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Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume V, Issue 643, 6 August 1891, Page 2

The fashion of trying to turn the Labor members of the House into ridicule has already nearly become extinct. Now and again an instance occurs of some unthinkingscribeseeking to be funny at the expense of some member whose polished manners and knowledge of grammar are not equal to his endowment of commonsense. In New South Wales a few weeks ago it was dismally wailed that these men were going to burst up everything that was worth preserving ; they would also lower the tone of Parliament and do many other dreadful things. What they would really do, however, was soon made manlr fest. Mr Dibbs, the leader of the Opposition, began to try on the usual humbug, stating that the Governor’s Speech was the poorest bi had ever heard, and

much more to that effect, finishing up with an appeal that the House be adjourned for a week to enable a couple of election returns to come in. Sir Henry Parkes agreed to an adjournment of two days, but the worthy Mr Dibbs viewed this with horror, and there was the usual wrangle until a Labor member got up on behalf of the party he was authorised to speak for and declared that the Labor representatives came there to get on with the business of the country, and they objected to a week’s adjournment. That is the sort of thing we like to see taking the place of the usual waste of time. Of the New Zealand Labor members the following opinion was passed the other day by a Conservative who was formerly a member of the House “Of course I don’t agree with some of their extreme views, and I’m convinced that if they had their way the cause of labor would be greatly damaged. But they do not see that, and are evidently in dead earnest. In the House they set an example to some older members. They are constant in attendance, really anxious to master the rules of the House, and respectful to the Speaker. Some of them can speak well, too, and when experience has toned down their views they promise to make excellent representatives. They’re thoroughly sober to a man ; Bellamy’s doesn’t see much of their money.”