Party discipline, which is almost inevitable in the
present struggle for ascendancy or defeat, is the most undemocratic
agency in the world. It is rather by liberating all votes and allowing
them to group themselves according to conviction that a real government
of the people by the people can be secured. When I look back on the
intention of the framers of the Commonwealth Constitution to create in
the Senate a States' rights House I am amazed at the remoteness of the
intention from the achievement. The Senate is as much a party House as
is the House of Representatives. Nothing, perhaps, describes the
position better than the epigrammatic if somewhat triumphant statement
of a Labour Senator some time ago. "The Senate was supposed to be a
place where the radical legislation of the Lower Chamber could be
cooled off, but they had found that the saucer was hotter than the cup."

The long illness and death of my ward, Mrs. Hood, once more gave to my
life a new direction. History was repeating itself. Just as 40 years
earlier Mrs. Hood and her brothers had been left in my charge on the
death of their mother, so once again a dying mother begged me to accept
the guardianship of her three orphan children. Verging as they were on
the threshold of manhood and womanhood, they scarcely needed the care
and attention due to smaller children, but I realized I think to the
full, what so many parents have realized--that the responsibilities for
the training of children of an older growth are greater and more
burdensome than the physical care of the infant. The family belongings
were gathered in from the four quarters of the globe to which they had
been scattered on my giving up housekeeping, and we again began a
family life in Kent Town. Soon after we had settled, the motion in
charge of the Hon. D. M. Charleston in favour of the adoption of
proportional representation for Federal elections was carried to a
successful issue in the Legislative Council. The Hon. A. A. Kirkpatrick
suggested the advisableness of preparing a Bill at this stage. A motion
simply affirming a principle, he said, was not likely to carry the
cause much further, as it left the question of the application of the
principle too much an open one. The league, he thought, should have
something definite to put before candidates, so that a definite answer
could be obtained from them. In New Zealand, Mr. O'Regan, a well-known
solicitor, had also introduced into the House of