The Globe. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1875.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 363, 11 August 1875, Page 2

The Globe. WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1875.

The remarks made by Sir George Grey and Mr Keader Wood with regard to the practice, by several members, of reading statements in the House, are, we think, perfectly justifiable. It may be said that there can be no harm in an hon member writing out his speech or statement, and then reading the remarks in his place in the House, but such a system has its drawbacks, and should not be encouraged. Of course every Ministerial statement on any important subject, entails reference to a certain quantity of documents, and these documents ought to be at hand for the speaker to make what use he requires of them. But this is not like delivering a written address to the members of the House. Very few speeches, we presume, are made ex temporaneously, and, as a rule, those that are so made would not be chosen as models of either oratory or argument. It is not given to many men to make telling speeches without preparation more or less severe, and the orator who possesses the ability to speak well at a moment's notice on any subject, would be hard to find. But, while not expecting the Minister of any Department to dispense with notes or any written assistance when treating on the subject of his particular office, we do expect that the words he uses, and the matter of his speech, shall be his own. It is not right that a Minister should stand up in his place in the House and deliberately read an essay that may have been composed for him by a clever sub. As Sir George Grey very forcibly put it, " the " country should be governed by a " Government of great Ministers, not " by a band of clerks," and every one who would wish to see the debating power of the Assembly kept up to a high average, will endorse Sir George's views on the subject of reading, and uot speaking, to the House. If any member trusts to a written speech, he is liable to be taken aback at the first critical question that is asked by au opponent. He has got one particular line of thought worked out in the paper before him, but he cannot have an answer to arguments he is uot prepared for, If he

has any readiness as a debater he may be able to reply on the spur of the moment, but a habit of having his speech written out for reading to the House will cause him to lose luucli of the readiness so requisite in Parliamentary word-fencing. Ministers do not appear to have much debating power this session. The Opposition is decidedly better off for good speakers than Dr Pollen's Ministry. There would appear to be a certain amount of truth in Sir George Grey's statements that " the Ministers represent " the public offices, and they read state- " ments compiled by clerks who put " them into their hands," and though of course this was strenuously denied by the Minister for Public Works and others, yet a perusal of the debate shows that Sir George made the point he insisted on. We trust that when any fresh Ministerial statement is to be made, that the gentleman whose duty it is to introduce this statement will have the courage to do so in a speech of his own, and not in the form of a written document, probably prepared by a clerk employed in the office.