Established 1875 THE Manawatu Times. WEDNESDAY, JULY 11,1883. THE SLAUGHTEE OF THE IMBECILES.

Manawatu Times, Volume VIII, Issue 309, 11 July 1883, Page 2

Established 1875 THE Manawatu Times.

WEDNESDAY, JULY 11,1883. THE SLAUGHTEE OF THE IMBECILES.

' Wordi are thins*, and n drop of Ink falling like dew upon a thought-., produo** thkt which.makes tliotiMQils, )>erh:ips ruilhom think."

Tiie House of Representatives did good woyk on Monday night, by "chucking- out" three; which had no chance whatever of becoraing law this session- If the House would always take a similarly firm stand, and throw out -uncere- j moniously the rubbish which fanatics or hare-brained members introf j duced, vast expense would be saved the country, as well as much valuable time. The time actually em« ployed on the Bills which pass and become law is but a fuaction of. the whole session. If those Bills which hi^ve no possible chance of passing could at thejr firat appearance be consigned to the was, tepaper basket, a vast improvement would speedjly he e^eqtecj m the legislation. Inr stead oi the annual Slaughter of the Innocents there oliould be a Slaughter of the Imbeciles once a week,, the House being asked, '* Shall these measures be allowed to pj?opeed?" The early Greeks had a useful plan of disposinsr of imbeciles, or human monstrosities by cutting their career short. It would be % blessing if our legislators adopted a similar plan, and eyeuy wselj: slaughter the Im« becile Bills ov Legisl%tj.ve Monstiosjties wl^iph pc put on the Order Paper. This would prsyent a number of really useful measures being destroyed m the Slaughter of the Innocents. ;, The first measure thrown out on Monday night was Sir George- Grey's Bill to amend the Constitution by enabling a plebiscite to be taken m th* event of the two Houses not agreeing. The BiJ! was bancjled by Major Atkinson m his usual trenchant style, and the Sawau Knight, evidently ' " riled,' was amusingly bitter m his t reply, Major Atkinson's family being souudly abused. The only thing stated m favor of the Bill by its sapporf/ers, Sir G;. Grey and Mr. Macandrew, was that if passed the electors would vpte m favor of a return to Provincialism — a statement which, m our opinion, would not be b.Vpn^ put by I&ots if tested,,The' House i threw pufth.a by f O , to-24!:- ;:•-.■:•■■',/•■ ; ■ ; ' The second Bill which was thrown out was one of the, monstrosities of of MrM. W. Green, the gentlemau who possesses a conscience. This time it was the Eight Hours Bill, which prb posed to limit the time during which any person might be employed to eiglvfrhours. Begarding this Bill Mr Wy nun Williams, one of the shrewdest lawyers iv the House, said "the promoter of the Bill did not think it; a sham because he did not understand it;" afact abundantlyevident during the discussion m Committee.. Eor instance, he said that as to domestic sorvnnts it would be for the, Supreme Court;' Judges to declare the effect of the Bill m such, cases, m reply to which Mr Shaw said that "was the strongest argun rnent against the Bill, for it would be absurd that every domestic ser« 1 ; : ; . ,■. : 1 J --• :' t • i i

want slum Id bo obliged to appeal to the Supreme Court on c question of overtime. A Bill of tin's kind would find its fitting place m the wastepaper basket." After a considerable amount of time had been wasted m discussing various points, all of which tended to show tho utter alwurdity of the Bill, it was thrown out and thus disposed of for this session. The third unfortunate on Monday night was >^ir Gr. Grey's Law Practitioners Bill, which went into Com* mitte" safe and scund, and emerged without amendment, also passing tho third reading on the casting vote of the Speaker, with 32 votes on each side. When, however, it came to its final stage, that of " passing," Sir Maurice O'Rorke gave his casting vote against the measure, the numbers being tho same as m the previous division. It was therefore rejected. Even had the House passed the Bill, the Council would certainly 1 have, rejected, and therefore its burial m the precincts of the Lower Chamber means a saving of valuable time and money. The three Bills referred fco occupied the whole of Monday night's sitting, and though much valuable time was wasted over them, it is perhaps as well the agony was gone through and is over, instead of them being left on the Order Paper any longer. Our hope is that the House will continue m the mood and will throw out on the urst opportunity every Bill which is as useless and has as little chance of passing as those treated so summarily on Monday night.