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The Assembly was still sitting to eon
Bide the Estimates when "lie Advertiser"
•went to press on Wednesday morning.
The Estimates were not finished till 1L45
a.m.—which made 21J hours continuous
consideration. The night was full or inci
dent. Comedy, farce, serious.bnsiness,'and
uprosr -were strangely mingled in scenes
which could do nothing whatever to ele
vate Parliament in public opinion. , The
proceedings degenerated into' an unseemly
wrangle about 5 am. as the result of an
attempt by the Labor Party to secure an
adjournment on a catch vote. To defeat
this the Speaker voted with the Govern
ment.
Last year-the Estimates were passed at
1.5 a.m. When that time passed on
Wednesday and the House was only a little
more than -half way through Mr. Robin
son, from some friendly corner, procured
an eiderdown quilt and. a pillow and pre
pared to settle down for the night on one
of the .benches reserved for the Legisla
tive Council members. Then the - first
scene in a little comedy wus enacted. Mr.
Price was addressing himself at the mo
ment'to the question of fishery beds. The
sight of Mr. Robinson nestling into his
improvised Parliamentary bed Avas too.
much for the member for Port Adelaide.
He called attention to the state of the
House. There, were no Labor members
supporting, him and only five . or six
Ministerialists were in their places. The
■bells rang. Xo Labor members appeared.
The bells kept, ringing. 1 Mr.' Eobinson
roused himself sleepily, and.as be saw the
possibility of a lack of a quorum he threw
his quilt and pillow over into his usual
place in tbe Chamber and came on the
right side of the barrier. . He remarked
at the'same time, "Y-crar little scheme did
not come off."Mr. Price resumed bis
discourse, while Mr. Robinson settled
down to sleep within the House. A few
minutes later Mr. Reidy crossed the aisle
and "turned in" at the other end of Mr. '
Robinson's bench bed, sharing hisi quilt.
The couple were immediately assailed with
such observations as "a nice .bed mate,"
"strange bedfellows," and "twin' beds."
Mr. Price, however, found fishery and
oyster beds more interesting.
Liabilities and . Assets.
Shortly
! the fiahrcait, and began : to talk of . the;
poor pav • of -the !ihonoxabie ^members,
though he said, he could see-^with en ex
pressive glance at the eiderdown bed
-'some members -were, getting all they "were
worth." Mr. Hudd observed that Mr.
! Price was "a"liability at any price." Mr.
Price pleasantly replied that Mr. Hudd
i was "an asset without the 'et.' He
; went on to say that he "was sorry," and
•Mr. Reidy, before the embryo sentence
was completed, started up from his sleep j
to remark ambiguously, tat to the amuse
ment of members, who were suddenly in a
merry mood, that he "was sorry, too!"
When Mr. Price got to the Chemistry
Department he did-.not relish the poison]
] gas of interjection which his address was
I provoking. The scientists did rrot, he
said, seem to be making much progress j
with exterminating pests. Liberal mem
bers emphatically agreed with him, bat
they were obscure as to the pests they had
in mind. Mr. Reidy, at this stage, de
serted his political bed-mate - amid re
strained applause. The interjections con
tinued, and Mr. Price said they were very
disconcerting. The Minister of Industry,
in a vain attempt to stop the flow of ver- i
bpsity, said if he were Mr. Price he would
sit (town. Mr. Price innocently asked
"Why?" This caused renewed- merri
ment.
"Wake Up, Bobbie!"
. At 1.23 a.m., Mr. Crosby, on a point
of order, asked. whether Mr. Price could
keep on "repeating himself," a charge to
which a plea of not guilty was entered.
Mr. Price, a little later, almost migqwd
catching the 'eye of the Chairman. He
drew the attention of the Chairman to his
desire to speak by calling briskly, "Sir,
sir, sir, sir!" with crescendo effects. About
2 a.m_ Mr. Vardon excited members by
emitting a sonorous snore—but it was an
artificial one, as members quickly dis
covered. _ A paper pellet, which Mr. But
terfield aimed at (him found its mark so
truly that Mr. Vardon could not prevent
a smile overspreading his face. Meantime,
a debate about the (Flinders Chase Flora
and Fauna Board terminated. Boars of
"Aye" and "No," for and against the vote
■were menective'bo disturb Mr. Robinson,
but at 22 am. he was roused from his
ehurrbers by tbe.iringing of the division
bells to decide (whether or not a vote of
£500 should go to the board. As he
stirred sleepily, Mr. Hill called out, "Wake
up, "Robbie, take your merchandise out
of the Chamber; you are out of order!"
