The Dominion. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1911. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1238, 21 September 1911, Page 4

The Dominion. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1911. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

The great majority of the public arc convinced, and most ol the members of the House would confess if they were free to speak their minds, that the reform of the Legislative Council is one of the most urgent needs of the time. On more than one occasion during IDO7 the AttorneyGeneral propounded tho doctrine, in cffcct, that it is not the business of the Council to interfere with tho measures sent up_ to it by the House, and lie has consistently acted upon this doctrine and drilled the Council into giving abundant proof that it regards itself as merely a machine for registering the decrees of the Ministry. It now exists for little else than the addition of clauses that the Government could not dare to propose in the Lower House, but which the Government can rely upon getting the House to accept in tho concluding hours of the session, and the excision of clauses that the House, in its rare moods of independence, insists upon against-the Government's wishes. A little incident that took place earlier in this session served to bring out in strong colours the degraded condition of the Council. A special Divorce Bill of a particularly vicious kind was introduced prior to the Attorney-General's return, and was thrown out. After his return it was reintroduced, and, backed by his support, the Council meekly reinstated it. But wc do not mean to restate just now those facts, familiar to everybody, which have made the Council a byword wherever men talk of politics. Wc wish to give a, little attention to some of the opinions expressed during Tuesday night's debate' on Mr. Massey's motion to affirm that the Council should be made an elective body.

The arguments, against the motion were so extraordinarily poor that their insincerity must bo patent l.n everybody. The Pkijik Minister was especially weak. Rather than the change proposed by Mn. Massev, he said, he would favour tho abolition of the Second Chamber, but lie gave no reason save that "largo, electorates would bo 'retrogressive"—an assertion that is contradicted bv the experience of Australia—and that "the unknown poor mail" would have no chancc against "a wellknown man" under a system of large electorates, lint what chance, under the present system, has any man against the person, who, although he may be unknown, may have rendered no service to his fellows, may indeed be a social undesirable and

an ignorant fellow, vet happens to bo a political friend uf the party in power! And when the Pimm Minister declared that it would be wrong "to deny the people of the country the right to get a majority of the kind they wished in the Upper House through their majority in the Lower House," he forgot that the proposal of Ml!. Massev was to give the people just that right to have the Council they desired which they arc denied by the Government under the present system. This was poor stuff, but just as poor, in its ov,-n way, was Mr. Millar's sadly disingenuous complaint that the ! House was being asked to affirm something without any details being given. This very absurd arguI ment was not thought worth using by anybody else, sincc it was obvious that the motion merely sought to affirm a. principle; but Mr. Millar's use of it is worth noting as signifi- j cant of the hopeless weakness of' those who desire to defend the present evil system. It is unnecessary to do more than record Mr. M'Larex's unenlightened hostility towards the idea of proportional representation, or Mr. Wilford's .equally unenlightened advocacy of Single-Chamber government. No doubt the motion will be rejected, since the Government is able to rely upon its majority to obey the crack of the party whip whatever may be proposed; but Mr. Massey is advocating a reform that has the vast majority of the people behind it. We hear a great deal about the rights of the democracy from Ministerialists, but_it is very plain that this is merely lip-service. The proposal to make the Legislative Council elective is a democratic reform that nothing can' prevent from coming, and the sooner it comes and the Second Chamber ccases to be a rcproach to the country the better.