IMPERIAL POLITICS.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13875, 8 October 1908, Page 5

IMPERIAL POLITICS.

REFORM OF THE LORDS. - THE FISCAL QUESTION. By Telegraph.—Press Association.—Copyright. (Received October 7, 10.5 p.m.) London, October 7. Mr. A. J. Balfour (Leader of the Opposition), speaking at Dumfries, and referring to the question of reforming the House of Lords, said he was dismayed at the idea of the establishment of an elective chamber co-equal with the House of Commons. ' The country would not tolerate the possession by the House of Commons of power to pass without discussion measures of the utmost importance without being reviewed by some second chamber. Mr. Balfour condemned the Government's reckless and irresponsible schemes for social reform, and censured Mr! Lloyd-George's disastrous attacks on the propertied classes, which were calculated to destroy confidence, which was the root of all enterprise. , While himself a profound believer in fiscal reform as a means for pro--1 moting the unity of the Empire, the stability of trade and the growth of national industries, he did not pretend to believe that alternations of affluence and depression, of feverish over-production and melancholy upder-production, could be cured by any system of fiscal reform. The question.' of reforming the. House of Lords, which its enemies have lately been attempting to settle by advocating the abolition of the Chamber, has bo'en the subject of consideration by a select committee of the House itself, of which Lord Rosebery is chairman. The committee was appointed last year, when Lord Newton introduced * Bill, the objects of which were to redupo the preponderance of the-hereditary eloment in the House of Lords, to give to the Crown the power to appoint life peers to the number of 100, to reduco the numbor of bishops sitting in the House, and to assimilate the system of electing Irish and Scottish representative peers to the system proposed by. the Bill for the peerage of England. It was also proposed that hereditary peers not desiring a seat in the House of Lords should be eligible to contest elections; to the House of Commons. The Bill was withdrawn upon the appointment of Lord Rosebery's committee. This consisted of 25 members, and its functions were "to consider the suggestions which have from time to time been made foi increasing the efficiency of the . House of Lords in matters affecting legisla- ■ tion, and to report, as to the desirability of adopting them either in their original or in some modified form." According to a cable message published a fortnight ago a majority of the committee recommended that the House of Lords be popularised by the election of representative commoners, who would hold their scats during the life of a Parliment, and would be eligible for re-election.