The Government won the vote—and Mr.
Robinson again retired -to rest. Most of
the other members sought the seclusion
temporarily of the billiard, smoke, ami re
freshment rooms.
"A Black Eye!"
At 2.20 a.m. five of the 13 members in
the Chamber 'had been wooed and won by
the Goddess of Sleep. Another of the
periodic interruptions to dumber and ver
bosity occurred at 3 a.m. Mr. Buxton
called attention .to the state of the House.
He received no thanks from Mr. 0'Fla
herty, who was speaking. "This is the
third time this has happened to me," he
remonstrated. "Somebody will get a
black eye directly." Mr. iPetherick looked
upon the "call" as an insult to Mr. Bux
ton's own colleagues. The response of the
member for Burra was, "You wanted. to
sit; we didn't." Mir. Buxton installed
himself as interrupter-in-chief. At 3£2
am. Mr.' CHalloran, who had spoken »s
much as anyone in the House, said mem
bers evidently desired him "to continue
his remarks" later. Mr. Price therefore
moved—"That progress be reported." The
voices favored continuation, and- Mr. Bux
ton called, for a 'division.
"Ho doubt you consider that clever,"
Mr. O'Connor sarcastically interjected. As
it -was necessary for Government suppor
ters to change sides, all the 'sleepers hod '
to stir themselves from their rug aud
quilt dugouts. The voting was 14 to 14,
and Mr. Hill appealed to the Chairman to
"have a heart." Mr. Angus was ada
mant and supported the Government. The
members remained therefore entrenched in
talk.
The next opportunity Mr. Butterfield had
of speaking he termed the all night sit
ting "decidedly foolish and stupid." There
was no justification for it. He regretted
the Government was using the force of
numbers and using the "savage institu
tion" of an all-night sitting as the method
of passing, the Estimates. Members, he
said, were not , in a, position to bring
their "intelligences" to bear upon
items involving an aggregate
expenditure of millions of pounds. At
4 a.m. and again at 42 a an. Mr. Buxton
had the bells rung. Mr. O'Connor, on
coining into the Chamber, observed "He's
mad.!"- Mr. Buxton said, "Klt»er mind
about being mad, if you want to-sit- alb
night rou must keep a; House.'* He rbert
demanded a withdrawal of the .remark
from Mr. O'Connor. :• The Ckanmissiouer
of Crown Lands murdered whether Mr.
O'Connor was "far out after all." The
member for Albert gratefully .withdrew the
remark. '
A Coup that Tailed.
• Mrf .Gunn at ,4.47'aim;• rose and said,
"As -a further protest; against this objec
tionable and entirely unnecessary all-night
sitting, I more that progress: be reported."
A a' the numbers were 14 tofI4 at 3.33 a.m,
it was anticipated that the Government
would win, but a mild sensation was caused
when Mr. Edwards, iVjho had been absent
all night, walked into the Chamber.
Labor, therefore, expected. - to - win a
"catch" vote. It transpired, however,
that on the previous division the Speaker's
vote was not taken, f On the second divi
sion the Speaker voted, for the first time'
during the session. The numbers were,
therefore, 15 to 15. The' Chairman; voted
with the Government,; The Speaker's
vote was challenged.; ■ i The Chairman, ea-id
the Speaker bad-the option of voting or
not votong. Mr. .Mclnnes called out
amid a storm' of interjection, "He's a dirty
party trickster." There was renewed upi
roar, and another cry of "Party hack!"
wag heard; The Chairman asked for a
withdrawal of tha .words ''dirty political
trickster,'.' which was'refased by. Air. Mc
lnnes. The-Chairman.;thereupon "named"
the member, and reported .the incident to
the Speaker. Mr. Mclnnes on being asked
' again "to withdraw the words did so. Mr.
Gunn enquired whether, in view of the ab
solute necessity for impartiality in the
Speaker, he ought to ibe "used" by the
Government. The Chairman replied that
that was a matter entirely for the
Speaker. Mr: - Butterfield,amid_ Labor
cheers, csked, "Is there anything un
usual in a political rat from the Labor
Party voting against the Labor Party?"
The Speaker objected to the question.
• Government Reinforcements.
