The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated this West Coast Times. FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 12th, 1926. DIFFICULT TO ABOLISH.

Hokitika Guardian, 12 February 1926, Page 2

The Guardian And Evening Star, with which is incorporated this West Coast Times. FRIDAY. FEBRUARY 12th, 1926. DIFFICULT TO ABOLISH.

It appears to I e rather a task fur the I’lemiar of New South Wales to dispose of ihe Legislative Council. Although a Irish session has been called ostensibly i:> do the particular job. the business is not L iug brought forward at once—-it is de cried for the present apparently to a more convenient season. A; to the enilier oil’orL in Re.: same ciii feet ion, according to a newspa jtr i orresp-iinh at, when the Legislative ( oinied ol New South Wales put the bralij on Mr Lang's headlong Legislative nisli, and when Mr Lang wore by I lie nine gods that lie would have Ids way and bis say by abolishing that eeiiLury-old Chamber, be probably little realised what a difficult, task be would have. The old I’l-per lion;..' lias proved a very vigorous cori-so. It is old history now bow the Legislative Council roii-ed the ire of Me l.e.ng and his Party, and bow Air .Lang forced the Governor's hands to make twenty-live new members, in <>r-d-r to swamp the Council. Since then Mr Lang bat found himself on the bonis of a dilemma. If the constitutional questions at stake were not so serious, the public of this State could liltd the material far a great political comedy iii the events that have happened in the State Parliament House during, the last, weak or two. On the tirsi division in the Council after the appointment of the 20 new members, the Government forces found themselves in the minority. At a heated Labour caucus, the labour-appointed members of the I’pper House who were absent from that division were told bluntly that they must attend the sittings. or sufi'er the consequences. Others who had paired with Opposition member.-, were urged by Mr Lang to break their pledges. This bad some tbi'cet. for at the next division, that giving permission to the Govern incut's ■Lender in the Fppor Ilmen to move the first reading of a Bill abolishing the Council, Mr tang's forces were in a majority of two. When next day the second maiding was being debated the Labour Whips had an anxious time. A count of heads showed that the overnight majority of two bad dwindled. One member wlm bad voted for leavie for the Government to introduce the Bill announced that lie would oppose the Bill unless Air Lang agreed to bring in a prior Bill providing for the institution of the iniative. referendum, and recall. Another Labour supporter disappeared altogether. A third member, one of the first members of the Council, who has a well-known penchant- for the Parliament House bar. was carefully watched, and be never moved a sten without two Labour stalwarts guarding him. On tb? other side, there were as many signs of watchfulness. Younger members kept the older, used to slum-

Upline in out-of-thc-wav corners, from falling asleep ami thus missing divisions. But the missing member prodded the most comedy. He was Mr •I. Pcrc-ivnl, who, as manager of the Labour p.'t])er at the western town of Bathurst, had hoen n stalwart of the movement. When lie was missed, many mysterious allegations were made, and the servir.es of detectives were requisitioned to find him. until Mr Pereival walked into a police station about titty miles from Sydney and dispatched to the Commissioner of Police a strongly-worded telegram protesting against detectives dogging his footstep?. Meanwhile, Ministers’ motorears were dashing all over the country within 1-30 miles of Sydney in search of the missing member, and once a car in which Mr Percivnl was riding passed a Minister's ear frantically .speeding in the other direction. Mr P.-icival seems to have been hopping all round the country, and later he announced his intention of going north for a long holiday, so now it seems as if that part of Mr Lang’s

majority is lost for ever. In the meantime. there has Keen the ludicrous spectacle of the Labour members of the

House stonewalling their own Bill, and it was only by a majority of one that they secured the adjournment of the House. Mr Bang then saw the value of discretion compared with valour, and at a Cabinet meeting it was deluded* to prorogue Parliament until tile middle of February. What plans the Labour Party will evolve to secure their desires is unknown. They certainly will be unable to secure the Governor’s consent to the appointment of another hatch of Councillors, for it is generally admitted that his Excellency would resign rather than agree to further appointments, after the gruelling lie received at the hands of the Press at the last appointments. It seems as if Mr l.ang made a fatal

error in asking for only 25 new members instead of TO or .'Pi. His actions i f riding rough-shod over the wishes of hi* political opponents during the last few months, according to the correspondent, has earned the Premier the nickname of Nero, lint according to those who know him intimately, it- is a very depressed Nero who awaits the events of the session now about to consider the cpie.-'tion at issue.