Political Reform

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XXI, Issue 6206, 29 February 1904, Page 2

Political Reform

Mr Ell, M,H,U., latsrviewod,

THE REFERENDUM PROPOSALS,

Mr K. G. Ell, M.H.8., who visited Ashburton on Saturday, in connection with the Reform movement, courteously accorded ft representative of this journal a few minutes interview. Speaking in regard to the Referendum prnposals, he explained that hi 3 oV>jest in endeavouring to arrange for a meeting in Ashburton was to demonstrate the practicability of affirming principles as a guide to legislators. In the voting papers he has had specially prepared, questions such as " Are you in favour oc the Abolition of the Legislative Council ?" are placed before the voter?, and a straightout aniwer," yes," or " no," is secured. Mr Ell regnrd3 it as one of the failures of our existing system of representative government that men, whose views do not always accord with those of their constitusnts, are sent into Parliament because they favour a particular plank in-some party programme. Thu3 the Prohibitionists of: one electorate, or the License suppportors in another may say "So and So is our man," because they can trust him to support their views on one particular question. The candidate expounds his own views, but he has no satisfactory method of ascertaining and following the wishes of his constituents in other matters, and thus reforms are blocked or indefinitely hung up. Mr Ell believes the Referendum may be used to facilitate and secure legislation, and to prevent the passage by Parliament of obnoxious measures, but he thinks the people need educating, and should be taught to vote for principles more than for men. He is a firm believer in the advisability of abolishing the Upper House, but considers that a Revising Committee should be appointed to take its place, consisting principally of barristers or lawyers, who would go through all measures passed by the House of Representatives, and suggest amendments where such were needed. In the heat of debate, it sometimes happened that Bills emerged from Committee in a more or less disjointed fashion, and sometimes containing undesirable features, whioh needed reconsideration. , The Revising Committee would be able to advise the House on all such points, and would act as a valuable cheek upon hasty legislation in inducing the present Lower House to revise its own legislation. Such a Committee would not. of course, be empowered to amend Bills passed by the House, but would simply draw attention to any anomalies which might occur in them, and suggest amendments. While lie believed in the abolition of the Upper House, Mr Ell said that, sooner than see the present nominative system continue, by means of which one man was allowed to appoint anyone he pleased as member of the Council, he would vote for its being made an elective body. He. expressed himself as adverse to the grouping of electorates together, for the purpose of returning members to the Council, and pointed out that under such a system a new man would stand very little chance of .election, as the expense would be too great to permit of his coming into touch with all parts of the constituency.

SINGLE ELECTORATES. Asked whether he thought the cutting up of the city constituencies into single electorates would make any difference in their representations, Mr Ell said that, of course, the single electorate would do away with plumping, and that in itself was very desirable. In the cities alone over 20,000 votes were wasted at the last General E'eotion. Mr Ell here drew the pressman's attention to the table appearing in the current Year Book, in which the votes actually recorded at the Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, and Dunedin electorates are shown to be 167,107, the number of votes exercisable by the persons who voted being 193 978. 28,891 votes were thus absolutely thrown away in the four cities referred to, the greatest number of plumpers being recorded at Dunedin, where 39,567 votes only were polled, out of 52,212 held by the electors who recorded their votes. The "plumping" system Mr Ell thinks has been very much abused, and he welcomes the single electorates for that reason. The city people had had a great privilege, he said, and it had been shamefully abased.

'PHS LICENSING LAWS.

On licensing questions Mr Ell is somewhat of an authority. He regards the Licensing Bill of last session as impossible of acceptance by the present Parliament, and pointed out that the Premier had practically abandoned his " No-license no Liquor " proposal, as also the proposal for extending the time between the Local Option polls to six years. He considered they were practically dead, and pointed out that Mr Seddon at the close of last session had intimated that they would be abandoned. He agreed with the interviewer, however, that if the " No-license no Liquor " proposal was reintroduced and carried, the issue would have t) be resubmitted to the electors in existing " No-license " districts, the pressman pointing o»t that very many electors in the Aahburfcon district while yqtigg for " No. license," did so with th,e knowledge that they conld procure any supplies of liquor they themselves needed from outside the district. In the case of a proposal to withdraw a Club charter, Mr Ell, however, pointed out that the case was different, as only a small proportion of the electors were concerned, whereas the whole body of electors were interested inthe other proposal. But Mr Ell gave it to be clearly understood that he did not b,el^eye the Premier's proposal would be again introduced, and certainly it has no chance of being carried. He does not think that there is any possibility of the present Parliament substituting National for Local Option, and while he believes the Prohibition movement is steadily growing, he does not expect to see"Nc-license" carried at Christchurch at the next poll, The cities, he thinks, will not be so. ready to fall ;nto line with" No.-Ijcenße,*' and the seaports will be the last of all to come in. It would, he added, be absurd for him to attempt to predict any given time, within which National prohibition might be carried.

THE LAND QUESTION.

1 On the land question, Mr Ell said there had been unfortunately some hitch in the Arrangements for the land campaign. The Bunedin meeting had, as a matter of fact, been arranged before his colleagues and himself were ready. Ho believed firmly in the leasehold as opposed to the freehold principle* and would be quite prepared to take his part in the leasehold campaign, Messrs Laurenson and Taylor were ready. If they failed to come to Ashburton to speak on the land question, he would be quite prepared to address a meeting himself,