A PRACTICAL VIEW.

Evening Post, Volume XLIV, Issue 45, 22 August 1892, Page 2

A PRACTICAL VIEW.

A long debate is threatened on tho constitutional question at issue between the Governor and his Advisers. We fail to see what possible good can result from such a discussion at the present time. It will bo mere beating the air, and can lead to no practical result. It will occupy and wasto valuable time, givo a very few members an opportunity of airing their knowledge of constitutional law and precedent, a much larger number an equal opportunity, which will be an eagerly embraced, of domonetrating their utter ignorance of even the first principles applicable to such matters, and will then leave tho matter jnst as it found it. It is difficult to soe how the House can, intelligently or exhaustively, even debate the matter. It is not open to the House to discuss the conduct of His Excellency the Governor, and weak although Mr. Speaker may be in general, we cannot believe that he will countenance the grave impropriety of permitting one branch of the Legislature to discuss, criticise, or comment on tho action of another co-ordinate branch of the General Assembly of Now Zealand. If tho House does discuss tho question, it can only do so properly as regards the action of Ministers in the matter, and the position in which Ministers by that action have placed themselves in relation to the House itself. A discussion so limited and dofinod would be absolutely fruitless and unprofitable — a moro ebullition of froth. The questions at issue are no doubt important, but they have been very fully and most ably argued out between His Excellency and the Premier. Thoy now by mutual consent stand referred to the highest authority in the realm on such matters, and tho House of Representatives will act wisely by refraining from interference until Hor Majesty's Secretary of State gives an authoritative ruling upon the I constitutional principles and points of practice involved. That ruling, when given, it will bo quito within tho province of Parliament here to discuss and review. It will stand on a wholly different footing to the action of the Governor at the present period. If the > Secretary of State's decision does not coincide with the views of the New Zealand Parliament as to what the law and practice regulating such affairs ought to be, then it will be within the legitimate functions of Parliament to discuss the matter as ono of principle, impersonally so far as regards the Governor, and using the special case simply as an- illustration, and in proper constitutional manner to 'amend the law if necessary, so as to provide against a recurrence of what may bo deemed objectionable. At present it is not open to or possible for Parliament to so discuss the question, and attempted legislation wonld be premature until the decision of the Home Government has established the necossity for it. We strongly advise the House to apply itself to real work, and abstain from the temptation to indulge in empty talk regarding the responsibility for the creation of Legislative Councillors.