The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1883. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 5, Issue 1479, 10 September 1883, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1883. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

We fear that tho proposed alteration in the constitution of tho Legislative Council will be another step in the downhill course which the colony has been for some time pursuing. From the House of Kepresentatives we have ceased to expect independent and reliable opinions. Its members are becoming mere delegates, whose mouths are gagged by a fear of their constituents. In the Legislative Council, on the other hand, we find members who are not afraid to speak out, and who are engaged in discussing in temperate terms the condition of the colony, Lost Thurslay the debate in the Council was an instance in point when a few home truths were stated which are wont to be be ignored in tho House of Representatives. One was a protest against tho lust job perpetrated, viz., paying small salaries to members of Waste Lands Boards, Another was a romonstrance against increasing the Property Tax to make up for concessions in railway rates granted to the Middle Island. One hon. member pointed out that the Property Tax was now equal to an Income Tax of fifteen pence in the pound, and that it was bad management for a young country to be saddled with such a tax. Dr Grace spoko somewhat strongly, He said " that looking to the fact that our exports were stationary, a convulsion in the London market would simply mean ruin to every man in this country, and the chapter of accidents ruled our finance.. Their finance was not a Bobor financo; the departmental expenditure was eating all the industries of the country. Where were the men who were making profits ? Excepting the producers of fine meiino wool, no profits wero being made. The advances made on property were far in excess of their value." The view he takes is a somewhat gloomy one, but it is impossible to deny that there ut a good deal of truth in it. New Zealand is a very difficult country to ruin, but reckless legislation and imprudent administration has more than once, brought it into serious difficulties, and what has happened in the past may, again occur. Formerly New Zealand was ruled by the opinions of its best and wise«t men, now it is governed by what is called ■' popular opinion"—the opinion not of the best men but of the greatest number of men, Old land-marks, one by one, are being swept away, and we regret to see that the Ministry of the day are prepared to sacrifice the Legislative Council on the altar of'< popular opinion," We would be content to adopt a single Chamber and do without a Legislative Council altogether if we had a thoroughly trustworthy and competent House of Representatives, But as the Lower House is now constituted we see our best public men dropping out of it and our worst public men taking their places, New Zealand is becoming flooded with what have been termed in the States " carpet baggers"—men with no stake in tho country, who niako a living out of popular agitation and politics, and who trade on the weaknesses of the more thoughtless and careless electors, A man whom no respectable man of business would/etaplov, -as <a clerk at 4200 a yeafetfraf obtain that sum' by going into iFaniapietrt,. is the case we <&nnloj<snVd'to dispense

witli the Legislative Council, nor would it be good fov the colony ito make it elective. We do not want Tom, Dick, and Hurry to get into the' Upper House with the same facility with which they now find their way into the Lower one. We would fat sooner see the Whitaker-Atkinson Ministry driven out of office and their party broken up than that they should succeed in their proposal to reconstitute the Legislative Council. Our sympathies have always been with liberalism, but at tho present .time a conservative reaction would bo the best possible thing for this colony.