LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1542, 11 September 1912, Page 4

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL REFORM.

s 'r>~ft .tho continuous flow of dogmatically impregnated ink from the wefichargod fountain' pea of an editorial writer indicates the desire of the public for a. change in the existing order of thiti«, then no doubt a reform of the Legislative Council in the direction of placing it upon an ejeetir.nl basis is called lor. It is doubtful however to what extent the minds of the people aro affected by the newspaper articles, and it is still more doubtful whether the majority of tho peoplo are capable of forming a sound judgment on the question. In Legislatures a Second Chamber is deemed to be of importance, because it is assumed that it is possessed of certain attributes accorded to it by the common consent of,students of politics. That all Second Chambers do not possess all those attributes is generally common knowledge, but instead of asking those students in politics who are fairly well cognisant of the weaknesses of human nature, to devise a scheme of selection by means t of which an approximately ideal Second .Chamber can be constituted, ground whereon angels fear to tread is marked out for the plough, and the crop must with certainty be foredoomed tofailure. A very common -feeling'of- the present day is that it is impossible to go back to any prior) existing state of things: so to do would be conservative, ■and it is the. fashion, of tho day to call a.conservative, anybno whose opinions aro directed to savo the ship of State from Scylla and Charybdis, by taking it back to its old anchorage until more favourable prospects call for a fresh departure. The Legislative Council as designed, by the framers of the Constitution Act, Under which responsible government was originally given to flije people of this Dominion, consisted of men nominated to offico by the Governor in the name of the Sovereign, and once nominated the holder retained office for. life.... The first blow vthis excellent system received was delivered in a dispatch from Downing Street, whoreby his Excellency the Governor was informed that ho was bound to follow tho advice of his responsible Ministers in the matter of appointments to tho Council. This at once made tho Second Chamber a playground in party politics. The second blow was delivered when the Second Chamber, being dominated by party, surrendered its privileges, and acquiesced in tho limitation of office to the torra of seven years. This placed members in the invidious position of having to choose between their obvious duty as independent men, and their dcsiro to obtain rciiomination at the end of their term. When choice was on one occasion riiade conscientiously to range on the side of duty, history tells us that tho penalty was a failure by the Government of the day to renominate. This suggests the possibility that the' working of party government has sapped the independence of,' the Second Chamber. The Chamber is now obviously, among tho rocks and whirlpools and party strife, and that a change is necessary, is obvious. On a democratic electoral basis, th© product would be of the same kidney as the lower House, and so no good purpose would be sorved. In the mean-time-then, let us return to the scheme devised by the students, a scheme which worked perfectly until sacrificed for party purposes, and let the Second Chamber bo nominated by the Governor in the name of the King after consultation with, but without responsibility to, tho Executive Council, and let tho nominees be made independent of appointor or party by tho tenure of office being made for life, as it was formerly.—l am, etc., 8.8. Wellington, September 9, 1912.