The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1912. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL CRISIS.

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1575, 19 October 1912, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1912. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL CRISIS.

By 21 votes to 18 the Legislative Council rejected the Bill providing that, in the case of all future appointments that'may be necessary before the Council's constitution is changed, the term of appointment j shall be three years, instead of seven years as at present. The Council's action was simply contumacious. The country will see it in that light, and Mr. Massey must treat it as such. Both Houses have affirmed the elective principle—the House by a huge majority and the Council by expression in the speeches preceding its postponement of the main Bill. There is little need to take up space in censuring the rally of the bulk of the Ward nominees against the Reform Government and the new order of things. • These gentlemen have simply done what they imagined they were appointed to do. No doubt the irreconcilable element will prove consistent enough, in the discharge of what they conccive is their duty to the vanished party that appointed them, to destroy one or more other policy measures. Nothing could exceed' the candour and coolness of the Government's treatment of the question of Legislative Council reform. The original Bill providing the general scheme of reform was postponed upon the flimsiest of pleas, viz., that the House had not affirmed the elective principle. There was no excuse for the postponement. The country is solidly against a continuance of the present system; the onlv objectors to the Government's main proposal are those who think the Council should be constituted on the life nomination principle or abolished altogether, and these are' a small fraction of the community. The Government, however, accepted the plea, although it is now quite clear that had the original Bill been first passed by the House it would have been rejected in the Council. The House affirmed the main principles of that Bill, and agreed to the short measure rejected yesterday. But the old guard in the Council care nothing for that. The practical position now is that in its present state the Council will destroy the Reform party's plans of reform. If Mn. Massey reintroduces his rejected Bills next year, they will be rejected again. The' Council has made it perfectly plain that it is not prepared to face the, change which the country has demanded. That is the situation with which the Government has to deal. The Government could with perfect propriety, and with the approval of the country, have appointed a number of new Councillors for sevenyear terms the day after the postponement of the first Bill. Most. Governments would have done so without hesitation. The Government preferred, however, to. give the Council another chance, and to di-; vest itself of its then existing, and still existing, power to fill the Council with long-term nominees. There is nothing left for Mr. Massey now but to appoint for the seven-year term as many new Councillors as he considers necessary to overcome the contumacy and folly of the Ward nominees in the Upper House. He has not desired to appoint anybody. Faced with the prospect that he might be forced to make appointments he endeavoured to secure that such appointments as might be necessary would be for a term so brief that the democratic elective system would be fully in effect at the earliest possible moment. The Council, however, has chosen, without giving a single good reason, to force the Government to appoint long-term Councillors if it wants the wishes to be carried out. There is no case at all for the Council's rejection of the Bill. For years it has existed merely to execute the decrees of the old Spoils party. It never dreamed of obstructing any policy measure of that party. Many of the nominees of tne old party have been of no value to thc_ Council. It cannot correctly be said that by its performance yesterday the Council has turned the country against it, for the country long ago made up its mind that the nominative system must somehow be ended as quickly as possible. But the rejection of the Bill will open the eyes of the public to the fact that as it exists to-day the Council is a menace to every measure of good government that the Government may bring in in order to give- effect to the will of the nation. The Council cannot be permitted to remain so. The Government cannot be allowed to submit to obstruction on the Council's part. The Government has now no means of giving effect to the nation's mandate for reform save the ultimate appointment of new Councillors.