MR. BALFOUR REPLIES.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 151, 26 June 1907, Page 5

MR. BALFOUR REPLIES.

OPINION IN THE LOBBIES. THE LIBERALS DIVIDED. (Received 8.49 a-m.) LONDON, June 25. Mr. Balfour, at the outset, stated that so far as his own action was concerned no defence was required. What he did had been done publicly. The course which the House of Lords took had been taken in public, and the people -were far from, agreeing with the Prime Minister's violent epithets against that House. He thought that the amendments made in the Education Bill by the House of Lords were great improvements. In the course of his speech 'Sir H. CampbeU-Bannerman declared against the principle of the referendum. (Received 7.42 a.m.) LONDON, June 25. Mr. Balfour, in an elaborate constitutional argument, maintained that the House of Commons was the predominant partner, but was not competent within the term of its own existence to deal with the entire interests of the State without reference to the people, who were the trustees for posterity. " Nobody knows better than the Prime Minister." said the Leader of the Opposition, with some irony, " that it requires less than five years for a Government to get out of touch with the people." Mr. Balfour concluded by asking if the Government was sincere, why it should indefinitely defer the introduction of the Bill which Sir H. CampbeU-Ban-nerman had foreshadowed? Mr. D. J. Shackleton (Labour) expressed his wish to end the House of Lords. The subsequent discussion in the Lobbies of the House showed that the Liberals were greatly divided on the Prime Minister's proposition. Some declared that the proposals would delay legislation. Their chief fear was that the people at the dissolution would give a verdict in favour of " leaving well alone." At the best, it was maintained, the majority would be small, and the House of Lords would continue its existence.