THE HON. J. A. HANAN

Southland Times, Issue 19899, 18 June 1926, Page 6

THE HON. J. A. HANAN

If any excuse- could be advanced for continuing the Legislative Council under the system which gives to the government the power to add to its members or fill any vacancies that occur, it would be found in the fact that the authority to appoint members to the Upper House makes it possible for men who have served through long years and who have served with distinction, to continue in public service, and to assist in the government of the country by bringing to bear on current political proposals the fruits of their long experience. The Upper House should include within its ranks the best of the country’s “Elder Statesmen,” irrespective of their political colour, and the powers of the second chamber should be so safeguarded that these “old men” can make their collective wisdom effective when they are examining the work of the Lower and more powerful House. Politicians who have ripened their judgment through long years of service should be called to the Upper House when they have withdrawn from the hurly-burly of popular politics. It is for this reason that the selection of the Hon. J. A. Hanan for a seat in the Legislative Council will be welcomed in this part of the Dominion. It is strange, of course, that the only effort to show any ' appreciation of his long service to the people of New Zealand in general, and of Invercargill in particular, has been put forward by the chief of the. Reform Party. Mr Hanan retired from Invercargill after holding the constituency for twenty years without one defeat at the polls, and yet he has been permitted to go without any attempt by the Liberal Party in his constituency to organise a public recognition of his long service. It looks as if the call to the Upper House, coming from a Reform Prime Minister, should offer the opportunity, seeing that those who supported Mr Hanan cannot stir themselves, to people irrespective of political colour to do him public honour by way of congratulating him on this appointment to the Legislative Council.