| Show governments all tha belt governing british colonies have adopted the english plan of an irresponsible executive head representing the crown and a ministry virtually dictated by parliament responsible to it and holding office only so long as it can command a parliamentary majority but according ta the san francisco chronicle this plan Is a failure in australia the british plan has thus far worked well in great britain or at least england it is an outgrowth of the traditions and sentiment of a tight little isle in which the political community jias not hitherto been subdivided into many parties so long as there are but two political parties the one or the other will be sure of a majority to carry on an effective government and while there have been short periods of political instability in which changes were too frequent freau ent for good government in the main the results have been satisfactory the plan albo has thus far seemed to work well in canada in france it has not worked nearly so well by reason of the many factions of considerable strength which are always represented in parliament li the french governments have been nearly always tho coalition governments ern ments but the agreements have been fairly durable and the inherent weaknesses of government by compromise have been less apparent by reason of the very strong national administrative system inherited from the empire and which deals under laws rarely changed with most of the ordinary relations of life when the australian colonies were founded they naturally adopted the system of an executive responsible to ane legislature with which the colon leta were familiar there was in each colony a natural growth of institutions suitable or considered suitable to their circumstances and there waa no difficulty in carrying on government by the one party or the other when however these colonies were merged into the commonwealth of australia and fc became necessary to create new and uniform national policies and institutions trouble began the same conditions arose which existed in this country at the adoption of our constitution with the questions ot labor and socialism interjected which did not exist as isaura a century ago and tho system of ro government Is ot standing the strain no party haq been able to get and keep a working majority in parliament and the coalitions are constantly within a little over four years there have been five responsible governments in office no one of which has represented a sin gle party in control the same conditions would unquestionably have existed in the first aucter of a century of our government had not the wisdom of the fathers been equal to providing an executive elected for a fixed term and responsible to the people and not to congress it la more than doubtful whether the american republic would have endured under the english system A good many austra liana feel sure that it will be necessary for the australian commonwealth to abandon it and adopt the plan of an executive responsible to the people instead of parliament the difficultly is that the governor general represents the crown and cannot easily be got rid of |
