THE HOUSE AND ITS BOSS.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 977, 18 November 1910, Page 4

THE HOUSE AND ITS BOSS.

' We have often stated in these , columns our firm conviction that the • present Parliament will never do ; anything to completely break • the ■ chains of its' degrading subscrvi- • ence to the Executive. Yet on occa- [ sion the House descends to _sucl)' i' amazing of pusillanimity i that it is impossible to refrain from , bringing it under the notice of the i public. What we want to ask now s is this: Is there nobody at all in the - House whom the public can rely [ upon to fight hard to get from the i Prime Minister a statement of his > conception of the relations that i should subsist between the House ; and the Executive, and, so far as he i himself is concerned, between his b responsibility and his retention of [ office 1 The other day, _ when the ' Houbo carried against him a certain

very desirable addition to the Municipal Corporations Bill, he promptly withdrew the Bill, making it, plain that he did not intend to allow Parliament to place on' the Statutebook a clause to which he objected. And no protest was' made against this astounding attitude. Such a thing could not happen in a country in which the • Government was possessed of convictions and principles, or in which the House was possessed of self-respect and' a firm backbone. For the first of these conditions would ensure cither that the Government would agree to the amendment, or resign, while the second condition would ensure that the House would insist on having its way, cither by throwing its rebellious servant, tho Executive, out of office, or by compelling it to' let the Bill go through as amended. Wo refer to this matter again because a similar incident took place yesterday in connection with the Land Settlement Finance Bill. The Prime Minister was moving various motions .relative to alterations made in the Bill by tho Legislative Council, and on one motion he was suddenly defeated. He" promptly secured the adjournment of the debate. What the public will ask itself is the question we asked earlier m this article. Is the House, it will further be asked, to have no power to do anything but what its servant, the Executive, permits it to do? There is really only a step from the principle tacitly affirmed by the Houses abject subservience and helplessness to the principle that the Executive should appoint the Parliament. If the House had had any self-respect, any appreciation of its duty and of the true relations between it and the Ministry, it would have vetoed the motion to adjourn the debate, and thus passed the Bill into law in the shape that it desired.' The Government could thon have resigned i£ it liked to do eo. But it would not have- liked. It would have remained in office, but it would have been taught a lesson. Possibly it was by an oversight that the House did not resent th'e _ insolence of its servant. But that is not very probable, since the House actually had in its mind the general question involved. For it became known yesterday that a large number of members, have, arranged to address a private verbal or written petition to the Prime Minister to restore the Municipal- Corporations Bill to a place amongst the. live measures of the session. This procedure is exactly what one would expect from members who have so betrayed their trust as to have submitted to treatment as the servitors of the Ministry. If they had a particle of self-respect, if they had even the smallest, understanding of what is Parliament's duty to the nation, they would never., think- of such a pitiable and ludicrous expedient as to go, hat in hand and on all fours, to "the Boss," and humbly implore him to give them another chance, promising that they" will be good henceforth. They would see that a motion was moved, and passed, to tho effect that the House had no confidence in the Government unless tho Bill were at once made the first order of the dajv The Prime Minister, as the political head of the nation, is deserving of the'.severest -possible? censui'e 'for behaving in a manner so contrary to the public interest, but we are bound. to say. that it is very natural in, him to act as he does when he knows that the majority in .the House can be so easily driven and insulted into abject servility. The public may feel indignant With the Government, and decide to ;take its revenge in its own good time, but it cdn have nothing but contempt for the House that has the power, but lacks the sourage, to bring the autocrat to heel. : '