The Feilding Star. Published Daily. SATURDAY, OCT. 21, 1893.

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 97, 21 October 1893, Page 2

The Feilding Star. Published Daily. SATURDAY, OCT. 21, 1893.

THE NEW POLITICAL LEADER Last night Sir Kobert Stout addressed a meeting ia Wellington. Ho au nounced that his address would be confined to political and social reform. The first step in that direction, he considered, should be the perfecting of political machinery, because, for the sake of party, members often had to vote against their convictions. Party Government in New Zealand had gone mad, but Sir Robert omitted to mention that there is " method in the madness" of the present Government where the " loaves and fishes " are concerned. His remedy, which he disclaimed as revolutionary, was that the members of the House should elect a Ministry by ballot, and no Minister should be removed except for misconduct. What this probably means is that the Ministry should be chosen in much the same way as tne Directors are of a joint stock company. Sir Robert Stout hopes that under such a system questions would be discussed upon their merits apart from the consideration as to how they would effect Ministers. He referred with regret to the abolition of the old Provincial Councils, which had proved capital Durseries for the Colonial Parliament. He spoke manfully on the subject of the Legislative Council, and condemned both the practice of appointing fresh members m blue when the Council refused to pass Government measures, and the elective system proposed by Mr Rolleston. Here Sir Robert is inconsistent, because the question naturally arises, If a Ministry should be elective, why not the Legislative Council? He argues that the Council would, if elective, snap its fingers at the Lower House— it does so now. Besides, he asked, was it to be elected on manhood suffrage, or on a property qualification ? Then he disclosed his " fad" which was that the House should elect half the Council every three years, the number of members having first been fixed, and he showed how it could be done as life members gradually dropped out. They would then have tho Upper Chamber in accordance with the Lower, and as it should be, more of a revising body than anything else. The latter part of Sir Robert's address was devoted to local government; questions, a national system of pensions and education, opposing any grant to denominational schools. He did not touch on the liquor question at any length. No doubt the brief telegraphic summary which we have before us does but imperfect justice, but so far it discloses no new policy.