Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, SEPT. 27.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume L, Issue 16545, 27 September 1924, Page 6

Poverty Bay Herald. PUBLISHED EVERY EVENING. GISBORNE, SATURDAY, SEPT. 27.

A SINGLE CHAMBER

Tlie Earl of Selborne, waiting in the English Review, states that Great Britain is to-day the only civilised country in the world which runs the risk of Single Chamber government. The noble Earl must have' forgotten New Zealand. The government in New Zealand to-day, although in form a Duai. Chamber government, consists, for all practical purposes and safeguards, of a single chamber only. An effective Second Chamber is as necessary in a young country as it is in one where the constitution has been built up upon Conservative traditions. It may, indeed, be more necessary, for the young are more impatient of restraint, and naturally inclined toward experiment. An effective -Second Chamber is necessary in order to protect the individual and. cbmnninity rights and liberties of the people against the acts of a small but fanatical majority, which, at any time, might be carried away, by momentary impulses, springing out of cupidity or passion. Under the- Parliament Act of 1911 the •Socialistic party, .now in power in Eng.and, could, if they had a majority, carry mu the principal points of its Socialist programme in the course of one Parliament. It the (Jommunitsts, as js quite possible, were, to capture the machinery of the Socialistic party, the Communist programme could be carried out in the same way. Lord-Selborne says : "‘The grim joke is that in either case it could he carried out within the forms of the Constitution.” As the law stands at present, the House of Lords has no power to stay hasty action and lias ceased to be a Second Chamber which could exercise the powers for which such a, legislative body exists, and without which it is worse than useless. We in New Zealand are not concerned as to what has brought about this state of impotence of tin; Second Chamber of Great Britain. It is quite possible, and for our purpose it may he granted, that an hereditary body of men, however eminent some of them may be, is an impossible anomaly in the twentieth century. We are not considering wlwt would be the best form of a Second Chamber in any legislature, hut whether either Great Britain or New Zealand can safely go on as they are now doing without, so far as any actual exercise of the proper functions of such a chamber is evidenced, any Second Chamber at all. And here it is necessary to state at once and with all the emphasis at our command that a Second Chamber does not exist simply to be a convenient resource of a much I la missed Prime Minister, who, when anxious to get his legislative bantling through its third reading, and some Staring ambiguity or desirable amendment is pointed out or suggested, gets the Bill thVougli by the bland assurance that the matter—a most valuable suggestion—will he carefully considered, and pul right in another place. If this is all a Second Chamber Stands for, if is too costly; it simply promotes and intensifies 'sloven!v work m the Lower House. The position has so far been treated by us as if the position in New Zealand was the same as the position in Great Britain. This is not the case. The House of Lords is bereft of power it ' would use if it could. The Legislative Council of Now Zealand is as absolute, in the possession of power, as is the' House of elected representatives, blit, as a. body, it lias no will to exercise that power in any matter in which such exercise* would be out of step with the desires of the Government of the day, which it should be, primarily, its duty to watch. Bo far as the House of Lords could temporarily check (lie actions of the Grown through its responsible .Ministers, the svmpatliiei of the hereditary Peers world no doubt he more with the' Conservative party than they would lie with the Liberals or the Labor parly. The more recent appointments to the House of Lords,'the great soldo rs, sailors, lawyers, and others, who did not enter through any hack door, would he fairly split up. so far as they could ho actuated at all hy the Source-to'Which they owed their appointments. It happens that every member of folio Legislative Council today is the appointee of one party, and the selected choice of one and the same Prime Minister. So long as the present Government holds office, the ideals of the constituent elements of the Council must be in line with their sympathies. The sympathies of nominated members must he interlaced with the views of the Prime Minister who appointed them, and who so long ns lie retains office has the power to throw the handkerchief in their direction, or to withhold it without notice or reason when their short term expires.”- The intervention of the war accounts for the anomalous position of the House of Lords, as affected by the Parliament Act, failing to he considered. The same reason lias served for excuse m New Zealand for ignoring

previous legislation and hanging up in - ■ (finitely the lean-deling oi the Second (.handler. As politics stand now, with three parties busily engaged playing, each for its own hand, no original legislation. either for good or had. is likely to get through the House. Mr Massey may he well content to leave things as they are. That the other two parties should show the same acquiescence is remarkable. Supposing that either Mr Wilford or Mr Holland became Prime Minister, it would be surprising if they did not very soon find out that the Council, as it stands to-day, had a measure of power that no one would suspect from their somewhat quiet, if not somnolent, geniality in dealing with Government measures. The Socialistic •party in Great Britain is out and out lor a Single Chamber. The Liberals also, according to Lord Selborne, have also become a ‘Single Chamber party. It rather looks as if .all the parties in New Zealand were in unison on the question—Reform party, because their own path is made easy under present circumstances, .and the other two parties, either of whom when the time comes would he willing to scrap the Council and reign supreme. The present position is full of danger. A change of Government at some time is inevitable. Many think it is overdue. The weakness of the Council will he a ready excuse for its abolition. A check upon imprudence and immaturity of thought in any shape will cease to exist. The present Government, that until lately could have provided for the future, and have not done so, are responsible. They had the power to pro,vide against the day of breakers and shoals. They have done nothing. Now they have not the power. The day of change may he nearer than we think. A remedy will have to he found. New Zealand will not. lie safe against revolutionary legislation until the last word rests with the people. In a sensei it does so rest with them now at a general election.- At a geiferal election the personal element, comes in tno largely. What is necessary is that no Government or party should he able to force legislation of a revolutionary character upon the people, -s a whole, until such nefotm had been deliberately considered and decided upon by themselves. Lord Selborne does not suggest the continuance of an hereditary body of Peers. He does not think any .House* of Commons would give such a House powers which would justify its existence. He considers any House would .also turn down any proposal for an elected body on a people’s franchise, “on the plea that the constituencies would he too large for human endurance.” He objects to a nominated. Chamber on the very ground—unknown to him, of course—of its failure in New Zealand. He says; “L reject the nominated Chamber because I know, whatever was the theory, that the tendency of Prime Ministers would he to recommend to the King for nomination supporters whom they wished to placate or to remove from the House of ComSons, and I think that a nominated ouse, even if properly nominated, would, in fact, he less strong than an hereditary House.” He falls back upon tlie conference of the two Houses, which sat in 1918 to consider the Second Chamber problem under the chairmanship of the late Lord Bryce. This conference recommended that the members of the House of Commons grouped territorially and voting under a system of proportional representation should be the electors of tlie Second Chamber. By another plan the local governing bodies similarly grouped and voting won id be the electors Either plan, Lord Sel borne considers, would furnish an efficient Second Chamber. The referendum is not popular with Socialists. They seem to prefer Soviet methods—the unions, the caucus, and the big stick. All the same, it may be that the referendum will he welcomed, as the surest safeguard for a democratic people, who desire to retain their rights and liberties.