Evening Post. Thursday, JULY 21, 1898. THE ELECTIVE EXECUTIVE.

Evening Post, Volume LVI, Issue 18, 21 July 1898, Page 4

Evening Post. Thursday, JULY 21, 1898. THE ELECTIVE EXECUTIVE.

• The House by a decided majority rejected the principle of an Elective Executive, so ably advocated by Mnjor Steward last night. Although there is iv the present circumstances of Party Government much to encourage any experiment likely to free the country from the incubus of one man rule, Parliament is almost certainly wise in the conservative instinct which prevents it from sanctioning such a sweeping change iv our constitutional procedure. The cause which prompts many thoughtful people to look with favour upon a new system of appointing Ministers must be sought in the way unscrupulous men have abused the present Constitution rather than hi any inherent faults of tho Constitution itself. It will be readily admitted that the existing mode of selecting a Cabinet does not possess that cut and dry air of logical rigidity which is so dear to tho doctrinaire politician of the day, but it is the natural, historical development of Parliamentary Government, and its illogical but essentially practical nature is exactly suited to British political genius. If there is one thing more marked than another in the history of our race it is its careful avoidance of all abstract theories in the building up of its social and political institutions. With us society and politics bear all the characteristics of spontaneous growth, and for this reason they possess a stability thai, is unknown among more enthusiastic, more logical, but less business-like races. This fundamental difference that separates the Anglo - Saxon conception of law and the social polity from almost all others should be carefully borne in mind whenever the question of any constitutional change is raised. The Elective Executive, as explained by Major Steward, is, it would seem, merely an attempt to give a logical precision and a theoretical completeness to the aims commonly held to be attained iv tho British way by the present system of /jyveiuuienb,

Our procedure in tlio selection of an Executive is modelled almost* wholly upon the practice of the Old Country. A vole in the Lower Houm* of the Legislature or, it may be, the li«t of members returned, clearly shows a certain party or faction, more or less* closely organised, to represent a majority. This faction, as a rule, has a recognised leader, and the Governor, as tho Queen's representative, entrusts him with the formation of a Ministry. The members of his Cabinet are chosen from his party, and if the Government is to remain in oHice the select ion must in the main be acceptable to tho majority of the House. This demarcation into parties and homogenous form of the Ministry was only gradually evolved in England as the powers oi the Lower House iucrea«*nd and the impossibility of carrying on the Govornment with a Ministry which had not a common policy became more manifest. It must not be forgotten that after the Be volution of 1(388 the Crown for a long time tried to rule through an Executive chosen irrespective of Party, and largely from the Illness of Ministers for the posts allotted. The experiment failed, and the Party system, as we know it, grew up naturally and inevitably out of the growth of democracy. It has faults, as all systems must have, and it does not aiways lead to the production of Ministries of All the Talents. Animosity and even bitterness are too frequently introduced into public life, but if men did not fight over politics they would probably fight more desperately over something else, so Party Government may be a sort of safety-valve for popular excitement. The Elective Executive is said to work well in Switzerland, but,then theSwKsarenot AngloSaxons, and race i* a more important factor than our politician.- always recognise in the buildiny up of Constitutions. For our own part, we scarcely think that much improvement, would be. effected by making the Alini-lry elective by the Legislature, instead of as now nominated hv a L'artv leader. It would seem thai" with public men of the old honourable slump at, the h«ad of the dominant Party the present, system would work a« well as was required. The safeguards imposed by constitutional practice would be sufficient to chuck the abuses which Major Ntew.trd thinks Mitlioient justification for the. change he suggests, tint wild an utterly unscrupulous Premier, who treats the Constitution as a mere plaything to be twisted and bent to suit his personal end-*, the system is necessarily brought into disrepute. The real cure lies in a rigid enforcement by the representatives of the people of the Constitutional practices which the experience of ages has taught us to be necessary checks upon Ministerial I usurpations. We can quite understand the [ strength of the desire for a change when we | see the p;»s« to which politics have been i brought during recent years by the Ministerial Party. Principles have been jo recklessly sacrificed to the claims of Party organisation, and the Premier has assumed such a mischievous autocracy, that even devoted Seddonites are beginning to feel the huiuili'ilion of their position. Unless this growing evil is removed some such change as an Elective Executive will have to be made in the interests of good government and of that progress which the Premier talks of so much, but which he spends mosl of bis official labours in retarding. Although we hope to see the Constitution brought back to a healthy state upon existing lines, we must admit that a prolongation of the present regime would make an Elective Executive a necessity. If it come to a choice between the principles of Seddonism and an Elective Executive patriotic colonists are not likely to hesitate.