UPPER HOUSE REFORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVI, Issue 20383, 11 October 1929, Page 13

UPPER HOUSE REFORM.

NEW SOUTH WALES BILL".-

FACING A DIFFICULT PROBLEM.

[from our own correspondent.] SYDNEY. Oct. 8

The proposal that the two existing chambers shall elect the first Legislative Council, under Iho reform now before the State Parliament, will, it is hoped, represent a workable solution of a difficult problem. The Government's aim is to overcome the manifest objections to the Upper House as at present constituted, namely, the nominee system of appointment, which, like kissing, goes by favour;; , the life tenure of membership, which is equally farcical; and the liability to "swamping," of which there was much evidence during the hectic reign of the Lar.g Government. - At the same time, political labels apart, it will be a thousand pities if an elective system of reform means the passing of such members of the existing Upper House as Professor Peden—chairman, by the way, of the Federal Constitutional Commission —Sir Henry Braddon, Sii Norman Kater, ono of the pillars of the graziers, Mr. James Ashton, one of the most brilliant of Australia's Parliamentarians, although he never seeks the plums of office and kfieps in the background a good deal, Mr. A. H. Hemslev, wellknown in legal circles, Mr. William Brooks, and others, not excluding some the abler of Labour's nominees. It is these men who have made the Upper House far superior in brains and debating strength to Legislative Assembly. Many of the ablest of the State's politicians now in M Upper House would, it is . sa ff ', never hava to popu lar'.'election.