LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 5667, 11 September 1896, Page 6 (Supplement)

LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL.

(Nelson Evening Star.) A reform of that body is an absolute necessity'; for aslong as it retains its present status so long will it continue to obstruct "the- march .of progress. The majority _■ of' its -numbers; are-: so old_ and ; infirm, s6 politically^and. Mentally inane by' reason' of their infirmities, that they cannot ~ reasonably be expected to exercisaa healthy mentality in the consideration of public questions. Others again have found their way into the Chamber after being rejected on the elective system, •when their weaknesses had been discovered by the constituencies, and public opinion had emphatically declared that they were no longer the best men available for the moulding of legislativemeasufes;whileafew have been "pitchforked" into the position upon no principle whatever, and without any regard to their fitness to exercise the powers and privileges which .the position confers. If that condition of things does not require alteration, or does not demand the immediate attention of the representative Chamber and the people of the colony, nothing that one can conceive requires to be altered. There are forty-four of these gentlemen, three-fourths of whom would answer one or more of the foregoing descriptions, who receive among them every year JJ6600 of public money for a three months' residence in the political metropolis. They work, if work it can be called, an average of two and a half hours every day for four days a week during session time, then pocket their honorariums and go home.. What a stupendous and costly farce the whole business is ! But, it is argued, a second Chamber is necessary in order to check hasty legislation. Experience of the present Chamber is that it has never exercised that function, as witness the Banking and other Bills, while it has always checked the most deliberate proposals that tended in any way to interfere ■with sordid, antique Conservatism.