MANIFESTO BY MR. BALFOUR.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume L, Issue 12392, 13 December 1909, Page 5

MANIFESTO BY MR. BALFOUR.

PLEA FOR THE LORDS

Mr Balfour, in a manifesto to his constituents, said the Government was cl liming that the House of Commons, no matter how elected, should have uncontrolled power over every class of the comniunit-. without an appeal to the community. The present question was not whether the second Chamber could resist the people's declared wishes. In tha United States all kinds of progeni ty were taxed alike. A two-thirds majority was required for a measure like the Budget. Moreover, the Senate

could reject and the President veto

special taxation. Mr Balfour continued : " The present attack on the Lords is the culmination of a longdrawn conspiracy. The Government from the first sought not to work for the Constitution, but to destroy it, making in effect a single Chamber, practically like the Greeks. The Bud- '■ get gave the Government a good op-j portunity. It iwas manoeuvring the •

Lord;:, so that thoy must abandon the .functions of a second Chamber or take a step which would givo new life to the single Chamber plot. But the people will refuse to consider themselves insultod by beiuo; asked their opinions on the Budget, nor will they think the Lords have gone beyond their duty in asking it. The House of Commons al-: ready possesses great powers beyond the Parliaments of the Republics of America and France, which are in some respects ' unexampled, but the Government desired tho Commons to be independent nor only of tlie Lords, but of the people.'1 There could be no security that a single Chamber was not according the, will, of the electors." A House of Commons returned on the Chinese .slavery ! crying could not be assumed to repre- j sent the nation's mind on questions of j Socialism. A single Chamber was im- j possible in the region of finance. If the need for money Mas to be used for I adopting instalments of a Socialist Bud- j get and treating property not accord- j ing to the amount, but to the origin,l and of vindictively attacking political ■■ opponents, then the people had the right to be consulted. The right never1 could have been exercised if the Peers had not used on behalf of the people the powers entrusted to them. .He' would not say a change was not re-: quired by the modification of the Houso' of Lords, or a referendum. The House contained men of the first eminence in all branches. He did not think it should be a rival to the House of. Commons or completely elective, but its func-' tions could be improved. Referring to unemployment, he urged the reform' of the Poor Law. Every member ot j the recent Commission considered the' present law might be scrapped, but the State methods of dealing with destitution did little to promote labour. He looked for that to Tariff Reform, which would (stimulate home industry. It alone would contain Colonial preference 3 modify commercial treaties, and secure'the home producer against foreign competition. It was the first plank of the Unionist platform. "He complained of the Government's elusory ' policy of " back to the land." Their methods discouraged private ownership, except in Ireland, by insisting that ten.ants should become tenants of a public body. There was ho farmer wlm would not prefer tenancy under one of Mr ; Lloyd-George's dukes. At present he would say nothing about the Navy. The ' situation was grave, and the future anxious. He did not think the public would forget or forgive the negligence ' which encouraged the present rivalry in ship-building, which all deplored. j '