THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

Otago Daily Times, Issue 24912, 11 May 1942, Page 4

THE LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL

So far has the Legislative Council sunk in public esteem that the suggestion of the Leader of the Opposition that the Chamber should be abolished—" unless," Mr Holland added, " we can make it more useful "—is likely to meet with a great deal of support in the community. A proposal to depart from the bicameral system of government is one, however, to which the country should not readily commit itself. A Second Chamber is capable of performing a valuable service in the parliamentary sphere. In its capacity as a revising chamber it has often in different parts of the Empire acted as a desirable brake upon legislative haste. It has repaired at leisure the mistakes that have attended the hurried passage of ill-considered measures in the Lower House. Its proved value has led to its being retained as part of the political machinery of most British countries. It is- to be regretted that in New Zealand it has come to be regarded by a large section of the public as an excrescence —and a costly excrescence—upon the body politic. . This is due simply to the fact that it has been used as a dumping ground for importunate hangers-on of party leaders with the result that it has been crowded with political nonentities. There must have been widespread dissatisfaction with the way in which Ministerial patronage has been exercised in the nomination of members of it. An extensive purge of its personnel will be necessary before the public is likely to be reconciled to the maintenance of the Upper House on its present basis. A golden opportunity of popularising the Chamber and of constitutfng it on a foundation that would have given permanence to it was sacrificed by the Coalition Government when it neglected to bring into force the Act that was passed at the instance of the Massey Administration to make the Upper House an elective Chamber. The operation of this Act was suspended as one' of the conditions upon which the Liberal Opposition, under Sir Joseph Ward, joined the Reform Party in the formation of a National Government during the first world war, and it remains suspended to this day. All that is necessary to bring it into operation is a proclamation in the form of an Order in Council. And it is probable that not until this is done, and the atmosphere in which the Council now sits is thoroughly changed, will public sentiment be satisfied concerning the maintenance of this branch of the Legislature.