In this attempt to determine the degree of power or influence possessed by the New Zealand private Member of Parliament, Robert Kelson has consulted parliamentary documents, the New Zealand press, and party documents. His study is based as well on data collected during attendance at the House and its committees, as well as party meetings, over a three-year period. He concludes with suggestions of new roles for the private Member of Parliament in the light of modern conditions, which will make a useful comparison with Canada's experience.

In this attempt to determine the degree of power or influence possessed by the New Zealand private Member of Parliament, Robert Kelson concludes with suggestions of new roles for the private Member of Parliament in the light of modern conditions, which will make a useful comparison with Canada's experience

One increasingly popular device for achieving a balance between authority and accountability in government is the institution of the ombudsman. The first non-Scandinavian ombudsman appeared in New Zealand in 1962, and since then the office has spread to many countries and been adopted at different levels of government. This book—the first intensive study of New Zealand's "model" ombudsman- seeks to understand the process by which the institution was successfully adapted and made a part of New Zealand's political system. The author's inquiry is based on eighteen months of field experience in New Zealand. His book examines the complaints, the clients, their interaction with the ombudsman, his relations with the bureaucracy, and his effectiveness. His relations with various publics-bureaucrats, Honorable Members, and Queen's Ministers receive special attention. Originally published in 1977. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

The New Zealand upper house, the Legislative Council (which bore a marked resemblance to its Canadian counterpart the Federal Senate) was abolished in 1950 in an action which represents one of the most clear-cut examples of pragmatic politics in New Zealand history. It was abolished by the essentially conservative National party (fundamentally committed to the bicameral principle), while the Labour party (formally committed to abolition) at first obstructed and then merely stood on the sidelines. New Zealand thus became the only democratic country in the world without either an upper house or a formal written constitution of any consequence. The author attempts both to explain this unusual development and to assess its consequences. The generally accepted view that the Legislative Council failed in 1892 is challenged, and the causes of the decline and failure are traced back to circumstances surrounding its original establishment in 1854. Subsequently, developments since 1950 are examined in the light of abolition. The author concludes that abolition represented the right policy undertaken for the wrong reasons and that ultimately it has made a greater contribution to constitutional change in the twenty years since 1950 than the chamber itself made in the last fifty years of its existence. The New Zealand Legislative Council, an analytical historical study of an institution, throws valuable light on the strengths and weaknesses of the bicameral principle and the consequences of abolishing a second chamber of Parliament. The book should prove useful to Political Science and History courses dealing with Commonwealth Parliamentary government, comparative institutions and constitutional law. It should also appeal to all those interested in the question of bicameral representation.