The Sun THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1914. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 137, 16 July 1914, Page 6

The Sun THURSDAY, JULY 16, 1914. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

i The appointment of eleven new Legislative Councillors, has raised-the question oi the constitution of the Upper House, and the Government is being berated because it has put a sufficiency of its friends into the Council to secure the passage of any legislation it may send along. No matter who it appointed, the Government was bound to be censured by Liberal critics, so it might as well be kicked for elevating its supporters, ■as for appointing opponents like Sir William Hall-Jones or Mr Earnshaw. But apart from the eolour of the estimable old gentlemen who have just been dignified with the title of '' Honourable, >' there, is a good deal to be said in favour of the principle that the ruling party should dominate the Upper House. The Lower House must always be regarded as expressing the will of the people, and the Government of the day is directly responsible to the people for the administration of the cbutttry's affairs and the trend of legislation. An Upper House that tries to thwart the Lower House is merely a nuisance, aud more often than not, instead of being guided by any particular principles or profound convictions, allows itself to become the willing tool of the party in opposition. | Striking examples of this are to be found in Australia and also in England, ! where a measure like the Home Rule Bill has passed its second reading five times in the House of Commons by large majorities, and has been rejected as often by a Chamber that is merely an appendage of the Unionist Party. Yet it is a matter of common knowledge that if this Bill had been a Unionist measure a majority of one in the House of Commons would have been sufficient to secure it a speedy jiassage through the House of Lords. This absurd anomaly has been dealt with in England by abolishing, the power of the House of Lords to veto a Bill more than twice. This still leaves the gilded Chamber with large powers of obstruction and delay, but it makes the authority of the people's representatives paramount in the end. If the Massey Government had any adequate concept-ion of the necessities of the case, or any notion of the trouble it is laying up for its successors by enacting Mr Bell's Upper House Reform Bill in its present form, it would adopt a similar precaution. As the Bill stands at present, the country is destined to learn from an exasperating experience of Par- I liaineritary deadlocks that ail Elective j Upper House, with the power of veto, J is merely a complication of the Parliamentary machine that has nothing to recommend it.