THE UPPER HOUSE

New Zealand Herald, Volume 78, Issue 24101, 21 October 1941, Page 4

THE UPPER HOUSE

Sir, —Mr. Herbert Mulvihill, in his letter of October 20, after quoting what J was reported to have said during the debate on the Statutes Amendment Bill in the Legislative Council asks, "Why then did Air. Bloodworth accept a seat in the Legislative Council?" His question obviously refers to my first acceptance. because he says, "he (Mr. Bloodworth) accepted his appointment from his political enemies." The answer to the question is that one reason for my acceptance of the appointment was that if the Upper Mouse was to be abolished or reformed it would probably have to be done with assistance from within the Council itself, and as a member of the Council I would be able to help in that. The newspaper reports of course do not give all that was said, though they give a fair summary, but I did also say that if the decision to make women eligible for appointment to Council was an indication that the Council would be made more use of then I welcomed the measure. i

Mr. Mulvihill says that to be logical I should immediately resign. He is by no means the first with that idea, but I cannot agree that such would be a logical course, in fact I think it would be the reverse, and also it would look like running away, and that is not a habit of mine. I still believe that from inside 1 can do more toward bringing about the desired result than 1 could from outside, and 1 happen to believe that the Legislative Council could be used to perform several useful and necessary functions and 1 can help to bring that about better from within than 1 could from without —that is one reason why 1 accepted appointment a second time. Tom Bmhidwokth, 20/10/41.