"STRAINING THE CONSTITUTION."

Press, Volume XIIX, Issue 14553, 2 January 1913, Page 6

"STRAINING THE CONSTITUTION."

Wo have boon invited to explain in what way the so-called Liberal Party '.strained the constitution"' in order to avert its expulsion from office after the elections of twelve months ago. The answer is perfectly simple, although the devices employed were so discreditable that it is with some reluctance wo go into tho story again, and wo are surprised to find tho friends of the politicians who resorted to such tricks so ilUadvised as to insist on another public exposure. Cno great underlying principle of the Constitution is tho rule that no Ministry shall remain in office unless it enjoys tho confidence of tho House and of tho country. After tho general election of 1911 it was evident that if all tho members voted according to their pledges Sir Joseph Ward was in a minority, and hi.i own friends urged him to resign. He preferred, however, to meet tho House, as ho was quite entitled to do. What followed, however, is without precedent in tho history of British Parliamentary institutions, and admits of no pallia ;ion or excuse. Two members pledgee i to voto against the Government wi-ro seduced into violating their pledges. Cne of them had no political conscience to troublo him, and mado no bones about doing as ho was asked. Tho other wanted some colourable pretext for what was plainly an act of political perfidy, and sought and obtained from Sir Joseph Ward a promise that he would resign even if, with tho assistanco of tho two pledgebreakers, ho succeeded in averting dofeat. The re.-nib was that tho amendment of wanfc-of-confidenco was lost by the casting vote of tho Speaker. Sir Joseph Ward thus kept himself technically in a position to adviso the Governor, even although it was clear that ho no longer possessed the confidvjnco of the country. This enabled him by means of a further trick as discreditable as the first, to mako another attempt to nullify tho verdict of the constituencies and to keep his party in power against tho country's will. Although Parliament was specially called together to provide his Excellency with constitutional advisers possessing the country's confidence, Sir Joseph Ward advised a prorogation j before its -work had been accomplished, and this was agreed to. Whether thfji Governor ought or ought not to have agreed to the prorogation is a question upon which wo did not hesitate to express an opinion while his Excellency was in tho Dominion, but we do not consider it either necessary, or even seemly, to discuss it further in his absence. By means of two cloverlydovised but utterly indefensible tricks Sir Joseph Ward thus succeeded in removing the constitutional position out of tho control of Parliament. Ho then advised that Mr Mackenzie should bo sent for, and for upwards of threo months the public offices and the public funds wore in tho control of a Ministry who never possessed the confidence of tho country, and who were peremptorily dismissed from office as soon as Parliament was once more permitted to gain control of the position. Wo venture to say that this is a chapter in tho political history of tho Dominion which no right-minded New Zealandor, no matter what his politics may bo, will ever bo ablo to look back upon without shame and disgust. In calling these indefensible proceedings a straining of the Constitution wo wero using a polite euphemism which we hasten to withdraw. It was a display of thimblerigging which one might have expected from tho politicians in certain South American republics, but wo hono and believe that dovices of this kind will never be sanctioned by public opinion in any part of the British Empire.