ELECTIVE EXECUTIVE

Hokitika Guardian, 19 October 1920, Page 1

ELECTIVE EXECUTIVE

THE BILL DEFEATED. (Our Parliamentary Correspondent.) WELLINGTON, Oct. 18. Mr Statham (Dunedin Central), who used to be a Reform member before lie declared his independence, was permitted to bring his t Elective Executive Bill before the House this evening. Years ago an Elective Executive Bill was an annual institution in Parliament, and it appears that the arg.iment for and against have not changed since those days., Mr Statham wants a Ministry to be elected by the House instead of boing nominated by the Leader of the strongest party, and he talked of the evils of the party system. He spent liis first half-hour rather un tor tuna t “'y for himself, in quoting Hansard to .'how that in other years) Messrs Massey. TI.-r----rios, Anderson an/r-other good Reformers in and out of the Ministry had voted in support'■of the elcerive exccuCvo principle. The «ffect of the appeal to consistency was quite spoiled when some body pointed out that .Mr Statham himself had voted against 1 lie pr.-iciple on an earlier occasion.

Mr Massey admitted that he 'll ad supported Elective Executive Bills in his younger days, but he claimed to have learned better since then. He thought the system unworkable and undesirable. If one party bad an absolute majority in the House, he said, it would, select its Ministers in caucus and simply aggravate the party system. If no' party had a majority, the election of at Minister would mean putting into the Cabinet, men who could not agree on any point and the result would-be confusion. The National Cabinet had done good work in some respects, but it had been Unable to deal with the land question and other vitally important matters, because its members could not agree on matters of policy. If he had still believed in an elective executive, that experience would have cured him. The debate wandered on until after mid-night, before the motion for the second reading of tlie Bill was negatived by 34 votes to 16. . _ ~, It was rather &, dull discussion. Mr Holland took the opportunity to declare that the Labour Party did not care whether Ministers were elected or nominated in the Political Parliament which was going to be replaced some day by an Industrial Parliament, but this little excursion into the Bolshevik theory did not interest anybody much.