THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN VICTORIA.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 5260, 1 February 1878, Page 5

THE POLITICAL CRISIS IN VICTORIA.

The following is the address of the Legislative Council to the Governor oa the subject : “ May it please your Excellency,— “ \Ve, her Most Gracious Majesty’s most dutiful and loyal subjects, the Legislative Council of Victoria, in Parliament assembled, beg to approach your Excellency with renewed expressions of our loyalty aud attachment to her Majesty the Queen, aud of our respect to your Excellency as her Majesty’s representative in . the government of this colonv. “ We take this earliest opportunity of addressing your Excellency upon the present extraordinary state of affairs in connection with the Parliament and the public business. “ During the mouth of December a Bill entitled ‘An Act for the continuance of an expiring law’ (payment of members) was initiated in the Legislative Assembly, under the recommendation of your Excellency, as conveyed by message (No. 9), for reimbursing members of Parliament their expenses in relation to their attendance in Parliament, and was passed and forwarded to the Legislative Council for their concurrence. “By means of published Parliamentary papers it was withiu the knowledge of the Council that a previous message (No. 7) to the same effect had been sent by your Excellency to the Assembly recommending such reimbursements amongst other items of contemplated expenditure ; and that an item ou the Estimates of £18,025 for reimbursing members from the termination of this session of Parliament to the end of the financial year had been passed in the Committee of Supply, and had been reported to the Assembly. When, therefore, the second reading of the above Bill was moved in the Legislative Council, we felt that there was a threat held over us, that, should we determine that we could not coucur with the Assembly and pass the Bill, the same matter would be brought before us in the annual Appropriation Bill, and that we must then either assent to the carrying cut of the principle from which we had previously expressed our dissent, or be reduced to the alternative of rejecting the Appropriation Bill providing for the services of the current year. “ We desire to impress upon your Excellency that in any measure containing subject matter of public policy we believe that the Constitution has invested both the Council and the Assembly with equal powers of legislation, save only as the Council are restricted by the 56th section, and we have always insisted upon our right to exercise those powers with perfect freedom, whilst we are determined to resist every attempt at coercion as being opposed to the spirit of the Constitution, and to the satisfactory working of the bi-cameral form of Parliament. “ The question of payment of members has always been treated as one of public policy, of commanding interest, and we claim, as we have already during the session informed your Excellency in the address presented to your Excellency on the 13th November last, to have a voice in determining whether or not such policy shall be adopted ; and we also claim to have the measure dealing with such policy brought before us, so that we may be able to give effect to that voice. “'(’he first-named Bill therefore having coroe before us in a manner which would not admit of free deliberation, we declined to enter into .any discussion on its merit’, and simply negatived the second reading. This was on the 11th December. On the 13th December the annual Appropriation Bill was sent to us, containing the item before particularised, and on the 20th December it was laid aside without a division, for the following reasons then recorded, viz. ; “ ‘ Because there is included in it an item of £18,025 for reimbursing members of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative Asaembyl their expenses in relation to their attendances in Parliament at the rate of £3OO per annum each, and such reimbursement involves a question of public policy which has been already, during the present session, submitted to the Legislative Council in a Bill intituled an Act for the continuation of an expiring law, such expiring law being an Act for reimbursing members of the Legislative Council and of the Legislative Assembly their expenses in relation to their attendance in Parliament, aud such Bill was then disposed of, and it is contrary to Parliamentary practice to deal with the same question twice in the same session.

“ ‘ 2. Because to tack to the annual Appropriation Bill a question of public policy precludes the Legislative Council from giving a free and deliberate vote concerning it, and deprives them therefore of their constitutional right.’ “ We lament the necessity that compelled us to adopt this unusual course, and we deplore the inconvenience, confusion, and suffering that will probably ensue from the want of an Act to legalise the expenditure of the sums appropriated to the public service, and we assure your Excellency that we should have shrunk from taking such a step could we have seen any other available meaus whereby the independence, if not the existence, of the Legislative Council for any useful purpose could be secured. “ But the system of coercion which has been adopted in order to compel ns to give up that position in the legislation of the country which the Constitution intended us to exercise has left us no other course. “ We regret that we have been placed in the position to determine between two evilswhether to submit to the Constitution being overridden, and the Council ignored, or to the temporary inconvenience caused by the loss of the Appropriation Bill, and we are forced to the conclusion that in the fulfilment of the trust committed to us by the Constitution, and in loyalty to our beloved Sovereigu and to the Imperial Parliament, who have given to us that Constitution, and in duty to our constituents, we ought to consider the latter alternative as the least of the two evils. “ In the early part of the sitting of the Legislative Assembly, on the 20th December, as °wo have since learnt, a motion was carried that the Assembly, at its rising, should adjourn until the sth February; and at its rising the Assembly, having previously forwarded several Bills to the Council for their concurrence, adjourned for six weeks’ without any concert or communication with tho Council. “ Upon the understanding that tho Legislative Assembly would sit on tho following day,

