THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

To be Neither Ended nor Mended

THE fourteen fresh appointments to the Legislative Council furnish

us with convincing proot that the frequently-reiterated Government assurance that the upper legislative chamber would be either ended or mended was pure political flam. With the membership of the Council considerably reduced, from death and other causes, there was great prospect of reform in its constitution, but the hope in that direction may now be abandoned for another decade or generation at least. The system of a nominated revising chamber, composed largely of trucklers to the Government and political dead - beats, has been fastened on to New Zealand more firmly than ever. We must continue to submit to a system of nominee legislation that is as opposed to the democratic spirit of the age as it is contrary to the re-peatedly-expressed will of the people.

Sir Joseph Ward defends the Government policy by the argument that a single Parliamentary chamber would not be acceptable to the country. The alternative, however, was not the uni-cameral system so much as an elective Upper House. With all our talk of leading the way in democratic legislation, we are still far behind Australia in this important matter, because the Federal and State Parliaments of the Commonwealth are both elective, and consequently directly amenable to public opinion. In New Zealand, on the contrary, we have perpetuated the bad old conservative system under which the vote of the people is dominated and controlled by a nominated upper chamber in which the country has no confidence, and which is composed of men who, for the greater part, could not command a majority of votes even for an ordinary road board election.

It cannot even be said in defence of the Government policy that the appointments, with two or three notable exceptions, were warranted by the political qualifications of the individuals chosen, their services to the country, or the prospect that they would make even reasonably good legislators. Sir Joseph Ward offers the plea that they were the best that could be chosen from the party. If this is really so, then Heaven help the party. The mo9t that can honestly be said from the Government point of view is that these persons have proved themselves useful to the party, and that it was desired to provide them with an ample reward, and that they were no worse than an army of other individuals who aspired to the title of " Honorable," the free railway pass, and the honorarium. This is probably true enough, but it is not sufficient reason why the people of the country should continue to be deprived of the democratic right of direct self-govern-ment.

The appointment of Mr W. W. McCardle is, no doubt, the reward for his service to the Government in contesting the Franklin seat at the last general election. His opposition to Mr Massey was such a forlorn hope that it was hardly likely to have been undertaken without some definite understanding with the Government.

In any case, Mr McCardle now enters Parliament by the back door after having more than once knocked in vain at the front. He is one of the most flagrant examples on record ot the elevation to the Upper House of men whom the people of the colony refused to elect to the House of Representatives. It is alleged that Mr McCardle has been chosen as a representative of Auckland, but it is difficult to see in what way he is representative, seeing that until recently he was a settler in the Wellington provincial district.

Mr Oliver Samuel, of New Plymoath, was a member of the House of Representatives in 1884, when he was a supporter of the Stout - Yogel Government, so that he has some previous political experience. Mr R. A. Loughnan is one of the cleverest leader writers and most capable journalists in the colony, and having been closely in touch with the political life of New Zealand for the last thirty years or more, his appointment must be regarded as one of the best and most easily justifiable of the fourteen. Of Mr Hamilton Gilmer, it has been said that he is a Wellington hotel-keeper and brewer, and was well acquainted with Mr.Seddon on the West Coast, and when this has been said of him there is absolutely nothing else to say. As in Mr McCardle's case, his appointment to the Legislative Council is an amazing and perplexing problem.

It is equally difficult tn comprehend the motive that prompted the selection of Messrs J. R. Sinclair and J. B. Callan, two Dunedin lawyers, who may be shining lights in their profession locally, but who do not appear to have done anything in particular to justify the honour that has descended upon them. Dr Collins is supposed to have been chosen as a concession to thedernand of the medical practitioners of the colony that they should be granted some representation in the Legislative Council. In the world of politics, however, he is unknown. As for Mr C. M. Luke, of Wellington, and Mr G. J. Smith, of Christchurch, they are regarded as being fairly representative of commercial interests, while the latter gentleman's appointment is also something of a sop to the Prohibitionists as a set-ofi to the appointment of Mr Gilmer.

Labour does not score very heavily in the list announced. There are two appointments from this class, one being Mr J. T. Paul, a Danedin linotype operator, who was also a member of the Land Commission, and the other Mr John Barr, President of the Christchurch Trades and Labour Council. Naturally, there ib much chagrin in Auckland Liberal and Labour circles because no appointment has come this way, but, bearing in mind the number of covetous eyes that were fixed upon a Legislative Council seat, the Government were probably wise not to venture on a selection. Besides, the purpose of the appointments seems to have been to strengthen the conservative side of the Upper House, without absolutely offending the Labour party, a policy which is quite consistent with the anti-radical attitude that our more conservative Liberal Ministry seems to be taking up.

The other new Legislative Councillors are Mr W. H. Tucker, farmer, Gisborne ; Mr Wi Pere, fanner, Gisborne ; and Mr John Anstey, farmer, South Canterbury. Of the three, the only one that is known politically is Mr Wi Pere, who has been a Maori member of the House, and who has been mixed up considerably in native land dealing". Looking at the list as it stands, it can only be agreeable to the gentlemen who have been singled out for honour, and certainly it does not, as a whole, command either the approval or confidence of the country. Leaving out the manifest intention to thwart the desire of the people for an elective Upper House, a measure of Liberal reform that ought to have been delayed no longer, the Government has for the most part been unfortunate in the selection it has made. The desire evidently has been to please everyone, and, as a consequence, nobody has been pleased — excepting, of course, the newly created "lords."