THE DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS REQUIRED FROM OUR LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXVII, Issue 2988, 8 September 1891, Page 4

THE DUTIES AND FUNCTIONS REQUIRED FROM OUR LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY.

TO THE EDITOR. Nik,—What is our Legislative Assembly'! It is the Upper House of our legislature having the power to refuse sanction to the passing into law of any measure prissed by the Lower House. I must say i hat in the past we almost could have done without this Upper House, for as f;n- as I can see the Upper House has always iu the end given way to the Lower House. That being so, it therefore follows that their work has been nil. "i is true there have been good measures initiated in the Upper House and passed |iv the Lower House, but the initiating of uucli measures is only second to the first great part of what is required of them,° that Urst being the refusing to function hurtful measures passed by the Lower House. Who are the men who compose this Upper House ? They, as a rule, are retired politicians who, by their supposed experience pained in the Lower House, are expected to have a knowledge gained by such experience. And, above all, these men being independent of constituents are supposed to be in a neutral position, and from that neutrality it is expected they cannot he bribed or form opinions upon a false hasis. They are •supposed to be above al' fear from constituents, and are therefore supposed, and it is expeeted from them, that they will perform the lirst and primary part _of tlieir existence, that i.-< to refuse sanction to passing of deleterious laws by the Lower House. God gnuit that at this juncture of our present affairs they may have the resolution to do so. I may mention that in the Upper House in the Old Country there is an element which to our eost we have not in our Upper House, that element being men of true nobility of mind who from this very nobility of rniud are excluded from our Lower House. For example, take our former member, Mr Lake ; he (Mr Luke) is all truenvss, this very trueuess makes it impossible ha could wish to be a imuidu'r. Like our present member Mr Bryee, he only is a member from tlm fact that we spontaneously pressed him to be our member; to be a member upon ?ueh conditions is honour;.i.lc, U hen Mr Bryee has to beg to be ,-i lu-iiiber Mr Bryee will say, "Avaunt! 1 ii.,n pitch, defile me not." Mr Editor, I warn the Upper House that if they pass this Payment of Members Bill, that their doing so would alone and by itself be sutlicient cause for their extinction. It would be an awful absurdity to have an Upper House upon the faith that it would perform the functions for which it was constructed and for it not to perform Lhose functions ; the House would be a nullity and as such should be swept off the grouud as cumberers. Let the House of Assembly refuse to sanction the Bill and it will then perform the duties the far-seeing meu who framed the British coustitutou had iu view. Mr Editor, from the franchise being extended and also from politic* being now a trade, a thousand times more do wo now require an Upper House, but unless that House performs its functions we may as well hive none and so save the expense.— Yours truly, f [aha I'F.I'K.