New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1874.

New Zealand Times, Volume XXIX, Issue 4129, 15 June 1874, Page 2

New Zealand Times. MONDAY, JUNE 15, 1874.

The Legislative Assembly of Victoria have now before it the bill to amend the Constitution Act which was the chief measure proposed to the country by the Ministry in the late elections. The Upper House is regarded by the Lower as obstructive, and there is no doubt that its tendencies are decidedly more conservative than those of the Assembly. By its firmness, however, it has saved Victoria on more than one occasion from rash and perilous legislation. When Sir James McCulloch was iu office, and Mr. Higinbotham was his Attorney-General, it stood in the breach, and successfully resisted the extreme pretensions of that Government —pretensions which scarcely fell short of “cutting the painter” and setting up in business on Victoria’s own account. The Assembly has always asserted that it alone possessed the power of dealing with the finances of the colony. Bills which affected the public purse oven incidentally only, if originated in the Upper House, have invariably been rejected by the Assembly. The sole power possessed by the Council over the expenditure is contained in its freedom to assent to or reject the Appropriation Act; and that power the Assembly, has practically reduced to the minimum by taking care that the Act in question is not merely the last of the session, but is sent up to the Council at the latest moment, and when it is scarcely likely that the Council will interfere to prolong the session. On the occasion to which we have referred, and since which is dated the anxietyof the Assembly to bring the Upper House under its control, the Council did take the extreme step of refusing to pass the Appropriation Act. It contained a novel preamble which somewhat artfully concealed its real meaning. The result was a dead-lock for many months, from which the public suffered much inconvenience ; but there is not the least doubt that at its termination the general feeling of the people w r as that the firmness of the Council had saved the State from being plunged into a sea of troubles. It is not to be forgotten, morover, that the Legislative Council of Victoria is purely an elected chamber. The franchise is only a little less restricted than that for the Assembly, and the high property qualification for membership insisted on at one time has now been greatly reduced, and in reality is so much a matter of figment that there is no real distinction, whatever the Constitution Act may have originally intended, between the class of men who sit in the two chambers. There are in the Assembly men as wealthy as any who vote in the Council; and there are adventurers in both.

The Council, undoubtedly, has been very difficult to deal with on some questions, such as that of the land. Selection and settlement were entirely opposed to the interests of the squatters, whose power lay in,the Upper House ; and it has effectually prevented the settlement of the Mining on Private Property question. This is a subject which has been pressing forvvardfordeterminationforyears past, but which successive Governments have found themselves unable to deal with, from the opposition they -wore certain to encounter from the “lords.” It is, however, a question which must bo dealt with, or, in the present state of mining matters in that Colony, it will bring about serious consequences. It is, probably, with a desire to settle this question more particularly that the Assembly will support the Bill the Ministry has introduced, so as to clear away a stumbling-block that has hitherto boon in the way. At present, when the two Houses disagree obstinately, and amendments made by the one house are persistently disagreed with by the other, the difficulty is got over by the appointment of committees of each, which discuss the matters on which the two Houses are at variance. These committees are equal in number, and it depends in a great measure on the comparative ability of the members whether the views of the one House or the other prevail, as both Houses have hitherto as a rule adopted the reports of the joint Committee. The proposal of the Francis Ministry is, literally, to adopt tho Norwegian system. Tho Bill now submitted to tho Legislative Assembly provides that if a measure has been passed by tho Assembly in two consecutive sessions of Parliament, and has been rejected by tho Council in each of such sessions, the Governor shall bo empowered to summon both Houses, and they shall meet and vote together as one legislative body, under the designation of “ Tho Two Houses.” Tho place and time of mooting are to bo decided by tho Governor ; but “Tho Two Houses” must meet within sixty days, and not less than thirty days after tho issue of tho proclamation. That proclamation, calling this body together, must state what Bill is to bo submitted to it, and whether its business has boon transacted or no tho sittings of “Tho Two Houses ” must terminate when tho tho Assembly is dissolved or expires by effluxion of time, or when tho Governor may determine by proclamation. It is provided that any Bill submitted to “ Tho Two Houses” and passed by a majority shall bo presented in tho usual way for His Excellency’s assent, and shall bo of precisely tho same force and effect as if it had been passed by tho Assembly and tho Council respectively, in the ordinary course. No other business is to bo discussed by “ Tho Two Houses” but tho Bill specifically sent to it; but it is suggested by tho Melbourne Press that tho word “ bill” should bo altered into “ bills,” as it might bo desirable that more than one measure, hung up between tho two Houses, should bo disposed of an amendment tho Ministry aro not unlikely to accept. It is provided that “ Tho Two Houses ” shall bo debarred from business unless thirty members aro present. They are to elect thoir own President or Speaker,

and the President is debarred from exercising any other than a casting-vote. The rules and standing-orders of “ The Two Houses ” are to be drawn up by the two Houses jointly, and approved of by his Excellency. The Governor’s relations with the now Chamber are to be precisely the same as they arc with the Council and the Assembly. “ Tho Two Houses,” however, are to havo no control over “any Bill to alter, repeal, or vary this Act, or to affect, alter, or vary the relative proportions of the number of members which at present constitute the Council and Assembly respectively or over ‘ ‘ any Bill which shall not bo sent to tho Council from the Assembly in any session at least thirty days before Parliament is prorogued.” How this Bill will fare is matter of considerable doubt. Although tho amendment on the address was not pushed to a division, there is but little probability of this measure being supported by tho Assembly as a whole. Ministers claim to have secured a majority in the late elections, and possibly they may have done so on their general policy. But on this question they will meet with strong opposition from the Conservative members of the Bower House ; and if the Bill goes up to tho Council, supported by a majority only, and that not a considerable one, the “ Lords ” are not likely to accept tho proposition graciously. They are almost certain to reject the measure ; and what then? Tho two Houses disagreeing, there can only be an appeal to the Imperial authorities, who are not likely to interfere to destroy an Elective Chamber, and introduce a novel experiment, on a foreign model.