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Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1991, 29 January 1907, Page 1

THE NEW LEGISLATIVE COUNCILLORS. WHAT THE PRESS AND THE PEOPLE THINK OE THEM. VIEWS OE THE LEADER OE THE OPPOSITION. lb would liavo boon more than human for tho Government to have resisted tlio pressure exerted on behalf of aspirants to tho Legislative Council, so that tho creation of a batch of now mombors for that body is not in any way remarkable. Tlioro will naturally ' bo much disappointment among those staunch partisans whoso hopes have proved futilo, but tho whole nominee system is so hopeless that tho colony will consolo itself with tlio knowledge that the appointments might have boon much worse. But though this is so, and though in several cases tho now Legislative Councillors arc all that could be desired, tho batch as a whole will dccronso rather than increase tho influence of tho Second Chamber. It is common knowledge how such appointments are made; with rare exceptions foi partisan service or for motives of personal friendship. Under tho circumstances, tlioreforo, it is generally impossible ior representative colonists to reach the Council ,with the result that its prestige wanes as the years go by. The great majority of its members could not hope for success in an election to tho llouso of Representatives and are consequently the mere croatures of party organisation. Howovor, in such a system tliero ought to bo some proportion observed. let tho mining industry has been overlooked and the North Island members of the batch are chiefly from the southern end of the island, Auckland City being entirely overlooked. It is interesting to notice that it win be five mouths boforo the fourteen now members enter upon their duties and that meanwhile they become endowed Py the favor of the Administration with all the privileges and emoluments of legislators. This little prelude will cost the country some &11UU, besides free railway passes but that is nothing.—N.Z. Herald.

MR MASSEY INTERVIEWED. APPOINTEES LACK ESSENTIAL QUALIFICATIONS. Mr. W. F. Massey, Leader nf tie Opposition, was interviewed by a Herald representative yesterday, and was asked to express his opinion generally on the new appointments. “What do I think of the appointments,” he answered reflectively. “Well, I think that men appointed to the Legislative Council should, it possible, be men who have had legislative experience, men, too. who possess the confidence of the public, and whom the public can look up to and respect. If I wore to ask you lion maiiv of those just appointed possess the qualifications I have outlined, 1 venture to say the answer would be “Very few indeed.’ There is one appoilltmellt,,, Mr. Massey added, to which no exception can be taken, and I refer to that of Mr. O. Samuel, of New Plymouth ,who I believe will be an acquisition to the Council, and whom the electors would have been willing to select as one of then* representatives at any time during the last dozen years. But the others and this is the real test —would .scarcely have a chance under an elective system, where the people had free choice ,without any other influences being brought to bear.” “The Premier declared at the conversaziono. at Wellington on Thursday night, that when the appointments were being made provincial representation and population basis had to he considered. In your opinion has he followed out that idea? “My answer to that question, Mr. Massey stated with emphasis, ‘ is, What consideration lias been given to the representation of the Auckland provincial district P If the Premier thinks that the great commercial, agricultural, and industrial interests of this province are to be satisfied with ono representative, whose address is Kawhia, then lie is yeiy much mistaken.” “Then you think the gentlemen who have'been appointed are not representative of the colony as a whole.” , „ , , . . T “I am certainly of that opinion, i think the appointments, as a whole, will hot be satisfactory to the ele'ctohs of the colony, and present another very strong argument in favor of an elective system. I simply cannot understand how self-respecting men can accept the position of a member of the Council under such conditions; and in any case. In a democratic community like New Zealand, the system of appointment by the Government of the day should not be tolerated. “Would you go so far as to say a second Chamber is unnecessary, providing, of course, a change to the elective system is not made?” f‘l look upon q properly constituted Legislative Council as a very useful institution, but many, of the appointments of the last few years have almost led me to believe that our Legislative Council is not worth the money that it costs the colony, and that we would bo better without it than with Mr. Massey also stated that lie will ike an early opportunity of discusng the matter further from the üblic platform. »

The Government organ, the New Zealand Times, thus discourses: “There is not ,it is true, a single man amongst them that can bo pronounced brilliant, but if they put their heads together we believe they can make as strong a muster of common sense and practical knowledge as any other 14 it was open to the Government to choose, anfl, after all, these drayliorse virtues are the essential quailties for a Chamber whose duty it is to prevent the Parliamentary machine from flying out of its orbit through perfervid, and sometimes unbridled, political forces at work in the Lower House. The Government, any Government ,in making appointments to the Upper House, would probably not be ashamed to admit that it_ was chiefly actuated by two considerations, first, and chief, by the expediency of securing a Chamber which would assist in carrying Government measures, and next by the necessity of standing staunchily by its own party ,and showing that it was not a mattor of indifference to a politician whether ho aided or obstructed the Government policy. We admit the cogency of both these considerations. Of the scconfl, however, only to a certain extent. ' Wo confess that we should ourselves have more pride and satisfaction in belonging to a party with sufficient breadth and strength to recognise public men to some extent, even in the camp of its opponents. We cannot find any particularly marked indication of this generosity of spirit in the appointments just made by the present Government. We are well satisfied with the appointments as a whole, and they are sufficiently numerous to permit of our considering them only as a whole. We could easily, if we choose, pick holes in this appointment, or that, hut we do not choose to undertake this invidious task. In the case of some of the gentlemen appointed we ask ourselves, without receiving any very conclusive answer, what the public "services have been which entitle them to this promotion ? We recognise, however, that perfectly legitimate considerations may have weighed with the Government, winch arc not necessarily clear to an unitiated public from merely scanning the public career of the individual concerned.” “As compared with the nonentities whom Mr. Seddon delighted to appoint, the average of the 14 gentlemen now selected stands very high, but it certainly does not reach the level of the 14 whom we mentioned yesterday as designated by public opinion for the vacancies. In six cases, those of Dr. Collins and Messrs R. A. Loiiglman and C. M. Luke, of Wellington, Mr. J. T. Paul, of Dunedin. Captain Tucker, of Gisborne, and' Mr. Oliver Samuel, of New Plymouth, our anticipation has been verified. Four or five of these appointments, at least, are beyond cavil, but the men who were on our list hut are missing from Sir Joseph Ward’s include the Hon. Mr. Mitchelson, Mr. G. G. Stead, Mr. John Roberts, Sir Wm. Russell, and Mr. A. P. Seymour. and ono looks jn vain among the new names for men of the experience and high colonial standing of these. Of course it does not follow that the Government is to blame for the appointment of all these gentlemen,, for it is pot everybody who can afford to leave his home and his business for four or five months in the year on a salary that will just about pay for board and lodging while he is away, hut we cannot help thinking that in some of these cases the key is supplied by the strtement of the Premier to our morning contemporary, viz., that it was the duty of the Government to .see ti:at tiie .gentlemen