A PROTEST.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1248, 5 October 1911, Page 4

A PROTEST.

The rebuke administered yesterday in the Legislative Council to the Attorney-General for his discourteous reply to the question of the Hon. C. H. Mills respecting the Coronation invitations is important as affording evidence that there is a limit to the affronts wheh may be put upon some members of the Council. We do not suppose that Councillors were particularly grieved at having missed tho invitations, but the contemptuous manner in winch they had been treated by the Government in the refusal _ of Ministers to pass on the invitations intended for them, aggravated as it was by the off-handed and discourteous manner in which Sir John Findlay declined to afford them any information on tho subject, could not be passed over by any but the most servile. Councillors probably realised that quite apart from tho question of discourtesy, tho action of the Leader of the Upper Houso was the heaviest blow at the dignity and privileges of tho Council that had yet been dealt. That instead of the Council being treated as a separate and independent part of the Parliamentary machinery, it was asked to waive its right* and privileges and subordinate itself to the Lower Chamber. That is what Sir . John Findlav's reply, in referring Councillors to tho' records of the Lower House for an answer to the question, really amounted to—that and the further degradation that tho Council is so subservient that the Ministry can without fear intercept invitations to Councillors for which Ministers are made the medium of transmission. What right has the Government to keep back those invitations even now? Our readers who peruse the report of the speeches in the Legislative Council yesterday will probably discover from the utterances of tho Hon. G. Jones, the reason why the Council is held in such general contempt. Could they _ but witness the almost daily exhibition of sycophancy, or, as one Councillor elegantly termed it, "slobbering," which goes on amongst a section of members of the Council; they would not hesitate one instant in making up their minds that as at present constituted the Upper House is utterly unworthy of respect. Even yesterday, in face of so glaring an infringement of their "privileges, many of the menibers who felt called on to protest did so with a strong note of apology running through their speeches. Mr. Mills is deserving of every credit for the stand he took in the matter. If Councillors have any regard for their own dignity they will thank him for the effort he has made to uphold tho status and privileges of the Upper Chamber.