WELLINGTON TOPICS

Hokitika Guardian, 27 October 1933, Page 7

WELLINGTON TOPICS

FATE OF LEGISLATIVE' COUNCIL. IN THE. BALANCE. (Special Correspondent). WELLINGTON, October 24. The Prime .Minister and the Assistant Prime Minister, and, indeed, all the members of the Coalition Cabinet, remain sadly perturbed as to wliat is to become of the fourscore or more applicants for seats in the Legislative Council who are persistently knocking at the door of the Council Chamber of the Government. There already are twenty-one councillors in the revising chamber, and three of these have been so recently re-appointed that they will hold office until 1940 when the eldest of them will have reached the age of ninety years while the younger, being of exceptional growth in this branch of Parliament, will have reached no more than sixty-five and sixtys°ven years respectively. Next year Councillors will retire at seventy-one, seventy-eight, eighty-two, eighty-three and eighty-eight . In the course of a casual interview to-daVj which probably had as much to do with houseburning and horseracing as it had to do wth electoral reform, the Prime Minister suggested lightly that it might be more effective to dispose of the Legislative Council altogether than attempt to strengthen it on its present basis. The Council, as it stood at present, he pointed out, could not effectively maintain the purposes for which it was established just upon eighty years ago, The Mother Country, to which New Zealand adhered more closely than • had any of r the other Dominions, realised this fact and even now was preparing for reforms, or, perhaps one should say, for adjustments in this respect. So much appeared to be in the mind of the Minister at the moment. The subject is one that well might engage the attention of the Labour members s of the House of Representatives. To begin with, if the Legislative Council is to remain upon its present basis the Labour Party should be given some measure of representation in this branch of the Legislature Mr Ballance, Mr Seddon and Mr Massey all made moves 'in this direction during their terms of office j not large ones, but large enough to indicate that the right, of Labour were acknowledged by the biggest ’of the Domin - ion’s leaders. These large hearted pioneers gladly would have extended these concessions had they been really acceptable to tlieir opponents of the day. One must hope that the step' of Mrs McCombs into the House of Representatives will tend towards a similar development in the other branch of the Legislature. ■>. Whether or not the Prime Minister is td be as good as his ruminations, it is certain that something will have to be .done to place the Legislative Council into a satisfactory position. Twenty-one Councillors, earnest as their intention may be, cannot place the Second Chamber on a satisfactory basis, and the Prime Minister and his colleagues will require to make up their minds what can be done. The Council is not hopelessly out of groove because it has not yet been- put to a test, but within the next few weeks it must be/submitted to trial and if it fails in upholding its traditions of the past someone will be to blame for its failure. A debacle of this kind is not anticipated, but there { are stories abroad and it is time those in authority were prepared with some information concerning the position