NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER

Waikato Times, Volume 100, Issue 16711, 29 January 1926, Page 6

NEW ZEALAND CHAMBER

WELLINGTON AND WESTMINSTER.

(From a Correspondent.)

LONDON, Dec. 4

Captain Anthony Eden. M.P., has contributed another readable article to the Yorkshire Post —this time on New Zealand's Parliament, and the useful accessories provided for the convenience of members. Westminster, as is generally known, provides neither comfortable chairs nor desks for the members, while New Zealand provides both, and Captain Eden devotes some space to these differences, making reference, too, to the admirably constructed public galleries. He makes humorous comparisons between New Zealand and England. Thus: — "As we gaze round the House we notice an air of content, of case almost. The members do not seem uncomfortable or unconscious, the two states between which a Britsih member of Parliament alternates. We notice the reason. Every member is seated in pampered luxury on or in a deep settee. He has an inviting arm into which to snuggle. No tired 20 years of back bench work to secure a stringy skeleton, but a stout, wellpadded arm on which Morpheus may conquer memory. Before him is a desk laden with pens, papers, ink, and every adornment of stationery; here may a member write while his colleague speaks and both listen to never a word. Reason for Time Limits. "The front bench, too, have their desks from which emerge from time to time softest murmurings of isolated exclamations in connection or contradiction of their opponents' oratory. Doves of kindness, these must be sent out to the relief of an orator beleagued by the scratching of the pens. When a member speaks he uses the übiquitous desk to lean upon, a prop to his\ words and a tempting, if not always a graceful, position. We arc not surprised that the New Zealand Parliament has found it necessary to institute time limits, to speeches, or that the limit once fixed is usually reached. Seldom, we learnt, is the warning note of Mr Speaker's bell not heard in the land. Ease has its disadvantages though less renowned than Spartan virtue. But physical comfort members of Parliament in New Zealand certainly enjoy. The buildings are admirable within and without; the libraries havens of peace richly endowed, the committee rooms and other necessaries on a similar scale. In the Chamber itself the desk and the aforementioned settee, one of the latter to every two members, are snares lo the flesh such as the British member of Parliament can scarce,.conceive. All night sittings in Wellington, and they have them there, too, can hardly be a purgatory.

"But however much we may envy comfort we appreciate that it never can be ours to share; such pandering to human frailty is only possible when the number of members is small,, and each may occupy ids allotted place. It would not be feasible, even-were it desirable, in Westminster. It is difficult to .believe that the effect of a debating Chamber is not marred by these desks. They bulk too largely. They 'must detract from the atmosphere of a big debate. They must add to the weariness of a dull one. It must be discouraging lo even the most impassive of orators to hear the quill drive, •to hear the blotter thump, as he reaches his most critical period. "But for the desks how alike it all is. Shut your eyes and lean back, and you may hear the Opposition complain how the Government has failed to carry out when in power the policy it preached when in Opposition, howits outlook and its opinions have changed since it changed benches. . .

"Wc had nearly forgotten New Zealand has no single Chamber Government. Here, too, arc the scarlet benches, and here, too, they sit in majesty, and here, too, is a large public gallery, but no large public, and, indeed, no public at all. Perhaps here, too, the noble have learnt to whisper in that tone which only those august and awful precincts could successfully render, both majestice a'ld inaudible."