UPPER HOUSE REFORM.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VIII, Issue 18, 21 January 1873, Page 4

UPPER HOUSE REFORM.

(From the Anstralasian). Our neighbors in New South Wales are about to attempt the reformation of their Legislative Council, which is at present a nominee body. Mr. Parkes has intro- - duced a bill for that purpose into the Assembly, where its second reading will come on upon the 23rd inst. Its object is twofold ~to render the Upper House elective, and to bring it more" directly under the influence of public opinion! It does not contemplate any disturbance of the^jseats now held, as all existing -Srawwrs'. are to continue in- the- Council .■'■'"■^©lirTenßoyed.'-'by'-'.denth or otherwise.

But that body is to be immediately reinforced by the addition of 36 members, to be chosen by 12 electoral provinces, and so soon as the original members of the Upper House are reduced -by death, resignation, or otherwise to the number of 16, each province will be empowered to return four members. It ia therefore intended that the Council shall ultimately consist of 48 members. A novel provision has been introduced with respect to the duration of office of these representatives. The candidate' who receives the highest number of votes will be elected for six, the next highest for four, and the third highest for two years. But this is only an ad interim arrangement; because, when the number of nominee members shall have dwindled down to 16, as referred to above, the candidate who is* highest on the poll will be elected for eight years instead of six. The principle of a graduated tenure of office is an ingenious One, and its application seems equitable — always assuming, of course, that a man's position on the poll is a satisfactory criterion of his relative fitness and capacity for discharging the functions of a representative. This, however, is by no means an infallible test, but it is, perhaps, approximately correct. Another novelty in Mr Parkes' Bill is the provision which it proposes to take for the avoidance of dead-locks, and the overcoming of a purely obstructive policy on the part of the Legislative Council. Whenever a dissolution of the Assembly takes place, 12 seats in the Upper House are to become vacant; and the names of the members who are to retire are to be determined by lot, one for each province; the. arrangement of such lot being placed in the hands of a Judicial Committee of Elections, of which the President is to act as chairman. What strikes us as defective in this provision is that the clause is mandatory instead of permissive in its terms. We conceive that the latter would be the preferable course to pursue. It may be a very desirable proceeding to arm the Government of the day with power to send 12 of the members of the Upper House back to their constituents on a dissolution; but this power should only be exercised, we think, in cases where the conduct of the Council has brought about the dissolution. It will be rather hard upon a dozen members of that body to be compelled to encounter tlje cost, anxiety, and trouble of a fresh election — especially remembering the immense area of the provinces — because a Minister may happen to be at loggerheads with a majority of the Lower House, and may have been authorised to dissolve the Assembly by the Governor, judiciously or injudiciously, as the case may be. The proposed qualifications of electors for the Legislative Council of New South Wales are as follows : — The voter must be 21 years of age, a natural born, or naturalised subject of the Queen, resident for five years in the colony, and holding a freehold or leasehold estate in the province of an annual value of (blank) pounds. There is also an educational qualification resembling our own. Candidates are to be nominated in writing by ten electors of the province, and will have to enter into a bond to forfeit £100 if they poll less than one-third of the number of votes recorded in favor of the successful candidate who is lowest on the poll. Every person who may be on the Council roll of any electoral .province, and of the full age of 35 years, will be eligible to be elected a member of the Upper House. • The foregoing constitute the leading features of a measure whose progress will be watched with some degree of interest in this colony, where the necessity of a modification , of the constitution of our own Legislative Council is generally admitted. We need not enter into the vexed question of the relative advantages of a nominee or of an elective Upper House; for, although the former principle has been adopted in the Dominion of Canada, there can be little doubt that it is repugnant to the theory of democratic institutions, and at variance with popular sentiment. People generally are disposed to prefer a fool of their own choice to that of somebody else's nomination. A happy mean seems to have been hit by the sagacious -fanners of the constitutionof the United States when they made the Senate of the country elective in the second degree only; that is to say,, representative, not of the people, but of" the people's representatives, as forming the legislature of each State. And until corruption became universal, and penetrated within the -walls of CoDgresß, the Upper, House at Washington -was capable of holding its own, in point of ability, integrity, statesmanship, and patriotism, .with the best elective or hereditary chambers in the world. * ,

In these colonies we have to guard against two dangerous extremeß^ We must not suffer t^ in each to offer an impasse against needful legislation. Neither must we allow them to be as obedient to the heady guests of

popular impulse, and blown aboul"by every, vain breath 6f rpolitical doctrine, [as the Assemblies are. ' We want then/ to check, review, reconsider, and revise; the often hastily adopted' and crudely digested measures of the Lower House. The appeal should be made from Phillip druok to Philip sober ; not to Philip sulky, stolid, and iramoveable. At the same time, we can only arrive at something like an ideally perfect Upper House experimen tally. And for this reason we should be glad to witness the adoption of Mr . Parkes' scheme in New SouthfivWales'i •' withHsuch amendments as may suggest, themselves while, the measures is in progress through both Houses of Parliament ; for even if, upon adoption, it should disappoint the expectations of its authors, its" partial failure would be fruitful of lessons to them and to ourselves.