The Manawatu Daily Times Fate of Legislative Council

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 7298, 27 October 1933, Page 6

The Manawatu Daily Times Fate of Legislative Council

The Prime Minister and the Minister of Finance, and, indeed, all the members of the Coalition Cabinet, remain sadiy perturbed as to what is to become of the four score or muie applicants for scats in the Legislative Council who are persistently knocking at the door of the Council Chamber of the Government. There already are twenty-one councillors in the revising chamber, and three of these have been so recently re-appointed that they will hold office until 1940 when the eldest of them will have.reached the age of ninety years while the two younger, being of exceptional growth m this branch of Parliament, will have reached no more than sixty-live and sixtyseven years respectively. Next year councillors will retire at 71, 78, 82, 83 and 88.

In the course of a. casual interview, which probably had as much to do with house-burning and horse racing as it had to do with electoral reform, the Prime Minister suggested lightly that it might be more effective to dispose of the Legislative Council altogether than attempt to strengthen it on its present basis. The Council, as it stood at present, he pointed out, could not effectively maintain the purposes for which it was estab* lished just upon eighty years ago. The Mother Country, ie which New Zealand had adhered more closely than had any of the other Dominions, realised this fact and even now was preparing for reforms, or, perhaps one should say, for adjustments in this respect. fSo much appeared to be in the mind of the Minister at the moment.

The subject is one that well might engage the attention of the Labour members of the House of Representatives. To begin with, if the Legislative Council is to remain upon its present basis the Labour party should be given some measure of representation in this branch of the Legislature. Mr. Ballance, Mr. Scddon and Mr. Massey all made moves in this direction during their terms of office, not large ones, but large enough to indicate that the rights of Labour were acknowledged by the biggest of the Dominion’s leaders. These large-hearted pioneers gladly would have extended these concessions had they been really acceptable to their opponents of the day. One must hope that the step of Mrs. McCombs into the House of Representatives will tend towards a similar development in the other branch ol the Legislature.

Whether or not the Prime Minister is to be as good as his ruminations, it is certain that something will have to be done to place the Legislative Council in a satisfactory position. Twenty-one councillors,' earnest as their intentions may be, cannot place the second Chamber on a satisfactory basis, and the Prime Minister and his colleagues will require to make up their minds what can be done. The Council is not hopelessly out of groove because it has not yet been put to a test, but within the next few weeks it must be submitted to trial and if it fails in upholding its traditions of the past someone will be to blame for its failure. A debacle of this kind is not anticipated, but there are stories abroad and it is time those in authority were prepared with some information concerning the position.