The Star Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangotoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1912. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XVIII, Issue XVIII, 24 October 1912, Page 4

The Star Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangotoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea, Waverley. THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24, 1912. THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Some quite gratuitously uncivil things have been said about the Legislative council's action in rejecting tne Government's proposals tor tne Uouncu's reform, or, ratner, for its reconstuution. Ln tne lizsc instance, it read a second time the Legislative Council Elections Bill, but declared that it snouid stand over till next session, witn a view to its being thought over in the meantime by tne country at large. Since then the House has afrirmod that the Council should becoma elective, and has also —in view of the Councils postponement of the Council Eloctions jtfih—passed a Bill to enable' the Government, while the present nominative system continues, to call members to the Council for a term of three years, instead of seven as at present. This Bill the Council has vetoed by 21 to 13 votes, and this has caused the heathen to rage, both in Parliament and out of it. To the credit of Mr Massey and his colleagues, none of the raging has been done by them. Amidst the irrational hubbub, they have shown, and continue to show, the temper and the tact of statesmen. As leaders of the Democratic or Progressive Liberal Party, they are committed to the task of endeavoring to reform the Council, and they have done their duty by bringing forward the proposals to which we have referred. But as constitutional statesmen, they know that the Council, in acting as it has done, has really done no more than its own duty in the matter. No doubt they would have been well enough pleased had the Council agreed to reduce the term from seven to three years, because it would have committed them to a species of selfdenial for which they were prepared, in the matter of giving supporters or men approved by them, only three instead of seven years of Parliamentary opportunity and influence; and then it would have enabled them to make the Council elective sooner than they now will. But as statesmen and men of sense, they know that no real harm will be done to the country by the d«lay; and indeed, in both categories, they probably realise, apart from their purely party feeling, that the Council J has acted with judgment from the point of view of -the fact that the Government's proposals involve a radical change in'the Constitution, which, if changed at all, should b& changed only with extreme deliberation. Anyway, even though they may not reason quite in this manner, it is pleasing to see that they are acting with the temper and tact of statesmen. We have no desire to see Mr Massey and his colleagues withdrawing their hands from the plough in this matter, but vr& do hope that they will continue to act with the tact and the good temper which they are now exhibiting, in fino contradistinction to the abusive petulance of those writers and speakers who attack the Council as though it were a banal and malignant body. This is quite unwarranted, for most of its members are highly intelligent, and practically all of them are thoroughly well-meaning men, with no inveterate bias against the Government's policy as a whole, but with a duty, in this instance, to counsel, and as far as they can, enforce deliberation, seeing that it is a vitally important change in the Constitution which is at stake. Personally, we think that the change is desirable, but we also think that it will probably be all the better for postponement. Even if it should not come into force for seven or eight years, it will be all the more likely to ripen better in the meantime. "We think, however, that the Government's proposals should be adhered to in the main, with a few modifications. There should, we think, be not more than eight nor fewer than four electoral districts for the .Council; the general electoral rolls should be used j the method of election should be that known as proportional voting; the Council should consist of forty European and two Maori members; but the members, instead of sitting for only six, should, we think, sit for nine years. Nothing is more desirable in connection with the Council than that it should be a deliberative body, thoroughly in sympathy with the" people because elected by them, but not subject to the emotionalism, impulsiveness, or political passion inseparable from popular excitement and too frequent elections. But whether or not this is realised as fully as we should like to ccc it in the ultimate reform, it is satisfactory to feel that the finicking academical notions of those who would like to see local bodies invested with electoral functions for the Council, are not likely to be recognised in the scheme. Much has been said about the sacrifice of Sir George Grey's original proposal to give the Provincial Councils power to elect the Legislative Council. Earl Grey, as Secretary of State for the Colonies, stood up for this in the British Parliament, but the Government of which he was a member went out before the New Zealand Constitution Bill was passed, and Lord Grey's successor, Sir John Pakington, made the Legislativo Council a nominative bodj. Figuratively, many sighs have been sighed and tears shed at this, but, perhaps, everything considered, and in view of the earlier conditions of colonisation, it was better that the General Government, and not the Provincial" Councils, should create the Legislative Council. Anyway, for about sixty yeara it has served the country very well on the whole, and if it does so worse, or even only a little better, under the prospective new conditions, Now Zealand will have little cause to grmmble against it.