INTERESTING ISSUE

Evening Post, Volume CXI, Issue 70, 24 March 1931, Page 9

INTERESTING ISSUE

.The present situation ia largely-a repetition of the deadlock which arose in 1926 between Mr. Lang and Sir Dudley do Chair, then Governor of New South Wales, ovor the appointment of a second batch of members to the Legislative Council of the State. Early in December, 1925, Mr. Lang prevailed upon Sir Dudley de Chair to nominate-25 new members for the Upper House, and for two months the new members were, rehearsed in their part to vote the Council out of existence. Some of them, ho\vcvor, grew to relish their new dignity, and when at the end of February the Council was asked to vote itself out of being the moasuro was defeated by 47 votes to 41. Mr. Lang then threatened a further invasion of the Council, but: the Governor declined to appoint the new members, amongst whom Mr. Lang decided to include women. Sir Dudley de Chair's hesitation was soized upon by Labour members as an excuse for an attack upon Downing Street. '"If it is going to bo a question of , governing Ihis State by tlio elected representatives of Iho" peoplo or by Downing Street-, I do not think there can bo any question ;is to the issue," said Mr. Lang. The opinion of the Dominions Office was sought, and Mr. Amory, in a dispatch communicating the attitude of that Department, after the Governor's request for guidance, stated that established consitutional practices required that the dispute should be settled between tho Governor and his Ministers and that he was unable to find the Eoval Instructions affected this conclusion. This, said Sir Dudley de Chair, when forwarding a copy of tho dispatch to Mr. Lang, placed tho Governor s powers beyond dispute. Mr. Lang threatened to send M!r. M'Tiernan, the Attorney-General, to England to urge the Governor's recall, but did not do so The following February tho question aroso again when Sir Dudley de Chair declined to appoint a number ol women to tho Council. No appointments were made until after Mr. Bavin had displaced Mr. Lang as Premior in September of that year. Meantime, however, a change had taken place. As a result of the Imperial Conforenee of 1926 the status of the Governor had been -recognised as altered. Ho was no longer tho representative of His Majesty's Government in tho Dominions, but tho personal representative of His Majesty. The question now raised apparently is whether or not the Governor should follow the procedure of His Majesty, who in practice accepts the advice oi his Ministers.