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New Zealand Herald, Volume XXVII, Issue 8222, 5 April 1890, Page 4

A movement for a singular constitutional change is reported from South Australia. The object is to get the Swiss system of " referendum '* applied to South Australia., and the Premier of that colony is said to be in favour of the change. The proceeding is peculiar to Switzerland, where it works well. Switzerland being a Federal Republic each Canton governs itself in all local affairs. Society and commercial interests are not very complicated in some of these Cantons, and the public business is largely transacted in public meetings, where the people act directly for themselves instead of through elected representatives. This is impossible in federal affairs, and the practice is to refer to a vote of the people those measures which show a minority of certain number against them in the Federal Parliament, and which that minority demands should be so referred. The Parliament consists of 44 members (2 elected for each Canton) in the one House, and 145 members elected by the people as a whole in tho other. The Executive consists of seven members elected by the Federal Assembly. The President and Vice-president of the Executive are ex officio the two chief magistrates of the Republic. It is easy to see how the " referendum" could be easily worked under such conditions, but it is not easy to see how it can be applied to a colony in which the Chief of the Executive is a representative of the Sovereign, and acts in the Sovereign's name. His approval or disapproval of a Rill passed by the Legislature can scarcely be "made to depend on a direct popular vote. The office of Governor would be reduced to a nullity with such conditions. Perhaps it is intended to make it compulsory on the Ministry to advise the Governor in accordance with a vote so taken. This would imply a total change in the system of responsible Government, a system winch many thinking people regard as inappropriate and extravagant, leading to much waste of time and money, and inapplicable to the conditions of colonial life. It may be on some such grounds that the change is contemplated in South Australia, but our cablegram does not say. Though divided into twenty-two cantons, with a population of nearly three millions, the whole area of Switzerland is not more than half that of the North Island of New Zealand. The " referendum" in that country must therefore be a far less cumbersome process than it would be in South Australia, where we should think it would be quite unworkable.