BRAKE OR CLOG?

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16606, 18 July 1914, Page 10

BRAKE OR CLOG?

The problem of representation persists in dominating the whole atmosphere of civilised administration.' In America, the cradle of democracy, there is a kind of intellectual, vet paradoxical, repudiation of. tho central democratic principle of control, a revolt not unnatural in faro of the shameless manipulation of the municipal and political machine by huge anti-Eccial interests. Reversions to tho Carlylean gospel of tho Strong Man have- been made with happy results, as in tho governorship of Panama during canal construction; and these innovations have familiarised tho people with the idea of deputing their cumbrous responsibilities to a.friendly despotism. The British mind, however, clings liko ivy to the democratic ideal that has never faded wholly out of sight since the days of the Witan, and whenever local problems ease off a little the Imperial problem is always to tho fore. To got the clear mandate of tho whole people is the counsel of perfection British reformers still endeavour to reach, sedulously hindered, it would seem, by whatever governmental powers there be. The core of the matter is generally recognised to be the unequal adjustment of bi-cameral government. " The Lords," with or without t-lio class capital " L," form the Empire's collective Old Man of the Sea to-day. What to do with him has been troubling New Zealand for twenty years, and the menace of Mr Massey's pretty little bird-trap of an Upper llou'io policy is giving tho dominion's wideawake democrats considerable perturbation to-day. Tho success of his scheme for the reconstruction of the Legislative Council might mean a clog on progress long after •" Reform " had gone tho way of the dodo. But this by tho way.

It is the struggle of the English Sinbad with his hereditary incubus that holds Imperial attention at the present hour. The Veto triumph and the Parliament Act are tho beginning of the end for the old "obstruction-cham-ber," but Britain is not out of tho wood yet. Tho promise of Mr Lloyd George that the full fruits of tho Parliament Act are to be gathered in dur-ing-the life of the present Parliament is weighted with a warning to the forces of progress, not to exchange the rule of the Lords for something that would ultimately rcsolvo into a ''powerful plutocratic Chamber." On this text tho "Nation" preaches an up-to-date sermon on bi-cameral reform that has an application beyond the bounds of the United Kingdom. There are proposals to come before Parliament that would seem to put satisfactory limitations on the projected Second Chamber. The hereditary principlo is to go, tho new peers, elected or nominated, are not to bo equal in numbers to tho members of the House of Commons, their authority is to bo circumscribed, and they are to havo no power of absolute veto. But tho " Nation " urges that there still remains tho question why there should be two Houses at all. If the true cause of this continued clinging to an Upper Chamber is a belief that only in it can there bo found enough rational conservatism to keep the Constitution firm, then, it is pertinently remarked, •' official Liberalism and official Conservatism really think alike." Tho new body, despito its form of popular election and its ostensible basis of individual capability and merit, would work out as a elog on the very foflees to which it owed its constitution: Once tho principle of creating anew a deliberate check on tho Commons was adopted by a timorous or short-sighted Liberalism, the old battlo would begin again.

Tho Imperial Government must look further afield if it would settle this question in a statesmanlike way. It must turn to the more definite ideas of tho colonics, and tho practical achievements of free-handed democracies like Norway, where the Second Chamber is small and subordinate. Tho fault of modern legislation is not undue haste, in Britain at least. " The national pulse beats pretty fast; the Westminster clock is nearly always slow." Tho rough edges, blots and smears of mechanical "party" finish, or lack of finish, aro tho crowning defects of our law-making to-day. The elective principle in this connection is a snare, and there should bo no gilding of the office; tho Second Chamber should work for its living. It should have no peerages to sell, says tho " Nation/' and no finger in tho party purso, as it has at present. When it comes to construction, the Second Chamber might advantageously bo elected, at least in part, First, on tho basis of proportional representation. Thus the Upper House would represent every party in the Commons, while remaining at a fixed proportion of that body, say, one-sixth. Some small power of nomination might remain with the Executive, as a small offset to the lost power of creating peers. Such a Chamber would fulfil with effect and dignity its true function as a revising committee and a friendly brake on tho possible acceleration of pace by a temporarily exuberant or ruffled Lower House. It remains to bo seen how the British Cabinet will take these hill-top recommendations, and how far an ostensibly Radical Government will feel itself competent to "bell tho cat" of bi-cameral reform in Britain to-day.