MR DUNCAN STOPS SHORT.

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIV, Issue 12941, 4 December 1909, Page 4

MR DUNCAN STOPS SHORT.

At a dinner held at Cheviot recently, Mr J. Duncan, member for Wairau, condemned the present system of Parliamentary rule, as placing the interests of Party before the interests of the Dominion. He thought members should meet like County Councils did, each speaking and voting as experience and principle dictated. And having said that much, Mr Duncan appears to have stopped short just as he should have been getting into his stride. He left the remedy for the present evils of party government to the imagination of his hearers, whereas if he had pursued his line of thought to its logical conclusion, he would have told them that, with a Ministry elected by the House, members could vote according to principle, without fear of the Ministry losing their seats, and without fear of their party having to go into the cold shades of opposition. With an Elective Ministry, each Minister being responsible for his own Department alone, members would give attention to the measures before them. As it is, each Minister is responsible, not only for his own seat, but for those of his colleagues, the object of measures is lost sight of in the effort to score a win for party, and Bills are hacked and mangled out of recognition in order to save the Ministers' seats.