfare, hut its obvious purpose is to provide a peg on which to hang a recital of Mr Massey's whole-hearted denunciation of the proposal to postpone the ordinary session of Parliament when Sir Joseph Ward was going Home to the Imperial Conference in 1900. It would be unfair to anticipate the text of Mr Wilford's speech by quoting here what the present Prime Minister had to say . on that occasion, but there was one paragraph in his ardent protest which may not be'unprofitably quoted at the present .juncture. "If Ihe Prime Minister went out of Parliament, and I went out of Parliament, and half-a-dozen other prominent members went out," Mr Massey declared from the Opposition Bench, "I venture to say that the business of the country would be just as well conducted and the interests of the people just as well looke 1 after as has ever been the case." Modesty of this description is a fading flower in the present Parliament. Waterside Labour. With the waterside dispute fresh in the memories of members and wil.it the conditions of its settlement, as be. tween the employers and the workers, siill undisclosed, the subject coulu scarcely escape mention on the first day of the session. The mention came from Mr George Mitchell, the Independent member for Wellington South, who asked the Prime Minister if, in view of the great national loss suffered by the Dominion through the interruption of work on the water front, lie would set up a Royal Commission to get at the root of the trouble and to make recommendations for its removal. Mr Mitchell's own disposition evidently was towards a change of the method of controlling labour on the wharves, and the Prime Minister very discreetly suggested the member should put his question on the Order Paper, where it may repose to the ordinary session in September or October.