The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1914. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LVII, Issue 149, 19 November 1914, Page 4

The Daily News. THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1914. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

If there was one plank of. the Reform platform more than another Mr. -Massey was bent on carrying out it was the reform of the Legislative Council. It was, to his mind, the greatest of all reforms. He regarded the nominated Council as an intolerable incubus on the public life of the Dominion. With the aid of the contingent of very old gentlemen he had taken from their comfortable surroundings and placed in the Legislative Council and his obedient followers in the Lower House, he succeeded in his purpose, and the country will by the year 1924 have a fully elective Legislative Council, provided the constitution is not meanwhile altered. It is very significant that his own supporters now free from the lash of the Party whip, are regretting the actien of their chief, and asking their constituents for a free hand on this subject in future. In Taranaki, we have no fewer than four members publicly confessing the error of their party. Speaking in Stratford last week, Mr Hine i freely acknowledged he had changed his ' opinion regarding the question. He is thus'reported:— ! I "He desired to make himself clear on the matter. Before last election one of the Reform party's planks was for an elective Upper House on proportional representation. That had become law, and he had voted for it. But on closer examination he did not feel sure that it was desirable to bring the Upper and Lower Houses into opposition with one another. If re-elected he would keep a free, hand to amend the law as he thought desirable. He could not say at present what the nature of such amendment would be. For one thing there ', was only four electorates for the whole country, which number he thought too small. He asked his electors to take his confession in the spirit in which it was v made. He honestly admitted that he had made a mistake, and thought he had a right to change his mind." A few nights afterwards, at Fitzroy, Mr Okey said:—

The Government had brought about an elective Upper House, under proportional representation. He was not satisfied with the elective Upper House but had voted for the Bill as it was -the.plank of the Party platform'. No poor man would, under the new scheme ever have a chanee of getting into the'' 'Lpper House, which would be a "class" institution. ' Mr G. V. Pcarce, speaking at Hawera on Monday, said:—

There was one subject on which he could agree with Mr Russell, and that was m regard to the Legislative Council Bill passed this session. He strongly objected to the country quota being done away with by the big electorates The country district had not the same chance of representing their requirements to the Government as the city people, and that was one reason why the country quota of 12 to 15 should be retained. (Applause). Another objection he had to the Bill was the largeness of the constituencies. The cities could dominate the position and return practical y all the members for the 100,000 people, could be reached by one newspaper and any city candidate would consequently have a much greater opportumty supported by that paper, than a country candidate, where the local paper would cover a radius of say 30 miles and where no single newspaper covered the whole field. Consequently they would have the city lawyers putting i£ heir candidate; the city merchants, th" kbour patry and so on; each putthVin their own candidates. The Bill was it. troduced by the Hon. Mr Bell who" rather dominated the Ministry. ' At the banquet to the Minister for 'Public Works at Eltham on the night of the turning of the first eod of the Opunake railway, Mr C. A.Wilkinson also frankly confessed to a change in his opmions regarding tho constitution of the Upper House, but, as lie had been pledged to support this ,plank of the Keform policy, he was obliged to give tbe Bill his vote. Cere we have four supporters of the Government condemning one of its chief policy ™ easur es. They acknowledge that a great mistake has been committed, that a step inimical to the interests of the country has been taken, yet were themselves parties to it Loyalty to party to them appeared of greater moment than loyalty to their country, whose interests were in 'this judgment being jeopardised. A more ' striking illustration of the fatuity of party Government could not be given! An elective second chamber sounds very democratic and attractive, but in practice it has proved-Australia affords an ex-amplc-simply an unnecessary duplication of the legislative machinery It would be far better to wipe out the Second House altogether, and content ourselves with a small, expert hody of legislative revisers, with limited powers That no doubt will be done wl len the Liberals return to power. I