The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1876.

Evening Star, Issue 4297, 4 December 1876, Page 2

The Evening Star MONDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1876.

Amongst the large political questions which are presenting themselves for immediate solution by the Colony is the reform of the Legislative Council. The Abolition of Provincial institutions has made this question more pressing, but it would have had to be settled at an early day, in any event. For several years the subject has been discussed, but the Colony has been so busy moneymaking that it has hitherto shirked a struggle with the Council. Two or three years ago, indeed, Sir Julius Vogel, then Premier, did invite the Council to perform a kind of “ happy despatch,” as an honorable means of escaping from the executioner, but the Council did not see it; and perhaps, from its own point of view, it was right in declining the Premier’s seductive proposal, since it still lives, and possesses the power of making a hard fight when the final conflict ccjmes, May be it cherishes the hope embodied in the proverb that “ threatened men live long; ” but if so, the hope is not likely to be realised. The Council is not without redeeming qualities. Far from it. Many a time it has withstood the House of Representatives, supported by a strong body of public opinion, when the House has passed measures better fitted to secure ephemeral popularity than the permanent welfare of the Colony, and both the House and the Country have subsequently felt grateful te the Council for the stand which it made. In this respect, therefore, the Council has worthily discharged the prime function of a second Chamber, Nor is it destitute of statesmanship. It does not possess amongst its number men equal in ability to the leading members of the House of Representatives ; but taking the debates as a whole, those of the Council are of a much higher tone and disclose a better acquaintance with the art of Government, than those of the Lower House, while questions are dealt with in a more impartial spirit than they usually are in the elective branch of the Legislature. Party feeling is not lacking, and there has always been a distinct line of demarcation between the Government and Opposition members of the Council; but even the warmest debates are of the most amicable character—everybody gives everybody else credit for being actuated by the subhmest of motives, and the utmost good-fellowship prevails. It is, forsooth, a delightful change to pass from the chamber of the House of Representatives, where Opposition and Ministerialists are pounding away at one another in a heated and vigorous fashion—which reminds one of the state of the national temperiu the good old days when Britons were taught to fear God and hate the French—to the serene atmosphere of the Legislative Council, where some old gentleman is placidly droning forth his dissatisfaction with the management of public affairs, but, nevertheless, expressing his profound conviction of the honesty of purpose and general virtuousness of the Government. Still, it is a trifle dull, and a schoolboy would probably think that a few

crackers dropped in the midst of the august assembly would produce a marked improvement. The Council is fcecommg fossilized. It needs new blood. The Ministry could, of course, remedy this defect by creating fresh peers; but there are two objections to such a proceeding—the lirst being that the forty-five members of wmch the Council now consists is quite enough; and the second, that adding to its number would probably render the reconstruction of the Council a more difficult task than it is now. The latter, it is understood, is the principal reason why the Government refrained from filling the vacancies which have been caused by death and resignation during the last few years, the Hon. Mr Hall being the only gentleman who has been summoned to the Council for a considerable period. The Council itself is the mam obstacle to a change in its constitution; V ts mem^ers are quite alive to the fact that, so long as they are obstinate, so long will the public have to stand at bay; although things could, in such a state of affairs, be made tolerably unpleasant for them.

The principal objection which is entertained to the Legislative Council is the preponderance of the pastoral element therein. A certain number of people object to nomiueeism on principle; but had the Council not manifested a fatal tendency to oppose liberal land legislation and promote the inof that section of the community which is engaged in pastoral pursuits to the greatest extent which it dares to go, the reform of the Council would be classed as a subject for the amusement of doctrinaires. We are aware of the statistics which have been quoted to prove that the preponderance of the pastoral element in the Council is only a popular superstition. But a man may he connected with the pastoral interest without being the actual possessor of a run, and it is a pure matter of fact that whenever an alteration of the land laws is in question the squatting proclivities of the Council blossom out in the fullest luxuriance. Painful experience has strongly impressed this fact upon the memory of the people of Otago; and an illustration of this propensity wasgivenlast session in the striking out of those clauses of the Waste Lands Bill which provided for the extension of the deferred payment system throughout the Colony. Nor will the remembrance ©f that curious debate upon the Counties Bill fade quickly from the public remembrance. Those comical wailings over the prospect of high wages and the necessity of moulding the legislation of the country in such a fashion as to prevent so fatal a catastrophe occurring were worthy of the days of Edward III.: and people inevitably draw certain conclusions from premises of this kind, without caring whether they tally or not with the precise number of squatters holding seats iu the Council. In this important particular the Council is totally out of accord with the bulk of the inhabitants of the Colony, who will never submit to its laud laws being moulded solely by the squatters. The march of settlement must go on, due regard being always paid to vested interests; and the Council will either have to get out of the way or go with the crowd.