The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume XLVII, Issue 81848, 17 September 1906, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

The late Mr. Seddon remarked I shortly befwe his death that ''the Legislative Council must be either en-, 1 decl or mended." During last Parliament the N.Z. "L< rds was discussed warmly. The public felt that the Upper House was as go.;d as dead. But while the country was congratulating itself at the supposed early decease, the State was laying- down new and expensive carpets in the old gentlemen's club and otherwise making the very short periods the said old gentlemen spend in the chamber, more endurable than formerly. The Legislative Council had no intention of abolishing itself, and as its own consent must be given, it is hardly likely that any immediate change will come. The Imperial Government might also fail to see the necessity for allowing N.Z. to do without the u'd gentlemen's club. # * * *

Sir William Steward's bill which aims to make the Upper House an elective body, although a good idea, comes strangely from him. One might expect such a very democratic measure to come from a thor-ough-paced radical or at least a democrat, who spurned gauds and tit ular distinctions and anything in the nature of a sinecure. One imagines for instance the distinguished Knight being a member of the Upper House himself, and wonders why he should be unkind enough to try to wrest the honour from gentlemen equally aged. THE peculiarity of the position of the N.Z. "Lords" is that they take precedence of the ''Commons", and "revise" the work of their inferiors. It is not in the least necessary for a man to have shown any political ability or popularity to become an M. L.C. Unquestionably, however, many of the "Lords" are men of sterling merit, and are rather lost to the country when they enter the "revising' chamber. the proposal in the Knight of Waimate's Bill that the seniors of the Upper House shall be elected by the juniors of the Lower House, is not altogether democratic. It is questioned if the people of New Zealand would care to give such power to their direct' representatives. Sir Joseph Ward has said that the advocates of the abolition of the Upper House do not as a rule put a finger on a reason for that abolition. There arc many very cogent rea tons why the "Lords" should be abjlished. and one of the chief reasons ,s that New Zealand is over-governed and pays too much for its over-gov-ernment. Another reason is that J.s'P. art' not asked to revise the wolk of Magistrates, and schoolmasters are not advised by their pupils. Nobody yet has given a reason for the preservation of the Upper House, except the one that the Upper House "revises" the work of the Lower. Nobody has given any reason how it o-im'e about that the Members of the Upper House gained the political knowledge to enab e them to sit in judgment on the work of the direct representatives of the people. In very many instances a seat in the Council has been given to aged gentlemen for various reasons but never becaase the people demanded it. Therefore the reasons have not been democratic ones.

A BIU.K.T in the Council is mostly a sinecure, and long before any new appointment is mad'-, the appointees are working hard on public p'atfotms, where Ministers do most congregate in order to bring the Ministerial eye to bear on them. It was the late Premier's habit to give a broad bint (o the public that Mr. So and So's services were great and that it would be a pity to the State to do without them. It was the pieliminaiy to an appointment. New Zealand is not a huge country and its popu'ation is a very small one. It indulges in the luxury cf a Legislative Council without the -.'ightest reason and without its own consent. It pays a considerable sum to keep the Cbambei going, and il is nut sure whether many of the gentlemen would earn £l5O in two or tluee months at any other revision work.

* * * * The Upper 'lfciu.se certainly does give an excuse for the employment for two or three months in the year, at a whole year's salary each,of a large number of persons, from mess engers up to professional shorthandwriters, but the public takes the very smallest interest in the woik of the "Lords," whom they never asked for, and would no; be sorry if they went back to the boiler shop, tin- auctioneer's rostrum, the diaper's counter and the plough. If tin- Legislative Council wen- convinced that they were absolutely indispensable to the country, and t lat the people with one voice would affirm their conviction, they would not hesitate a moment to fro'to the country, in the past the Councillors have 'not of couise repre-l scnftl Ministers.' No' one blames an aged gentleman from obtaining'a sin ecuro, but the hoary old precedent which says that because it has been the custom to permit sinecures, sinecures shall still be available is distinctly not democratic. * * * *

I.N a few weeks there are to be some new appointments. We suggest that the pub.ic spiiited men who arc about (0 accept the appointments go before a mass meeting'in the town of their residence, and put }h" following resolution: "That this great meeting of fhe men and women of unanimously agree with the existing prin ciple of appointments to the New Zealand Legislative Council and is of opinion that Mr. Blank is a fit and proper person to repiesent nobody in particular in the >aid Legislative Council." If tin' motion is carried, let no person hereafter say a word in dtspaiagement of the Upper House. If, on the other hand, the people, in the words of a British politician, "cany an ani'iidment that" the time has now arrived when the Legislative Council shall be placed on tile scrapheap—well the time has arrived. In the meantime the pnople have not the slightest hope of saying whether the Council shall be "scrapped'' or mended. Mending might be an improvement, but ending would be a boon.