THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1909. BRITISH REFORMS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 9670, 8 December 1909, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1909. BRITISH REFORMS.

In the United Kingdom a great deal is being heard at the present moment of the desirability of a reform in the I constitution of the House of Lords. That this is pre-eminently desirable none will agree more heartily than those who are strongly convinced of the value of a Second dhamber and keenly conscious that the collective weight and influence of any unelected House depend upon the individual weight and influence oi its members. Buc the constitution of the House of Lords is only one of the many things that need reforming in the United Kingdom. Fiscal reform is inevitable, whatever may be the result of the approaching General Elections, and Land Reform is bound to come with it. Reform in Defence methods is equally to be anticipated. Indeed, whichever way we turn, whether in th 3 local affairs of the United Kingdom or in the more gensral affairs of the Empire, we can see that the British political and industrial organisations have to a certain extent outgrown their clothes, and that new measurements have to be taken. The difference between British parties is not over the question as to whether reform and recon struction are necessary, but as to the spirit in which reform shall be devisI ed and reconstruction undertaken. The old parties are still nominally keeping their historic relations towards one another, but it is becoming more and more evident that old parties are being thrown into the melt-ing-pot and that absolutely new par- i ties will emerge. We] have already \ in sight a Unionist Party which will put Preferential 'lrade and Imperial Lnity in the forefront of its external policy, as it will put Local Protection, SmallJFreeholdhigs, Universal Traininer, and Constitutional Reform in the forefront of its internaJ policy. And opposed to it we can see forming a Socialist-Radical Party, which will struggle on for Free Trade and Naval Retrenchment and seek its millennium by the way of Leasef.olding, Graduated Taxe». a Sini»l« Chamber, nm! Disarmnmtmt A Li.n.. » painr,. dduling wuL the 1

political situation at Home, says:- | The sub-consciousness that there is ; something more at issue than a , meaningless combat between rival , Houses of Parliament and a strah;;ij appeal tu the voting of Kit g Ddi). s undoubtedly lies behind the notable reserved attitude of the people of the United Kingdom. If the Commons were regarded as wilfully and deliberately attacked, if it were reaily felt even by an important section that the rights of tie represen tativesof the peoole were b ing coolly thrust on one sido, Rriain would ring from end to end witti i - dignntion. That Britain is n:>t in din riant is obviously due to tha fact that the dissolving House of Commons has ceased to represent the people, and that the great mass of the electors are quite conscious that it is time to fight out their differences at the polls. There was* a period in Kritish history when the populace was so doubtful of the strength of itb political position that any interference by trie Sovereign and any intervention of the Lords in domestic affairs of State was sure to arouse it to a frenzy of resistance. That supersenaitweness has gone with the growth of assured knowledge of the ultimate supremacy of the Commons, and with the assurance of supremacy has come the desire that this supremacy should be used for the national advantage and not for the.'party gain. As a result of all this there is a remarkably strong and visible tendency to fight out the coming General Election as though come by effluxion of time and not by an act of the Lords.