MR. MASSEY'S PARTY AND THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXIV, Issue 304, 22 December 1903, Page 2 (Supplement)

MR. MASSEY'S PARTY AND THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

. J. fl (To the Editor.) T Sir, —Mr. Massey at his banquet last t> Monday evening said, £r When a member J has steadily supported the Government \ for some years he came to regard it a<3 r a right, when his constituents went ' back on him, that he should be appoint- T ed to the Legislative Council.' , In 1690, I when the old Conservative party was i obliterated at the polls on Friday, Docember 5, its moribund Government E called no less than seven of its mem- c bers to the Council early in January i of tlie following year, despite the vigor- s oils protests uttered throughout "the country. The seven names were the Premier himself, Sir Harry Atkinson, (who resigned his seat in the Lower I House, and was made Speaker in the Upper House), and Messrs. Jas. Fulton A and Downie Stewart, Otago; J. D. Or- ' mond, Ilawke's Bay; J. B. Whyte, ! I Auckland; C. J. Johnston, Wellington; ! and C. C. 80-wen, Canterbury. This unconstitution :1 proceeding by a party A who had unmistakably lost the confi- l denon of the country might be claimed • at the present time to be ancient his- ( tory, and to have no relation to Mr. : Masspy's present party. At the Mon- , day evening banquet sat two members ' of that Cabinet-—the Hon. E. Mitchel- ' son. Minister of Public Works, and Act- s ing-Premipr at the death of the Cabi- \ net, and Sir Wm. RusselL Colonial Sec- ! retary and Minister of Defence and ! Justice. Up to the close of the last ' I Parliament the latter gentleman was ■ the Leader of the present Opposition, winch, though decimated in the intervening thirteen years, ! 5s identical with the shattered party who so indecently filled the Council in 1891. And. further, three of those nominated, viz.. the Hons. Ormond, Bowen, and Johnston, are now in the Council (and there for life), and, true to thoir origin, have voted steadily i ajrainst the Ballance and Seddon administrations. Lord Onslow received an object lesson in constitution- ; al practice and procedure which he is i never likely to forget. The Liberal i parly has never, and never shall, be guilty of such conduct as that which < marked thn exit of our Government, by i the "classes."—l am, etc, i JUSTTCTA. i December ]6, 1903.