Abolition Of Legislative Council

Chronicle (Levin), 21 September 1949, Page 2

Abolition Of Legislative Council

•y E. J.

GRAHAM.

* • \ ^ • I (To»the Editor) Sir, — As the question of the : abolition of the Legislative Council and a possible substitute will be , one of the matters put before the electors at the next general elecbion, woui'd not the Act piaced on the' Statute Book by the Massey Government in 1914 be worth consideration in connection with the present situation. This Act, which was put off from time to time and never brought into force, provided that members of the Legislative Council should be elected not appointed, and that an elected member should hold his seat until the dissolution or expiry of Parliament which takes place next after the expiration of five years from the date of his election and no longer. There was a proviso that should the Governor dissolve both the Council and the House simultaneously, the seat of every elected member of the Council should be vacated. For the purpose of the election of members to the Council, the proposal was that New Zealand be divided into four electoral divisions, two for each island. For the first election under the Act seven members were to be elected for each of the Norih Isiand divisions and five members for each of the South Island divisions. In every following election the number of members electr ed was to be 40 — 11 for each of the North Island divisions and nine for each of the South Island divisions, subject to any adjustment that might be made by the Representation Commission in regard to any change in population. The division in each island was to be one continuous line from sea to sea and the number of members in each division to be an odd number. The method of election to the Council was to be by transferab.e vole (this system of voting was proposed by Thomas Hare- in 1857 and has been used in Ta'smania since 1896) . In the ease of a Bill bemg passed by the House and rejected by the Council, should the House ,in the next session again pass the Bill and the Council again reject it, the Governor might during ! that session convene a joint sitting of the members of the House and the Council who should vote together upon the Bill. If it was affirmed by ' a' majority it should be deemed fo have been passed by both theiHouse and the Council. Yours. etc.. . ....

Otaki, Sept. 19.