Sessional_Paper_1916 — Page 76

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1.-Your Petitioners most respectfully submit for the gracious consideration of His Majesty the King that it is fitting and proper that the number of Un-official Members on the Executive and Legislative Councils should be increased, and that the principle of election should be extended.

2. In the first place, in regard to the Executive Council, Your Petitioners would point out that there are only 2 Un-official Members on that Council out of a total of 9 Members and also that those 2 Un-official Members are appointed ou the recommendation or nomination of the Governor of this Colony, instead of being elected by bodies representative of the Public.

The Chamber of Commerce and the Non-official Justices of the Peace for this Colony have long been recognized as representatives of the Public for electoral purposes, those bodies having, since 1884, exercised the privilege of each of them. electing 1 Un-official Member to the Legislative Council; and we now petition that there may be 2 additional Un-official Members on the Executive Council, one of them to be elected by the Chamber of Commerce and the other by the Non- official Justices of the Peace, and that any future vacancies on that Council may be filled by election by one of those bodies instead of by Government nomination.

3.In the second place, in regard to the Legislative Council, Your Petitioners would point out that, as at present constituted (and as it has existed since 1896, when the Revenue was about $2,600,000, as against about $11,380,000 in 1915) this Council consists of 8 Official Members, and of 6 Un-official Members, 2 of whom only are elected by the aforesaid bodies as representatives of the Public, the other 4 Un-officials, of whom 2 are Chinese, being appointed by His Excellency the Governor.

Your Petitioners submit :

(1) That, as regards all the Un-official Members of this Council (other than the Chinese Members who stand on a somewhat special footing), the principle of election instead of Government nomination ought to be applied, and they would humbly submit that it is somewhat incon- sistent. whilst trusting the Chamber of Commerce and Non-official Justices to elect some of the European Members of this Council, to deny the right of election to them in the case of the other European Un-official Members.

(2) That the number of Un-official Members be increased to 10 by the addition of 4 Un-official Members, so as to create an Un-official Majority in the Legislative Council, as in the case of Cyprus and British Honduras.

In support of this second submission it is necessary to point out that the Official Members of the Legislative Council are not free to vote according to their convictions, and that, inasmuch as the Governor or other Presiding Officer, can commandeer all the Official votes, the Officials possess an absolute and permanent majority, whereas the Un-officials are in a permanent and hopeless minority. Under such circumstances a somewhat painful irony attaches to clause XVIII of the Royal Instructions, which enacts that "All questions proposed for debate in the Legislative Council shall be decided by the majority of votes, and the Governor or the Member presiding shall have an original vote in common with the other Members of the Council, as also a casting vote, if upon any question the votes shall be equal." In fact, the Legislative Council, as at present constituted, though consisting numerically of 14 Members, simply carries into effect the individual will and judgment of the Governor or other Presiding Officer.

4. Whilst Your Petitioners are fully conscious of the extremely serious and engrossing nature of the present War, they nevertheless venture humbly to submit that the above defects in the purely internal and domestic Constitution of this Colony (which can readily be rectified by amending the Royal Instructions) call for some remedy and they conclude by most earnestly assuring His Majesty of their heartfelt loyalty and devotion.