THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS

Dominion, Volume 11, Issue 196, 8 May 1918, Page 6

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL APPOINTMENTS

Sir,—And so nineteen new appointments have been made to the Upper House by Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward. I remember in 1914, when Mr. Massey was pleading for the suffrages of tho people, thai ho told the citizens of Wellington in the Town Hall, having been asked the question, that he would not, if returned to power, make any fresh appointments to Hie Upper House. One of the main planks in liis platform was the reform of the Upper House, and he was.going to put it on an electoral brsis, Like tho jolt many sporting men have backed, because it Rave good promise of great things, and found that its performances were unreliable, so the people who supported Mr. Masses' because ne was full of promises and ready to mako a clean ewesp of all "political iniquities" have, in appointments, further evidence that. II r. Massey is unreliable. One gentleman on being asked, the reason f<r hid 11011 roappointmeut to the ■Upper House,, replied: ''I can only account for wy hong overlooked to two things: (a) I luive been unnblo to exert sufficient po'iUcnl pull; or (l>) I have not sufficient money wherewith to purchase tlii\t political pull." And, looking down the names, one reluctantly comes to tho conclusion that there must uo some occult reason for tho majority of the appointments, because taking them as a wi'olo, with one or two exceptions, thoso appointments may be regarded as the pick of inferior mediocrity. The chief objection to these apporatlinents at the- present time is that they I are altogeilis; unwarranted us a political i necessity; and they constitute a piece of political ertravnganw, entirely unwort iy of the men wlo made the selection. Hie fathers and mothers of New Zealand have mado abundant sacrifices to help win Hie war. The politicians have praieiied that everything must l>e done to vcm the war. M'\ Massey says that nothing counts but the winning of tho war; Sir Joseph Ward adds fhero is only one thing to do-save money, put it in Hie War Loan, and win the war. let tor political reasons, and at a time when tho war look', it worst, and when tho voluntary cor'ribntions to the War J/>im have to be followed by compulsory exactions Mr Mnfsey and Sir Joseph \Vard combined 1.0 waste .CGOOO per annum in unnecessary RiipoWments to Hie Upper House; and appointments inado in direct opposition to Mm political pledges of the great IMorin leader. _ Moicover, and ; n conclusion, it must bo noted dial the genuine working classes of this eomi'ry hnvn given as treely m their substance, and of their manhood to help vin the -viu- as any section of the community; yet there is not a truly representative man of that class selected bv the National Government leaders. The whole" of those appointments constituto ii pilifcal job of the worst type, the more so because it has been fathered by the loaderi of the two great parti'* in the State. This fact points to the necessity for tho creation of a new w>htical partv, and it is time some steps were taken toward its immediate forma-tion.-I am, etc.,

AfIOUS. rWo doubt if Mr. Mnssey ever nindo the alleged promise to make no.appointments to the I-wWntiTO Conncil, for in order to carry his Keform Bill a certain number of appointments wmld almost certainly he nno>ssiiry. The Bill nrovidine for' an elective Uwer Koiiw was pns=ed as promised, and but for the war imil tl'o conditions created by the formation of n Nntionnl Government further nnnointmentp would i;»vo been both unnecessary and impossible.]