POLITICIANS AND JUSTICE.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1536, 4 September 1912, Page 5

POLITICIANS AND JUSTICE.

Sir,—At the present moment an important discussion is taking place on the propriety of' establishing an electoral basis, oii which shall depend the membership of the Second or Revising Chamber in our constitution.- The fate of-Mr.-W. H. D. Bell's Bill for, remedying a wrong done by a stroke .of-the pen or the track of a paint brush! in tracing a line on a map, seems to point,unerringly to.the necessity for revising-. the basis upon which members of the House !of -Representatives are selected,.. It would seem that instead of a number.of;conscientious men eager to do justice according to. the .principles now generally prevailing among those inheriting the traditions of the 'British race, wo have those who do not hesitate to use ono member's Bill- , as.an instrument tor the purpose >of. killing some.other memraer's Bill, and in the process killing the innocent instrument, regardless '.f'th'e merits of.'.tie instrument, regardless of the wrong it was proposed to remedy, regardless of the attained- consequences- of defective legislation,' regardless .of tnett individual responsibility, as men chosen to mould the destinies tf the people. The honourable member for Waitenuita is reported in The Dominion to have said, "the licenses referred to had already been wiped x out, and there was no power to restore them,- so it/was absurd to ask- the House to do so'," in other words, it was absurd to askiParllament-to remedy an uncontemplated- injustice wrought-in . the mechanical exercise of powers delegated by Parliament to an electoral commission; that it was absurd to ask tho supreme, legislative" authority of the Dominion'to. remedy an- unintended- wrong committed by it. Tho honourable member for Wellington East, denounced the proposal to remedy the unintended'wrong because, forsooth,-" he and his ."Temperance" party .had not. yet.been able" to carry a proposal-.:that one vote in 20,000 should' deprive 9999 persons of the r.-iivi-lige of having, a ijlass of beer, at luneli. If this is the justice dispensed by the Temperance party, save u; from-Temper-ance! ■If this is'the kind of justivj to be obtained from a'House of Representatives elected'ori a purely democratic bans, save us from, tho pure democracy-! ■ •It is an abuse- of the scheme of rnspon? sible government to insist that no Bill shall be allowed to pass unless initiated by the Government of the. da r. Uis such a proposition which lead's <o "logrolling," "back-scratching," .and the other.- contemptible methods,which., ,haye.' gained ground in every other country which professes to be democratic. The responsibility for policy rests with the Government, but the dispensation of jus-, tice, the remedying of particular wrongs, wrought by hasty or ill-considered legislation, should be '■ a matter, of concern , for each individual member of the Hoiite, regardless of party, but it seems that it is not so, and .that it is not-so can lead only to the conclusion that the present system of selecting members has not resulted in the return of a House fully composed of members alive to a sense of iienonal I responsibility, and alive to their duties as makers'of -laws, -fit sprays-from the fountains of justice.—l am, etc., . - ' ; ■. . H.p. Wellington, August 31.