The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd. MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1934. A CONSTITUTIONAL DANGER.

Star (Christchurch), Volume LXVI, Issue 20281, 16 April 1934, Page 6

The Christchurch Star PUBLISHED BY New Zealand Newspapers Ltd.

MONDAY, APRIL 16, 1934. A CONSTITUTIONAL DANGER.

Gloucester Street and Cathedral Square CHRISTCHURCH NEW ZEALAND.

£( 'T'HE Government 4s asleep; you cannot meet Blackshirts and Brownsliirts with nightshirts,” said Sir Herbert Samuel during a recent speech on the Liberal policy, in which he pointed out the danger of a disillusioned electorate. And Mr Stanley Baldwin, in his speech at Worcester, expresses the same unease for the political future of England. Both of these men see political liberty tiireatened on the one hand by extreme Labour, under Sir Stafford Cripps, who if in power would completely change the industrial system, abolish the House of Lords if it resisted the Government policy, and override the jurisdiction of the law courts to say whether the orders of the Government -were authorised by Parliament or not. On the other hand there are the Fascists fostering the idea of a dictatorship. But strength is given to the advocacy of these extreme sections of the community by the fact that representatives in the House of Commons, as in the New Zealand Parliament, do not really represent. It is a danger to the constitution that a minority in the country may return a majority to the House of Commons, said Sir Herbert Samuel. In view of the extreme policies that are now being advocated both by reactionaries and Bv revolutionaries, this may at any moment place the country in a position of peril, might even bring it to disaster. It is our system of voting which is at fault. Where there are more than two candidates at an election, which now constantly happens, one of them who has received only a minority of the votes cast as often as not goes to Parliament to represent the constituency. The warning that the Liberal statesman points is that democracy might fail, not because the people have sanctioned a wrong policy, but because the constitution may allow a wrong policy to be carried out, although a majority of the nation condemned it at the polls. STREET LIGHTING. A STATEMENT attributed to -*■*- the chairman of the city Electricity Committee suggests that no special notice should be taken of the recent demonstration of improved street lighting on Papanui Road, as the City Council had asked for no report on the subject, and the demonstration was merely that of a private firm seeking orders. It is only proper to point out, however, that the public are extremely dissatisfied with the street lighting of the city, which is inferior to that of almost any other city of the same importance. The demonstration, moreover, was such a great success from the point of view of traffic safety, illuminating the roadw 7 ay to an extent that would have permitted car lights to be extinguished with safety, that cognisance might well be taken of it in a report to the council. AN AERIAL TIMETABLE. OLPPLY PROMISES to precede demand in a most remarkable v r ay in the aerial crossing of the Tasman, and even in an age when record flights in all directions are a commonplace, notice must be taken of the remarkable fact that Mr Charles Ulm has flown from Sydney and back, with a rest at this end, in less time than it fakes a steamer to make the oneway crossing. His return journey in less than twelve hours (equivalent to ten hours as far as the clocks are concerned) opens up wonderful possibilities in passenger transport, for he has run very closely to a time schedule, on the maintenance of which the popularity of such a service will depend. Kingsford Smith rightly declares that this crossing requires high-powered multiple engined flying-boats to climb above possible storms, and these will come surely. Then the journey to Sydney will lose its terrors for people who are afraid of the sea. A trip to Sydney may, indeed, become an affair of week-end visits in the not ' 7 ery distant future.