Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1913. REFORMS THAT WAIT

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVI, Issue 146, 17 December 1913, Page 6

Evening Post. WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 17, 1913. REFORMS THAT WAIT

To the recovery of the waning "mana" of the Government as the result of its firm and faithful treatment of the strike and the passing of, the Naval Defence Act, which we mentioned yesterday as the two outstanding features of the session, the great waste of time caused by the obstructive tactics of the Opposition should perhaps be added as next in importance. The Government wasted a good deal of time by its unreadiness early in the session, but the obstruction practised by the Opposition was a more serious offence, because it was more deliberate and more exhausting, and took place at a period of the session when time is much more valuable. E^n when an obvious stonewall was, not set up there was a deal of veiled obstruction, and a very considerable portion of the 190 hours during which the House sat after midnight must be attributed to these two causes combined. The most outrageous example was the blocking of the Second "Ballot Repeal Bill on the motion for its introduction — an unprecedented performance, which, with the subsequent stonewalling of the Legislature Amendment Bill, to which its provisions had been transferred, accounted for nearly a week of Parliamentary time. It was only the Cromwellian action of the Chairman of Committees that rescued the House from the indefinite protraction of the senseless procedure. This experience has made it imperative that one of the first cares of the House next session should be such a reform of the Standing Orders as will prevent a minority from blocking the public business and wasting the public money in this intolerable fashion/ New Zealand must follow the lead of Great Britain and Canada in this respect. At present her Parliamentary machine is many years behind the times — a fact which she would have discovered long ago if the huge majorities upon which, during the twenty-one years of the Liberal-Labour regime, the Government could always rely had not concealed it. Both Mr. Massey and Sir Joseph Ward would prefer to leave the thorny problem of k reforming *■ the Standing Orders alonp,

but personal prepossessions must not be allowed to stand in the way of the public interest. The guillotine, unpleasant as it may be, is infinitely preferable to the cruel waste of time and temper which is tho inevitable fruit of the present system when parties are anything like evenly matched. Though an Opposition is almost inevitably bound to^ oppose any amendment of the rules of procedure which will impose restrictions upon its power to talk, the present Opposition would certainly have stood in a better position to-day if it had been restricted in this way during the past session. The shortening of the session by a month or more would' have been an equal boon to both parties, but the special gain of the Opposition would have been the disclosure of the poverty of the legislative programme of the Government. The plea that its measures were blocked by a wicked Opposition will now cover up the shortcomings of the Government to a wider extent than an accurate award would allow. * The unrestrained factiousness of the Opposition has thus worked out to the benefit of the enemy. Yet a, glance at the list of Public Bills dropped is enough to show that there has been another cause at least as potent as the obstruction of the Opposition to limit the legislative activity of the Government. Of the four great reforms to which the then Opposition was pledged at the last General Election, and for several years previously, one was carried out by 'the Public Service Act of last year, but with the other three no attempt at all has been made to grapple in the House this session. Local Government Reform, which is the most far-reaching and most difficult of them all, and of which a considerable instalment was definitely promised in last year's Financial Statement, has been completely ignored. The electoral reform which was to take the place of the second ballot still hangs fire, and the one thing that the session has revealed about it is of a negative character, viz., that the Government has abandoned the idea of grouping the present electorates for th© return of several members together under a proportional system. The country was so disgusted with the second ballot that it was well pleased to see the repeal of it carried, but the Government is pledged to put something better in its place than the chances of the old system, and the pledge must be redeemed next session. With the fourth item on its reform programme— the reform of the Legislative Council — the Minister of Internal Affairs has made another gallant attempt in the Council itself, but with no better success than he had last year. The tactical position of the Government has, however, been much strengthened by the Council's admission that it stands in need of reform and its' inability to suggest any alternative to the scheme of the Government. With the number of nominations that will fall into its hands in January and July the Government can control the Council next year and go right on. It is clear that the " Reform " Party must do much more next session to justify its title than it has hitherto accomplished, or it will go to the country seriously discredited.