3
I
Enclosure
Cc. 641
9451
RECO
Extract from Daily Press of April 24, 1884
OFFICIAL JUSTICES NOT TO VOTE IN ELECTIONS.
HIS EXCELLENCY-The next business is for the Attorney-General to move the following resolution, of which he gave notice at the last meeting:
"That it is expedient that those Justices of the Peace, who are also Officials of Government, should abstain from taking part in the nomination of any Member of the Council who is to be nominated by the Justices of the Peace."
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL-I have now to move the resolution which has just been read, and I would ask permission to very shortly state the grounds upon which I would suggest it should be adopted by the Council. Under the recent arrangement it has been provided that two unofficial members of this Council shall be nominated for appointment by the Governor, one by the Chamber of Commerce, and the other by the Justices of the Peace. The object of this provision, I apprehend, was to obtain something in the nature of representation for the unofficial portion of the community. It would be impossible to exclude from the commission of Justices a number of officials who are entitled by their position and qualifications to act as such, but I apprehend it is not desirable that they should exercise any influence upon the selection of a member who is intended to represent the unofficial portion of the community. In the present state of things, I believe somewhat more than twenty of the Justices who could take part in the nomination are officials, and it would be quite possible for a body including such a number as that to really exercise such an influence upon the election as in fact to pronounce the choice of the elective body. I would suggest that such a result would be altogether contrary to the intention with which the power of nomination was granted to Justices of the Peace. The idea is that the members who represent them shall represent them as being entirely apart from any official influence, and shall represent that opinion in the colony which may be looked to as something entirely distinct from the official wishes or the official views which may be entertained upon current questions of the day. I cannot help thinking that the voice with which the unofficial members will speak in this Council will be a much stronger voice, and more the sort of voice we should look for from the unofficial members, if we're satisfied that they owe their election entirely and exclusively to the wishes of that portion of the community who are in no way whatever under the influence of the Government. I apprehend, Your Excellency, that in moving this resolution, it is not desirable I should attempt any elaborate argument to commend it to the Council; it is rather a question for the wishes and opinion of the Council itself, but from what I am able to ascertain, I understand that the resolution is in accordance with the general feeling prevailing in the colony, and more particularly among the general constituency whose interest it affects.
Hon. P. RYBICKI-I beg to second the resolution which my hon. friend on my left has proposed. He has left but little for me to say upon the matter, and I entirely agree with his remarks. What is required is a popular representation on this Council, and where the body of the electors is so small that the official element represents somewhere near one third of it, I think it is most undesirable the officials should take part in the election. I believe it is true that in England permanent Government officers do take part in the election of members of corporate bodies, and of members of Parliament, but in large towns where there are perhaps 10,000 electors, the votes of a few permanent Government officers would have but little effect. In this colony, where the body of electors is so small, the effect would be very different. I beg to second the motion of the hon. member on my left.
Hon. F. D. SASSOON-It is with great pleasure that I support the motion of the Attorney-General, that Justices of the Peace who are Government officials should abstain from taking any part in the election of unofficial members. Soon after Your Excellency's arrival in the colony, you were good enough to promise the community a more representative Council than they were enjoying before, and we see that Your Excellency's exertions were crowned with success. In my opinion and in the opinion of a large majority of the community, the officials should not be allowed to influence the election of any unofficial member to this Council. I think the official members are sufficiently strong in the Council already. With these remarks, I have great pleasure in supporting this motion.
His EXCELLENCY-I think, hon. gentlemen of the Council, before putting the resolution, I may be expected to express my opinion on this subject, in which I take a deep interest, but I wish it to be clearly understood that though I have a very strong opinion myself, I do not wish to impose that opinion upon any of the official members of the Council, and I hope that they will vote entirely according to their own opinion upon this matter. My opinion upon it is very strong, as I said just now, and for two reasons. In the first place, as the hon. gentleman (Hon. F. D. Sassoon) has said, the official element is already sufficiently represented upon this Council, seeing that they have seven votes out of twelve. In the second place, the number of members of the bench of magistrates who are Government officials is such that they would, in most cases, turn the scale in the nomination of a member to the Council. For instance, there are 83 Justices, and over 20 of these are Government officials. At the last election, three gentlemen were proposed for nomination, and there is no doubt whatever that if the official Justices had voted then, they might have turned the scale, and the result would clearly have been that the person elected would not have been considered by the public as an unofficial member at all. He would have been considered as practically an official member, and that, as was said just now, would have destroyed the effect of the alteration which I proposed, and which the Secretary of State sanctioned. Therefore, for these two reasons, I am strongly in favour of the resolution, but, as I said before, I do not wish to impose my opinion upon any of the official members of the Council. I think, as the Attorney-General said at the last meeting, that this question should be settled once for all, and a resolution by this Council will be considered as practically binding in future.
In Parliament, they have the power of dealing with questions affecting the election of members to their own body, and resolutions they pass on the subject are binding, and any resolution this Council may pass in a matter affecting its own constitution will be considered binding in all future time. It may be asked: why bring this matter forward at the present time, when two gentlemen have just been nominated? And I am glad to see that my hon. friend on my left, representing the Chamber of Commerce, is in robust health, and that the new member representing the Justices of the Peace is also in robust health, so that there is no likelihood of a vacancy for six years. But I consider that now, when no personal question can be involved, is the very time to settle the question once for all; and I am glad that it should be brought forward and settled finally. With these few observations, I will now put the resolution to the vote.
Carried.
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