A GROSS OFFENCE

New Zealand Times, Volume XL, Issue 9041, 12 May 1915, Page 4

A GROSS OFFENCE

If the Governor of a dependency enjoying the right of self-government is not sufficiently alive to his constitutional responsibilities, and is content to allow a Government to remain in office without calling Parliament together after it has failed to get a clear majority at the general election, he lays himself open to' severe and, exemplary criticism. This is the reproach that rests at the present moment against Lord Liverpool. When the elections took place in December, »and it was found that Mr Massey did not command a majority of the .Louse or the electors, it was manifestly the duty of His Excellency to . require that Parliament should be called together immediately. However, with a degree of toleration that can only be regarded as marvellous, he permitted the minority Government to remain in office, to make important appointments, and to go on administering the affairs of the country, without submitting itself to a party test. Wo commented upon this extraordinary state of affairs yesterday, and the squatters’ organ, with an obsequious display of servility that is pre-eminently characteristic, describes our comment as “a gross offence.” It alleges that His Excellency has been insulted—lese majestc, perhaps—and points to all he is doing in this stressful time to win the esteem and goodwill of all classes. But if His Excellency desires to win the esteem and goodwill of all classes, ho will most effectually accomplish this purpose by maintaining the constitutional rights of the people, which is the highest duty with which as Governor he is entrusted. These rights in a self-governing country are not being maintained if a Government that has failed to'secure a majority of the seats at a general election, is allowed to continue'in office without submitting itself to a vote of Parliament. Mr Massey claims to hold forty of the seats. If this were true, forty out of a total of eighty, does not by any process of calculation constitute a majority, hut it is not true. Mr Massey is including the vote of Mr Tau Henare,- who, in his only public declaration on the subject, has stated that he is not pledged to either Mr Massey or bir josepn Ward. On the contrary, he has defined his party attitude as that, of standing .first on one leg and then on the other. When the elections of 19H were completed, and it was found that Sir Joseph Ward was in a majority of two (Mr Wilford was absent from New Zealand) Mr Massey and the “Reform” party made an insistent and clamorous demand that Parliament should bo called together because Sir Joseph did not possess a working majority. Presumably, Lord Islington, who possessed a strong sense of constitutional responsibility. endorsed this view, because Parliament was called together some weeks after the general election. Contrast that situation with what is happening now. Mr Massey does not possess a majority of two. He has no majority whatever so far as platform pledges dr public utterances are concerned. And yet he clings to office, administering the affairs of the country contrary to the will of the majority of the electors, and no steps whatever are taken by His Excellency the Governor to compel the summoning of Parliament. The situation, is a most irregular and unconstitutional one, and by permitting it to continue Lord Liverpool will certainly not win the esteem and goodwill,of all classes, which the squatters’ organ says ho is labouring to secure. A few years ago, there was a strong movement in this country in favour of the system of elective Governors, and the strongest argument used against it was that by having a Governor nominated by the Imperial authorities we kept tne position free from, local partisanship. In view of the present position of affairs in New Zealand, under which a party having no clear majority is being allowed to remain in office without the necessity for submitting itself to the vote of Parliament, there is a strong likelihood that the movement in favour of elective Governors will be revived. Probably that will be regarded by the servile squatters’ organ as another gross offence.