WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 16 September 1933, Page 4

WELLINGTON TOPICS

THE UPPER HOUSE. ITS CONSTITUTION. (Special Correspondent.) < WELLINGTON, September 14. It is understood that on the return of the Prime Minister, the Rt. Hon. G. W. Forbes ,Horn his jaunt to the World Conference, immediate attention will he given by the Cabinet to the resuscitation of the constitution of the Legislative Council., which at present consists of only twenty-one members, ten of whom have passed the patriarchal age of seventy. This is not to say that the “Revising Chamber” has been loaded by a number of elderly gentlemen unsuited to the responsibilities that have been entrusted to them. The Right Hop. Sir Francis Bell, at the ripe age of eightytwo, for instance, is as observant and alert as lie was' twenty years. ago. Almost as much might he said of other venerable members of the Council who have, kept themselves alive. It was Sir Francis Bell wlio shaped the Legislative Council Act of 1914. and saw it carried through the two Houses of PaiTDment with sufficient majorities to place it on the Statute > Book. Unfortunately defects ip the Act, for which Sir Francis way not personally responsible, gave the Opposition of the day an opportunity to suspend the operation of the measure for the period of the war, and there it has remained ever since with its defects - unremoved, to the discredit of succeed" ing Government, The main fault In the Act was that it gave the Reform Party then in office a large majority in the Council, which the Liberal party could not have overtaken for four or five years. On the conclusion of the war Mr Massey renounced election for the Legislative Council, .Just, what steps M, r Forbes and M r Coales will take in regard to the resuscitation of the much depleted, Legislative Council remains to be seen, hut it is reported that not fewer thin a score of aspirants for promotion ha\e placed claims before, one leader or the other or both .fop a seat in the Council, which, if not very large, ,is tolerably (secure There i s a Agrowing feeling outside .Parliament,- .however, - that seats an the Council should not- be determined by the Prime Minister, n?v by the Cabinet as a whole, but by. the electors in large numerical constituencies’ with twenty or twenty-five single representatives covering the whole face of the Dominion. . A disposition of this sort might place the poor candidate or the poor representative at -a disadvantage, hut these difficulties be overcome. ' ■-

These, at. any rate, are the views of many thinking people who'; regard a parliamentary election as something more important than a half hour’s outing. No one who knows Mr Forbes and Mr Coates at -all intimately, will doubt ’their integrity in all ... things appertaining to their high office; out during the Lst seventy-six .years members of the Legislative Council 'of this countrv have been appointed by a single individual, the Prime Minister of the day. who may be or may not be suited for the trek he >is discharging. The present result of this system is ' that not more than a quarter of its numerical strength is available for service. Never before has the Council of this country been in greater need of reform than i; is at the present time.- . ' ' ■