the 21st December, we consented, on the .motion of the Minister conducting the business in the Council, to sit also on that day, although not a sessional day, and* adjourned acctrdingly. ... “Although -we were willing to give- our attention to the consideration of the business before us, and actually did deal with it in detail, yet our work will necessarily be incomplete until the expiration of the period for which the Assembly has adjourned. “The position of affairs as regards the relation of the two Houses of Legislature, and as regards the of Parliament, has thus become anomalous. ... ~ »• ii’or die carrying out of legislation it would appear to be an essential feature of Barliameutary usage that the two Houses should sit and transact business concurrently ; indeed, it is clear that the business of legislation could not be satisfactorily carried on in any other manner between two co-ordinate Chambers. ‘ “In the present instance an. adjournment until the sth February, without reference to the Council, was agreed upon in the Assembly whilst the Appropriation Bill was yet tinder discussion by us, the immediate consequence of which is that Bills, considered to be of urgent importance, are in a state of suspense from which they cannot be rescued until the sth February. “A session of Parliament, according to Imperial usage, although nowhere defined, has its limits, as essentially recognised and as carefully observed as those of the calendar year. ■ f _ . . “In Victoria, this usage of the Imperial Parliament has been followed, and the word * session 1 has been used in mauy Acts of Parliament as indicating a certain period well understood, and even on those extraordinary occasions when, unfortunately, as now, the annual Appropriation Bill has been thrown out, the Chambers have continued to sit in conformity with sessional arrangements, and to transact the business of the c >untry. But there has been no precedent for the course at present adopted, viz,, that one Chamber should adjourn for a period of six weelcs, or about one-fourth of the term during which a session ordinarily lasts, without so much as consulting the other, or making any provision for carrying into law the measures under the consideration of Parliament, one of which, for continuing an expiring law (the Tolls Bill) ought to have come into operation on the Ist January. “The Legislature, consisting of three orders —Her Majesty the Queen, the Legislative Council, and the Legislative Assembly—is powerless to legislate without the concurrence of the three orders ; and now it may be said to be out of gear, by reason of the adjournment of one Chamber without consulting either of the other two orders so far a* we are aware but certainly without the privity of the Council.

“ And this leads us to remark that a constitution, however good and perfect in itself, may soon become inoperative and fall into disrepute if any of the component parts refuse or neglect to perform the particular duties devolving upon them. “ Even the British Constitution would soon break down it the Sovereign were to neglect or decline to exercise the high and responsible duties appertaining to the Crown, or should fail to keep under proper control the Executive aud Legislative machinery of the country. “ Or, if either House of Parliament should, in defiance of custom, or in disregard of the other estates of the realm, arrogate to itself, powers hitherto unknown, or decline conform to the established routine of legislation. “ We would bring under your Excellency’s notice that there is one Act of Parliam-nt—-viz., that for payment of members—which is only kept alive and operative by the session being prolonged, and we would submit to your Excellency that the prolongation of the session is not due to the press or urgency of business before Parliament, since the Assembly, led by your Excellency’s advisers, have adjourned for six weeks, and in doing so they did not even consider it necessary to sit for another day or two, in order to pass into law Bills then before Parliament, which were said bv the Minister representing the Government in the Legislative Council to be of urgent importance. “We desire, further, to bring to your Excellency’s notice the circumstance that the interruption of Parliamentary proceedings in the manner alluded to is without precedent, and is a departure from the spirit of Parliamentary institutions, and that the Council is in no manner responsible for the miscarriage of legislation caused thereby.” The address was adopted, and the President was directed to as ertain when it would be convenient for his Excellency the Governor to receive it.