THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1934. A DWINDLING HOUSE.

Wairarapa Age, 27 February 1934, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1934. A DWINDLING HOUSE.

In one way and another, time is making deep inroads on the membership of the Legislative Council and by allowing this process to continue almost unchecked, the Coalition G;overnment has gone perilously near to labelling the Upper House as an ornamental rather than a useful part of the constitutional machinery of the Dominion. If any such implication is intended, it certainly is not warranted. There are Second Chambers of a number of dif-. ferent kinds in various parts of the Empire and several of them have rendered splendidly effective service within the last year or two. The New Zealand Upper House has not been called upon to assert itself in any first-class crisis or emergency in recent times, but even in the quietest periods of normal progress it is capable of being an extremely useful if not indispensable part of our legislative machinery. A number of the present Legislative Councillors are men of exceptional attainments and experience and they are well placed to discuss questions of national import from a less parochial and vote-catching standpoint than often rules in the House of Representatives.

The policy of the Government with reference to the Upper House should be defined without further delay. For one thing, there is an Act still on the Statute Book, though in a state of suspended animation, which provides for the replacement of the present nominated Chamber by another elected on a basis of proportional representation. If this Act of nearly twenty years ago is not to be brought into operation, it should be repealed. To allow it to remain in suspense year after year is merely to exhibit weak indecision. Another question that presumably will have to be faced before long is that of admitting women to the Upper House. Now that a woman has been elected to the Lower House, a strong .demand by women for the appointment of members of their sex to the Second Chamber could not well be opposed. With the Council at the lowest level of numerical strength it has reached for sixty years, there is probably some foundation for the report that the Government intends shortly to make a number of appointments. When appointments are being made, the claims of the Wairarapa should not be overlooked as they have been since the late Sir Walter Buchanan died. In making appointments to the Council, the decisive consideration should be merit-—in this instance a matter largely Of character, ability and useful experience. Merit should rule, irrespective of geographical location in the Dominion, but, other things being equal, there should be no question of ignoring the claims of an area as important as the Wairarapa. It is, of course, a familiar fact that in the Wairarapa there are a number of citizens who have rendered eminent public and semi-public service and whose qualifications to serve the country well and wisely in the Upper House are unexcelled by those of their contemporaries in any part of the Dominion.