During the recess, the Government was brought face to face with a problem of constitutional government, which at one time promised to develop into a serious position, and might have forced Ministers to resign and go to the country for sanction of their action.
Lord Onslow had left the colony and had been succeeded by Lord Glasgow. Shortly after the new Governor arrived, Mr. Ballance advised him to call twelve new members to the Legislative Council, so that the Government’s measures should not be in danger of receiving the same treatment as had been meted out to them in the session that had just closed.
An inspection of the division-lists in the Council shows that in 1891 the Government could absolutely rely, as a rule, on only five members of the chamber. One of the Government’s supporters had left the colony, and another was too ill to attend the sittings. That left Sir Patrick Buckley, the Minister in the Council, with only two votes upon which he could depend. One of those was the vote of a Maori member of the Council, so that he had actually only one European member to follow him in supporting all policy measures the Government sent up from the Lower Chamber.
An analysis of the membership of the Council shows that up to that time Sir George Grey’s Government had appointed four members, the Stout-Vogel Government nine, and the Conservative Governments the remainder. The appointments made by the Stout-Vogel Coalition were of a mixed character, some of the members being advanced in views and some Conservative. When these are sorted out, it is found that nine nominations had been made from the ranks of the Liberal Party, and twenty-six from the Conservative Party.
Mr. Ballance asked that his Government should be allowed to make twelve additions. It would then have fifteen votes in the chamber and would still be in a clear minority, but he said that he would be satisfied if he could assure himself that his measures would be fairly and fully discussed. Lord Glasgow considered that nine was the largest addition he could make. He refused to go further than that number, which the Government declined to accept.
