THE HOUSE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2843, 7 August 1916, Page 7

THE HOUSE

COUNCIL AMENDMENT BILL ELECTIVE SYSTEM POSTPONED., | The House of Representatives met at t.30 p.m. on Saturday. Tho Factories Amendment Bill (tho Eight Hon. W. F. Massey) was intro. duced. and read a first time. The Right Hon'. W. F. MASSEY (Priao Minister) moved the seoond read, lng of -the' Legislative Council Amendment Hill, which provides for the postponement of the elective system in connection with tho TJpper. Chamber until 1920. Mr. Massey said that before the National Cabinet was formed it was recognised that the Bill such a aytor thai it would require considerable amendment before being brought into operation. An understanding was' anized at that the Act should not' come into

operation during the war period or for Miiro time afterwards. When.the Act —was passed in 1914-there was.<l difference of opinion-' amongst : members on both" ■ fiides of. the. House as to whether, the ..now- system was likely to be successful. The Bill' on a number of occasions had . been before tho House; The Upper Chamber had made a number of amendments which were objected to by members of tho Lower. House, and several . conferences were held. On one of these " occasions he had promised that tho Act .would not. be brought into operation until tho House had had an opportunity of leconsidering tho matter. Mi'. M'Combs: That was beforo the last election. ' Mr. Massey: Yes, just beforo tho election.

Mr. M'Combs: Then the country has given its decision. Mr. Massey: I-do not know that the conntry has given any decision yet. The position, however, has chajiged very much since the Act was passed. They were not then contemplating such a position as- the Dominion now found itself placed in. During one .of the discussions in 1914 Sir Joseph Ward,'then Leader of the Opposition, said that if the Opposition Party was returned to power it probably would amend the Act. Ho (Mr. ? n j ? 'I™® occ i®on said that it was intended to, give Parliament an opportun. ity of reconsidering the Act before it .was brought into operation. Sir Joseph iHard also made the remark "that. the Act, was bound to be reviewed whatever party was in office. He (Mr. Massey) believed, that the statement then made by' himself and repeated in effect by bir Joseph Ward had had tho effect of mlrueDcing tlio votes of a number of members, and thus allowing the Act to pass.

~ • A Tired ,House. . -Mere was yet another reason for post, ponement. T(iey /ivero now at tho end or the present session, a session in which it had boon their duty to deal with some of tho uiost important subjects ever submitted to tho Now Zealand Par-liament-war pensions, military service, anil enormous finance proposals. And he would ask honourable members of tho House whether they were in' a fit state ol mind to undertake such .a task as tho revision of difficult' and technical subjects such as were contained in tho Legislative Council Act, 1911. Ho had probably had a little more to do than most honourable members, but for his part he was certainly not fit, and ho would declino to tako part in any attempt to reviso {lie Act. Postponement would make ncccssary certain other amendments in administration. Tho Act of last session kept tho door opon for till Z li 9 nominative appointments till 1917 This Bill would keep the door open, till 1920, and the.se nojhinativo mombora could sit until 192-1. Tho first oleeI™. 1 of . members, would tako place in J' il en 21 members would -be elected, and the second election would come sis years later.

t .Electoral Reform Forecasted. TJio election of - the Council it • .was proposed, was to be umlbr .proportional representation. This auestion of electoral systems wag an exceedingly difficult ono. Wo had no oxperienco of proportional representst on in tins country. But an electoral ollicor had gone to Australia, and had ' fn™ f°T vor £ ™l«ablo in. , iormation about tho working of the sys. torn there. I his information would bo tlii/wil k ! 10 - 110t I fl /! | y in Telation to tins Bill, but in relation to possible rewrm of tho system of the oloction of members to tho House. Honourable members knew that our olectoral system contained, many defects, which wore made . ® v ident at la6t elections, and amondinonts 111 it might bo necessary befora the nest elections' were held. Little OpDCsition. i'AYNE (Grey Lynn) supported tho Bill. He was of opinion that Labour .was making a mistake in demanding tho complicated system of proportional representation. Mr., J. M'COMBS (Lyttelton) said he regretted tho postponement and crnsequent risk of one of the most democratic and ono of tho most important constitutional reforms ever agreed to by tho Parliament of this country. Tbi'o country owed a heavy debt of'gratitude to Sir Francis Bell for having introduced a measure giving the people tho right jßnder tho most perfect system that wuld devised of electing tho mombers of the Second Chamber. Mr. A, H. HINDMAESH (Wellington

South) spolce of tho abuses of tho nominativo system by both of tlio two front parties. Any system would bo better than tho present system. Mr. P. C. WEBB (Grey) opposed tho Bill.

Mr. T. M. WILFORD (Hutt) asked who would make tlio new appointments that were to be made under tlio jnesent system. Would tho Prima Ministor> and Sir Joseph Ward mate alternate ; ppoiutments, or would tho Primo Minister reserve fiio right under tho National Government to make all the appointments? Personally ho favoured tho* abolition of tho Upper Chamber. ' Mr. MASSEY said that any! now appointments that required to be made to tho Legislative Council ivoulu bo niado by tho National Government, and he -was Quite sure that the Government was cap. able of making proper appointments. In Committee Mr. M'Combs moved an amendment to tho effect that appointments under tho present system should terminate in 1921, instead of 1021. Ho failed to secure any supporters, and tho amendment was lost on tho voices. The seoond reading was carried oil the voices. The Bill passed through Committee without amendment. On tho motion for tho third Trading, Mr. Jennings aske<l that the claims of Messrs. J: Bigg and J. E. Jenkinson former members of the Council) to reappointment should be considered Ly* the Government. TTie' Bill was read, a third time and passed. - HEATING IN FACTORIES. The PRIME MINISTER moved the second'reading of ithe Factories Amendment Bill, which provided for heating appliances being installed in factories, as the law now provided regarding shops. He asked members not to attempt any additional amendments, which would, open up tlio whole question and _make it impossible to pass the Bill this session. Mr. A. WALKER (Dunedin_ North) said he' desired to thank tho Prime Minister for this Bill, which met requests he had made in regard to Duncdin. Mr. J. M'COMBS (Lyttelton) asked if the Bill could be extended to enforce heating even in retail Bhops. This provision already existed, but was not put into force. The PRIME MINISTER, in reply, said that all the time the Act had teen in force there had been only one complaint.Tho Act was. being administered, and tho Bill would be administered thoroughly and effectively when it J>ecame law. The second reading was agreed to on the voices, and the Bill was put through its remaining stages in a few minutes. THE LAST DAY. The PRIME MINISTER, in announcing that the House would meet at 10 a.m. to-day, stated that the only business now remaining to be done was the consideration of the Supplementary Estimates, Which were not 60 important as usual, and'the passing of the Appropriation Bill. He thought it would be possible to close the session on Monday in time to enable the southern members to catch the'southern boat. ■

The House adjourned at 5.30' p.m. until 10 a;m. to-day.