UPPER HOUSE REFORM.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1082, 13 August 1912, Page 4

UPPER HOUSE REFORM.

The Legislative Couucil Elections Bill, which provides for the reconstruction of the Second Chamber on an elective basis, was read this afternoon. The Bill contains thirty clauses and an elaborate set of rules for the guidance of the returning officers in determining the result of a poll on the proportional representation system. The methods to be followed are based on the system introduced in the House ol Commons by Lord Courtney. The significant clause of the message is that staling that “ members of the Council snail hereafter be elected, and not appointed,” but this is prefaced by a reference to the provisions for the continuance of tenure by members of the Council at the commencement of the Act, and provisions which “ may be provided with respect to members of the Maori race.”

Definite understanding is given at the outset that the reconstructed Council will be given no increase of power beyond that now exercised by the Second Chamber. The prohibitive provisions relate to measures appropriating revenue or money, imposing taxation or affecting any proposed charge or burden on the people. Otherwise the Council will have equal powers with the House of Representatives In respect of all proposed laws. For the purpose of electing members to the Legislative Couucil, New Zealand is divided into two electoral divisions, North Island and South Island. Each division will return twenty members, elected by those qualified to vote at an election of a member of the House of Representatives. Any persofi eligible under the Legislative Act to be a candidate for the House may be elected a member of the Council, but no one may hold a seat in both chambers.

The position of present members of the Council is explained in the last clause of the Bill, which provides that “(i) Nothing in this Act shall affect any person who, on the commencement of this Act, is a member of the Council, and every such person shall continue as a member as if this Act bad not passed ; (2) except as may be provided with respect to members of the Maori race, no person shall hereafter be summoned to the Council under section 2 of the principal (legislature) Act.” The effect of these provisions is that present members will not retire until the expiry of the terms for which they were appointed, and the seven life members will similarly remain in the Council until their resignation or death. At the next general election ten members for each electoral division will be elected to serve in the Council, so that the full complement of elected members will be complete at the second general election after the passing of the Bill. At the general election next succeeding, and at every election afterwards, one half of the members returned for each division will retire, but will be eligible for re-election. The members who will vacate their seats will be those who have served longest in the Council without re-election. Any member appointed to fill a casual vacancy will retire at the election at which his predecessor would have vacated his seat bad he remained in the Council.

Whenever necessary, a returning officer will be appointed tor each electoral division, and every officer appointed for the House will act as an assistant returning officer in Council elections. Candidates must be nominated by not less than two electors. The election will be taken on the day of the general election, but the ballot papers will be distinctly coloured. The same polling places will be used. Scrutineers on behalf of candidates for the Council will not be allowed, but two supervisors tor each division will be nominated by the Council to watch the official count by the returning officer of each division. Provision is made tor absent voters and seamen to exercise votes. The ballot paper will contain the names ot all the candidates in the division, and the voter must place in the squares opposite the names of three candidates the figures i, 2,3,. to indicate the order of this preference. He may aPo indicate his preference lor as many of the other candidates as he pleases, but the ballot paper will be informal if the number of candidates marked in the order of the voter’s preference is less than three.

The remaining provisions of the Bill are machinery clauses, containing instructions tor returning officers as to the conduct of elections. Two other clauses ate of interest. They provide that seats vacant owing to an insufficient number of candidates and casual vacancies are to be filled by a ballot of all the members of the Council in session. A member elected in this manner will retain his seat tor so long as the member whose seat became vacant would have retained it if the vacancy had not occurred.