Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DEC. 26, 1925. UNDERMINING THE CONSTITUTION.

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 23, 26 December 1925, Page 6

Manawatu Evening Standard. SATURDAY, DEC. 26, 1925. UNDERMINING THE CONSTITUTION.

Tins first use tlie New South Wales Labour Government has made of its majority in the Legislative Council—a majority" obtained by a most improper use of its authority in insisting upon the appointment of an unprecedented number of its supporters as members of that body—has been to perpetrate an act of injustice to members of the railway service who, at the time of the railway strike in 1917, remained loyal to' the department and maintained train services, thus defeating the recalcitrant strikers, who are now being reinstated and given precedence over the loyalists, while the latter have to accept a reduction in rank. It is a little difficult to understand the attitude of the Home auhorities on the matter of these appointments. The Council in its wisdom had amended certain measures and rejected others, although a majority of its members were the appointees of former Labour Governments and the Council was considerably over its normal strength. According to this year’s Commonwealth Official Year Look it consisted of eightytwo members at the latest available date. With the twenty-five members Mr Lang has had appointed, it now consists of 107 members, or 17 more than the membership of the Legislative Assembly—the People’s Chamber, the members of which are elected. Neither morally, nor in good conscience, had Mr Lang any claim to the consideration he has received, nor is it in the interests of good government that he has been allowed to place 25 of his supporters in the nominee chamber, where they are entitled to life membership, assuming that they have not pledged themselves to vote the Chamber out of existence as it is said they have done. It has been contended that Mr Lang received a mandate from the electors at the elections last May to do certain things, and that, therefore, he is justified in pushing matters to extremes in order to carry out that mandate. The plea is, however, far fetched. On the primary counts the candidates sup-

porting Labour were in a decided minority, and the victory the party secured was fluked off tbe split vote of tbe parties opposing its members. That point has been emphasised again and again, but it is conveniently ignored. Mr Lang’s majority in the Assembly is only three and that surely does not justify him in demanding constitutional changes of farreaching importance. On the facts, so far as they have been disclosed, it would seem that, when Mr Lang first asked that the appointments should be made the Governor, Admiral Sir Dudley de Chair, K.C.8., either declined to sanction them or suggested that they should be deferred. Mr Lang appears to have appealed to the Home'authorities on the matter, with the result that the Governor was informed it was his duty to accept the recommendation of his responsible advisers on all matters of domestic concern, just as a former Governor of Western Australia and a Queensland Governor, who qpme into collision with their advisers, were informed.