THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MAY 15, 1950. ABOLITION OR REFORM

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27389, 15 May 1950, Page 4

THE OTAGO DAILY TIMES MONDAY, MAY 15, 1950. ABOLITION OR REFORM

The abolition of the Legislative Council in its present form was one of the major planks of the National Party’s general election policy, and political observers in the capital believe that legislation towards this end will be introduced at the coming session of Parliament. Both political parties in New Zealand have, at one time or another, expressed their disshtisfaction with the constitution of the Upper House, and it must be admitted that the history of theLegislative Council in recent years has been so® depressing that the intolerance displayed by some members of the House of Representatives is easily understood. The Council was created for the express purpose of revising legislation originating with the Representatives, and of delaying, when it considered such a course necessary, impetuous and possibly oppressive laws. But the original virility of the Chamber has been lost in the course of its progressive degeneration from a keen analytical and debating body into a formal assembly with no other purpose than to rubber stamp the Bills presented by the House. Perhaps this degeneration was inevitable under the system by which the Legislative Council exists. The dominant party in the Lower House can, by appointment, ensure for itself a clear passage for its legislation through the Second Chamber and, since policy is manifested in the Bills debated in the House of Representatives, the trend in parliamentary procedure has become one of deliberate discouragement to the Legislative Council, and an extension of the wholly reprehensible system of appointing members who, by their inaction, tacitly acknowledge their subservience. There are members of, the Legislative Council who are sensitive to the anomalous and invidious position in which they are placed, and have co-operated in preparing plans for the reform of their Chamber. And sober reflection tends to support the opinion that reform, rather than complete abolition, is required. Uni-cameral legislatures have been tested in various countries of the world, but in no State claiming progressive and democratic government have they survived. The principle is now generally admitted that a Second Chamber has an important and useful function to perform, and can prove a vital part of government if its constitution is framed to admit the presence of able debaters. It is interesting at this stage to recall the comment which we printed some time ago in a review of Dr C. F. Strong’s “ Modem Political Constitutions.” After an exhaustive survey of legislative structures he says: The conclusions that would seem to emerge from such an analysis are: First, that no great State today is satisfied with a uni-cameral legislature; second, that the more the choosing of the Second Chamber is out of popular control the more it tends to become detached from the realities of politics, and thus to lose its vitality; third, that when this is the case there is a consciousness, not that the Second Chamber should be allowed to fall into desuetude, but that it should be made alive again by reform .... The experience of other countries might supply a valuable lesson to / New Zealand. A Legislative Council, reconstituted and made responsible, partly at least, to the electors, would introduce into the political life of the Dominion a new and critical debating body, and would restore our bi-cameral legislature system to the dignity of which it is worthy.

STRAWS IN THE WIND The importance attached by the political parties in England to the results of municipal elections appears to vary according to the support these parties have, respectively, been given. In municipal elections the percentage of voters who exercise their franchise is usually considerably smaller than that at a general election and it is a matter for debate —in the absence of any serious statistical study—whether Conservatives are less likely to vote at local elections than Labour supporters or vice versa. Such niceties are not likely to trouble the average citizen, however, and there can be little doubt that the results of the “ little general election,” as it has been called, are popularly regarded as an indication of the trend of political opinion. If they are so regarded, they, must have some effect on the minds of the “ floating ” voters at the general election. Hence it is usual after these minor elections for morals to be pointed and excuses made by national party spokesmen.

Since the election of the Labour Government at the end of the war, the local body elections have showed a waning of Labour representation on urban and district councils. The results of the elections in May of last year were especially the subject of comment because of the approach of the general elections. Lord Woolton, for the Conservatives, found much to cheer him in the heavy Conservative gains, while Mr Morgan Phillips, secretary of the Labour Party, tried to make the best of it .by pointing out that the rate of loss was not so heavy as it had been in county council elections a month earlier. If the confidence expressed by Lord Woolton was not fully justified by the results of the general election a few weeks ago, it was largely so. The results of -the municipal elections just held are probably of greater interest, and consequently of greater importance, than even those of last May. In Parliament the balance of power is so delicate that any day something may happen which will force another general election. It must, therefore, have been an unusually politically-minded public which went to the polls. The results show a continuance of the turn away from Labour. In 368 results the Conservatives had a net gain of 211 seats and Labour a net loss of 82 seats. The British Labour Party will probably strive to find comfort in the fact that the recent by-election in West Dumbartonshire showed a swing to the Conservatives of only 0.4 per cent., but the voice of West Dumbartonshire can hardly be said to be as representative as the voices of the burgesses of boroughs throughout England and Wales.