'Several Labor members 'asserted that
the. remark- had not .been associated with
the Speaker, -but on-; /being - appealed; to
Mr. Butterfield rcadfly. and candidly ad
mitted that his Reference was to the
Speaker. Mr. Beidy • observed warmly
tliat -there was evidently nothing-unusual
in "scamps", being in the House. Mr.
Butterfield immediately protested aga inst
"scamp," and the remark was -withdrawn.
■The member for .Hewicastle substituted
."renegade" .for. "rat,"Land ^thafc. wag also
rejected as an unparliamentary word. Mr.
Butterfield ultimately asked- the : 'mild
Question whether there was anything un
usual in a member who had left the Labor
Party voting with the other party he had
joined. The Chairman- naturally ad
mitted that there was not. During the
argument there . 'were many rowdy
passages and much hubbub ' from
the Labor side. -Mr. Robinson said
this was .bringing Parliament into 'disre
pute. Mr. Verran exclaimed. "Xot so
much as you and your bed did." A few
moments after- the storm ceased inside the
Chamber there was another one outside.
Vigorous and hearty cheers were heard in
the vestibule. A Labor member observed,
"One of the other side has arrived." Major
Smeaton (who had -been absent all the
evening, as Mr. Edwards had, and who
had evidently been disturbed for the same
purpose of emergency attendance at the
House) appeared. He received' another
ovation on entering the House at 5A5 a.m.
Mr. Price, "See what' Government motor
cars* can do!" There was another Labor
demonstration when Mr. Hamilton came,
and two more -when Messrs. Ponder and
Anstey were seen at 5.45 a.m. and 5M0
aJn. respectively. Before 6 a.m. Messrs.
■Moeeley, Tossell, and Nicholls. who also
had left the House about 11 p.m., were in
their places. Erom that time the debate
proceeded more quietly.
Major Smeaton created a breeze by
rising to speak on railways at 7.35 a.rru
The Labor members twitted him with
having been home all night and yet taking
the opportunity provided by others to
talk. Mr. Hill.said it was most unfortu
nate thing the -Government had brought
him in. The sitting was suspended at 8
a-m. till 10 ajn.
, "Unnecessary Explanation." |
When the House resumed at 10 o'clock
Mr. Gueh, on a motion to go into Com
mittee of Supply, protested against the 1
■unnecessary exhaustion and inefficient pro
cedure adopted fay the House in all-night
sittings.
The Premier—Your side is deliberately
blocking progress.
Mr. Gunn—That is not so. .Members
are so exhausted that some of them had
to bring in pillows and rugs. Others fell
asseiep during the business, and -many
went home. j
Mr. Butfeerfield said the whole thing was j
most immoral. i
Mr. Robinson remarked that the leader
of the Opposition was a good actor.
•Mr. Butterfield asked the Speaker whe
ther Mr. Robinson was in order in sug
gesting that Mr. Gunn was an actor.
The Speaker said the expression was not
ufl-Parliamentary.
Mr. Gunn said most of the important
items of expenditure had been rushed
through the House because members were
not in a position to deal with them.
The • Premier—That would have been
quite unnecessary if you had not wasted
•time. Your side simply_ pnt up speakers
for the purpose of speaking to block busi
ness. . i
Mr. O'Fiaherty protested against the
suggestion of the Premier that members
had. bloeked basin ess.
The Premier—I repeat it.
Mr. O'Fiaherty—We played the king
You played the joker and beat ua
Mr. Petherick enquired whether the
member for Burra. was in order in calling
members on the Ministerial side brutes.
Mr. Harvey—You're.worse than brutes;
youtre reptiles.
The Premier—If I liked to repeat con
versations I heart last mght I could ex
pose the whole thing.
Mr. Hill challenged Mr. Barwell to re
peat the conversations..
Messrs. Harvey, Buxton, and Price also
t spake.
•While the member for Port Adelaide
was speaking the Premier exclaimed, "I
don't ivajjt any impudence from you."
Mr. Price—Nor will I stand any from
you either, Premier.
Mr. Hill—In 17 hours' time there will
be something doing.
The Speaker having appealed for order,
Mr. Price remarked, 1 regret having been
■drawn off the track by that thing over
there." (Uproar.)
The Speaker—You must withdraw.
Mr. Price—J withdraw. I am sorry the
incident occurred.
The House then went into Committee.
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