The Dominion. TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 21, 1916. GUBERNATORIAL POWER.

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2934, 21 November 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. TUESDAY, NOVEMB ER 21, 1916. GUBERNATORIAL POWER.

has already been given 'KW $ b , ro 6 lio wUch J" alcs as a rosillt o£ Sln Gerald Strickland's intimation to ' Hooian that in view of the division m Parliament on Mr. -UURACk s no-confidence motion ho vnust cease transacting business with Ministers,.and must seek the advice ot the strongest group in the House, it Willie remembered that Mr. uuracks motion was not directly ■ X ote " u P cn i but was set aside by the passage of an amendment, moved by Mr. Wade, and supported by the Liberal Party and by those Labour Ministers and members adhering to Mr. Holman, affirming the desirability of forming a National Government.. . Sir Gerald Strickland s estimate of the position apparently was that as the question of confidence had been raise.a, and the House had refrained tjom affirming its confidence in the uovernment, the result was equivalent to a vote of no-confidenco. , J-hero is manifestly something to bo said in favour of this view, but it i is a, determining factor that the i [constitution makes every Ministry its own judge on such an occasion as arose in New South Wales, and that the duty of removing a Ministry from office does not devolve upon the representative of the .Crown, but upon Parliament. What had threatened to bo an awkward episode closed with the Governor's Consent, on second thoughts, to look at the matter from this standpoint. Less lias been heard about a difference of opinion between Sir Gerald Stjuckland _ and his Ministers over the question of prolonging the life of Parliament. Tho Sydney Momttiff Herald states that this issue arose at a date preceding that of tile lio-confidence debate. According to the Sydney newspaper, it is stated in political circles that Sir Gerald bTRiCKLANp openly expressed himself as absolutely opposed to the proposal to prolong the life of Parliament, and stated his intention of reserving the Bill for the personal approval and assent of the King. Ihis attitude was stigmatised, with apparent reason, as extraordinary, more especially as the Bill had not at the time been, drafted or submitted to His Excellency, but only mooted in the public Press. The Herald is informed that the matter was submitted by cablegram to the ■aome authorities for their opinion, with the result that advice was received practically amounting to an instruction to Sir Gerald Strickland to afesent to the Bill, i n the G Y el L fc of:ite'passing both Houses of Parliament. No other decision was to be expected. Tho c/uestion at stake seems to bo essentially one which lies solely in the province of the people and Parliament of New South Wales. But that the alleged facts are submitted by tho respectable authority; quoted, it would be difficult to believe that a representative of tho Crown would intervene in any way in the treatment of a public cfuestion before it had , been dealt by the Parliament of a self-governing Dominion. The duties of His Majesty's representative in a self-governing Dominion aro nowadays of a nature that call for little initiative on his part. The wisest and most successful of our Governors have observed a proper aloofness on all occasions until called on by their advisers. The least successful have been those too ready to obtrude their opinions on their advisers, and over-active in those matters outside their office which _ are best left to the energies of private citizens,