THE FLIPPANT PARLIAMENT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume III, Issue 342, 24 August 1889, Page 2

THE FLIPPANT PARLIAMENT.

The demoralised condition into which our Parliament has drifted is a cause for humiliation in the constituencies. A Wellington correspondent telegraphs “ Some of the more experienced members of the House are quite in despair of any useful work being done by the present Parliament, and it is frequently stated that there has never been a House in which the feeling of responsibility iu legislation has been less felt than in the present one. Members complain also that the most serious public questions are treated in tho House and the lobbies with an extraordinary flippancy, and the larrikin spirit which was pointed out by the Premier the other night is greatly to be deplored. This condition of things is very noticeable in the Opposition side of the House, Ms- Ballance, Mr Walker, Mr Lance, and other Opposition leaders apparently having no control whatever over their party in this respect, The wish is frequently expressed by the older members that the next Parliament may be of a different stamp, and that the reduction of the number of members to 70 will have a salutary effect.” Tho East Coast electors can at any rate congratulate themselves on having sent to the House a man who is no party to this sort of thing. We may not approve of all Mr Graham’s political actions, but we must say that he sets a good example which one half the members now in Wellington might follow, with credit to themselves, and with a knowledge that they wore better serving their country than by persisting in carrying on the discreditable proceedings that have made the present session so prominent—a prominence gained by conduct that is the reverse of satisfactory. Australian Parliaments have been termed “ larrikin Parliaments,” but if things do not improve in regard to our own legislative body it will justly deserve the title of “ The flippant Parliament.”