The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Thursday, July 3, 1890. A “RETRENCHING” GOVERNMENT.

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 475, 3 July 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Thursday, July 3, 1890. A “RETRENCHING” GOVERNMENT.

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou alm’st at be thy country’s, God's, and truth’s.;

UNDER the heading of “ Swamping the Lords ” the Wellington Press makes the following remarks, to which no farther words of comment need be added :— It is persistently rumoured that the Government intend to add to the members of the Legislative Council; in fact that they propose to make such additions as shall effectually close it against any future Ministry for some years to come. If this is their intention, it is one which is eminently discreditable. In 1887, on the motion of Sir Frederick Whitaker, a committee sat and reported upon the question of numbers, and that committee made a report, the practical result of which was that the number of members of the Council should be limited to One-half the number of the members of the House of Representatives. Nor can it be argued that the committee had reference to the then existing numbers of the House, since the proposed reduction of those members by the Representation Bill to 70 was specially before the committee and the Council. The Ministers, we gather, think to justify the step they propose to take by appealing to the fact that they

endeavored to effect the limitation by Parliamentary legislation, and were defeated in the attempt. But that is an argument which, they can scarcely with any pretence of decency maintain. The report of the committee originating with the Govern ment and accepted by them is certainly binding upon them, and the fact that they were defeated in the legislative attempt furnishes no cloak for a violation of their principles. They enforced, and rigorously and with immense show of virtue maintained the Act reducing the numbers of the Popular Chamber. It is a monstrous violation of all representative principles if they should at the same time increase the numbers of the Crown nominees in the Upper Chamber. The people of the colony will be able to form a pretty accurate measure of the democratic character of a Ministry that delights in reducing popular representation and strains its powers to add to the privileged Council. Nor have they the slightest justification in a pretence that they desire merely to redress the balance of parties in the Upper Chamber. There are practically out of the 40 remaining members of the Council only 11 who may be said to favor the Stout-Ballance party, indeed we are not sure that there are 11. A great deal has been made of the fact that the Stout-Vogel Government appointed seven members to the Council, but when we consider how unequal even with these members the balance of power is, it is monstrous to plead that as an excuse for the contemplated action of the present Ministry. If the Ministry are bent in contempt of all that is right and in defiance of all decency on gratifying particular favorites, or getting rid of some dangerous competitors for Ministerial seats, or stopping the cries of rich and hungry claimants for ill earned honors, no doubt it will be difficult to stop them. But none the less the colony will add this to the table of their sins, and mark out the individual Ministers no less than their supporters for the summary punishment at the elections. Colonel Whitmore, we believe, intends to give notice of a bill to limit the tenure of a seat in the Council to ten years, and to make the Speaker elective. Let the Government accept this bill and add to its provisions so as to give effect to the report of the committee, and we shall have some measure of respect still left for them.