BRITISH POLITICS.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXIX, Issue 12255, 4 June 1914, Page 8

BRITISH POLITICS.

A PERIOD OF RECONSTRUCTION. "Unquestionably we are entering upon a period of constitutional reconstruction which will profoundly alter some existing institutions- before it is finished," says the "Westminster."' "An Irish settlement cannot stand alone. It will lead inevitably to other forms of devolution, bringing new relations between the Imperial Parliament and the subordinate Parliaments," and presenting ihe Second "Chamber problem in a new shape. The- solution of these problems will take time, and all the brains that political parties possess. But the idea that British institutions will develop of themselves or that we can drift through contradictory ideas to happy solutions will have to be abandoned. ARREARS TO BE MADE GOOD.

"The country has suffered in recent years from a plethora of unsettled questions, and suspended controversies," adds the "Westminster.'' "For a generation the House of Lords put its veto not only on Home Rule, and Welsh Disestablishment, but on any serious attempt to deal with the land question, the temperance question, the, denominational question in education, and many other reforms that touched powerful interests. All this time the demands of democracy were growing, while a natural and gradual development was thwarted. "Arrears have to bo made good, if this country is to keep its place in the world," says the "Westminster." "We cannot rest and be thankful witii our congested Parliament, our feudal land system, our incomplete education system, our slum dwellings, our masses of casual and illpaid labour.

SOME DAILY THOUGHT TO THE POOR.

"Lord Morley once said that 'the day was ill-spent in which some thought had not been given to the problem of the pocr."' That counsel has lost none of its force in the subsequent years," says the "Westminster." "We have witnessed a great development of energy and a vast increase of wealth during these years. It would lie mischievous and untrue to say that the working-class have not shared in this growth, but they have not- shared to the same extent as other classes, and we cannot yet look with satisfaction on t-he-distribution of wealth in this country. "Education is bearing fruit; men and women are demanding more of life, they re-fuse to live in slums or to bound their horizon by the poverty-line. AH this if. good for the nation,, but it makes an unrest which adds to the problems of government, and can only be allayed bv new and bold departures that call for' constant resourcefulness and initiative on the part- of Ministers." A WRITTEN CONSTITUTION.

"We have passed through several Constitutional crises of late; we are now confronted with the gravest of all. These crises are the throes of parturition which may give birth to a written instead of an unwritten Constitution," writes Mr A. P. Nicholson. "We are much less certain about the finality of our unwritten Constitution, or about our security against the revival of obsolete _ powers and" forms," says the "Westminster."