Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 194.8 Would The Upper House Be Missed?

Greymouth Evening Star, 8 October 1948, Page 4

Greymouth Evening Star. FRIDAY, OCTOBER 8, 194.8 Would The Upper House Be Missed?

(RESPITE the historic opposition of its party to the existence of the 'Legislative Council, the Government will not lift a hand to remove this excrescence from the body politic. For. many years before coming to office, its more prominent members boasted that this operation would be. among their first acts when they secured power. . . . When the Leader of the Opposition, m order to test the Government’s sincerity, introduced a bill last year to abolish the Upper House, the Prime Minister avoided the issue by moving an amendment that the matter be referred to a committee of both Houses to go into the constitutional position and make recommendations. When the report of that committee came before the House of Representatives last week, it was “talked out.” The Government, by resorting to this Parliamentary device, has thus once more avoided the issue. At the same time the Opposition suggested that a referendum be held on the question, blit this proposal met a similar fate. The.size of the Upper House has been more than doubled by the present Government. The principal qualification for membership has been service to the party. By this means the Government has granted rewards, at the expense of the taxpayers, to defeated candidates—persons who have been rejected by the country as unworthy of Parliamentary honours —Socialist Party secretaries and union leaders. These rubber-stamp legislators sit occasionally in a comfortable chamber and, almost without exception, give their full, approval to all legislation submitted to them. Their speeches nowadays are usually so dull and lacking in original thought that rarely arc they recorded for the purpose of informing the public.

Whatever the original intention was m constituting a second chamber, the Legislative Council has failed to perform a useful function in recent years —except, of course, to provide a comfortable haven for political favourites, at the expense.of the taxpayer. Since 1914 the .Legislative Council Act, providing for the setting up of an elective council, has been on the statute book. All that is required to make it operative is an Order-in-Council. Obviously, the time for a change has long since passed. The ' Legislative Council should either be. reformed on a new basis or abolished altogether. What other Governments did iiTthe past is no argument for the retention of the present practice —a practice which the present Government has carried to the point of absurdity. If the present somnolent Council were abolished, few would miss it. The only noticeable change would be a sharp decrease in the number of political hangerson cluttering up the accommodation in Parliament Buildings—and a drop in the cost to the taxpayers.

Butter Rationing

’J’TTE decision of the Wellington Housewives’ Union this week to request the Government to abolish butter rationing raises an important question. The union contends that if .New Zealand is to send butter to the United States and Canada, Avhere there is no rationing, New Zealanders* should. not be asked to continue on a reduced scale of consumption. On the face of it. there appears to be a strong ease for the abolition of rationing here, but I here -ire important factors which must be taken into consideration. „ The shortage of fats is still serious in the United Kingdom, which has contracted to take 97 per cent, of our dairy produce. There is thus 3 per cent, available for diversion to other markets. Britain has concurred in this scheme. While the British fat ration is so low. however, many New Zealanders are naturally not happy about sales of butter io other countries, but it is important to remember that those arrangements have been made with the consent of the United Kingdom authorities. who doubtless hope to benefit in other ways. In those circumstances, it is clearly still a duty in New Zealand to economise as much as possible so that the maximum possible surplus will be available for export.