WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 30 May 1933, Page 8

WELLINGTON TOPICS

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL REFORM **. • HOS® rr< £N w STILL SUSPENDED (Special to “Guardian.’A WELLINGTON, May 2|,; The Wellington .evening' paper Laving ' properly extolled Sir Francis Bell for his lengthy and continued-services to the Dominion and'having with equal approval applauded Mr Massey/ for his similar achievements, turns! gleefully to the other side of the picture it has conceived. “The seamy side of Liberal regime, which began with the victory of Balia nee at the General Election of IS9O, and lasted without' a break for twenty-0110 years”, it says, “was the free rum that it gave to F'e ; do 1 icy of spoils to the victors. For more than half that period Seddon’s masterful personality, restless energy an'd skill in divining and anticipating the wishes of. the people gave him a very near approach to absolute power, and the manipulation of the spoils provided him with a potent instrument”. On the ton of this the render is told that the Reform Party came into office in 1911 with an elective Legislative Council in the foremost of its programme. I f ! ‘ '■ i : { IN THE AIR Just why Mr Balianec and Mr S iddon at this time of day should have their,.pqpifis associated with the electerajq.fietyp'jn movement it is difficult to ! spy. Ballance occasionally had looWt favourably upon the innovation in both branches of Parliament, hut he realised that the. time was not ripe tor so important a step- to he taken. Mr Seddon was not favourable to the movement, and while he tolerated discussions on the subject he rarely’joined in them. In any ease Mr Ballance passed away forty years ago, - and M r .'•eddorl twenty-eight years, ago, and even newspapers arc enjoined in several languages tO' “speak not ovih of the dead”.'lf the expenditure-of the various' Governments are' without taking avar costs into account, how" ever,'it will be 1 foundothat Loth? Mr Ba 11 a nee and Mr - Se'cldon ■- were much rco”e' thrifty, a dip in i strator S' -than- any of their successors ..have shown themselves to he,, . ... .. ' ~ ’ v ‘. ; s' ; LAID ASIDE The Wellington journal gives an account of 1 the I. delayed LegislativeCouncil Act which is not wholly candid. ‘ The hostility', of the Legislative-Comb cii”, 1 it states, “prevented the passing, of the necessary'Bill in the same session, but' in 1914 Sir Francis -Bell succeeded in getting the Bill through, and it, reached the Statute Bonk oil -November 5 of that year: By that time', however, the Empire had been, at war for three months, and one of the consequences was: that the life of Pariisi*. inept was exended for two years. The time ' fixed for the operation -of ' the 'Legislative Council Act accordingly received a similar eXtention. After other delays a proclamation was actually issued at the beginning of 1920 for the commencement of the Act, hut it was rendered: ineffective by another Amending Act 'in 19? 1 which left the date to he fixed by further . proclamation”. This is scarcely the whole of the story.

THANKS TO THE GOVERNOR As just statod the Hill was passed under special pressure from the Government.. one : day before the' prorogation of Parliament, and in due course it made its way to the Statute Book where it still rests in a condition of impotoncy. When Parliament reassombl id o*> June 25, 1915; Mr Massey, instigated, it may be possible to say, by a suggestion of His Excellency the Governor-General, the Earl of Liverpool, got,,into communication with Sir Joseph ford,-then the leader of the Liberal,.(Opposition, and for the best part of,up month the two party leaders were in constant touch. Mr Massey’s first proposal was that a National Government should be fornidl with six Reform Ministers and three Libera, members. The two parties at that time being numerically practically eoual Sir Joseph and his party naturally declined this proposal, and it was not until the Governor approved of an equality of representation between the parties that the National Cabinet was brought about and the Legislative Council Act laid aside.