The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1910. POLITICAL REFORM.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 796, 20 April 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 1910. POLITICAL REFORM.

From time to time we have directed attention in our leading columns to certain aspects of French politics as being well worth the study of those members of our Legislature who are honestly desirous of ridding public life in New Zealand of those diseases to which most of our public troubles must be ascribed. The two great political evils in this country, evils that arc not independent, but the twins of a bad political system, are, first, theßubservience of Parliament to its Executive, and, second, the predominance of the "roads and bridges member" in the House of Representatives. The parent evil is, as we have continuously pointed but, the vesting in Ministers of the absolute and final control of the spending Departments of the State. France is suffering from just the same evils,_ and her best public men. are striving to find remedies for them, just as tho lleform party in ■ this' country is endeavouring to, bring about a more wholesome con-, dition of things. M. Bmand, the Premier, feels very keenly the 'inability of deputies to "defend themselves against the narrowing parochial ' influences and the claims of their constituencies." Electors, he said in a notable speech on October 10 last, must realise that their member should be "no longer merely their -deputy but a deputy of France," while deputies must cease to be amenable to petty local influences, and must "learn to say 'No' in the very interest of those who at--' tempt to obtain favours from them at tie expense of the State." M. Poincaee had, a little earlier warned France of the danger of the professional politician. "The deputy's obligations to his electors," he said, "have become more and more numerous and burdensome "until how they arc paralysing the most independent minds. A comparison of the present with the past of 10 or 15 years ago," he went on—a comparison that is valid in the case of New Zealand

—"reveals a lowering of political morals and the progress of political mendicity. The most eminent men, the strongest characters, are bound to undergo at certain moments - the cruel pressure of local interests." M. Millerand, .the, Minister for Public Works, has been equally emphatic in pleading for reform, "which, in;common with many other eminent French publicists, he hopes will be achieved through the substitution of large for small electorates. This week's European mail brings us further testimony to the depth of the' disgust with' which the best i Frenchmen look upon the condition to which French politics have been reduced—a condition, as we have said, I which is exactly similar to the condition of affairs in this'country. M. Laboei,_ the famous lawyer, who is a Republican deputy, has been driven by his feelings to resign his seat, and he explains his motives in an article in the Matin. Two Opposition members had already resigned, for exactly the same reason. They declared that their long experience had,taught'them that:the only result of a vigorous opposition on their part to what we may call the "roads and bridges" system of administration' was to place their electors in the position of "pariahs, to whom the most ordinary favours and rights were denied, and who becamethc objects of systematic per-, secution by the authorities," M. Laboju has discovered that,, just as in New Zealand., members and Ministers are bound together by a thousand reciprocal ties, which fetter the individual liberty of action of one and the other, so that neither have the members a free opportunity to

legislate nor the Ministers to. govern, whilst the former arc generally divided between the interests of the electors (which are their own) and those of their country, and too often

incline towards tbe lesser of the two. The famous advocate's picture of what he calls the "decomposition" of public life is worth quoting, as it is an extraordinarily exact picture of the political situation in this country: I "Tho work of Parliament is carried on without rule or order, and often without sincerity. All Parliamentary control is impossible Tbo deputies are subordinates of tho, Ministers, of whom they are in porpctnnl need in order to obtain far their constituents the jnstico which in tho nrisent state of our political atmosphere has become a favour. And it is not only the deputies of the majority who aro reduced' to this condition of dependency— tho Opposition itself is hampered by the anxiety of not offending those in power." The conclusion to which M. Lmsori is driven is that "until the whole system of political life is changed it is idle, for any man to strive in tho Chamber to stem the tide of abuses." He, with many others, intends to carry on a reform campaign all over France. In New

'Zealand, fortunately, the reform campaign has begun, and is making good progress. What the French patriots whoso motto is M. Millkrand's. La France, avaht tout, hope to achieve mainly through electoral reform can be achieved in Hew Zealand through the revolt of Parliament against the tyranny of the 'Executive. Tho establishment of a Railway Commission, a Public Works Board, and a Civil Service Board would not only make directly for economy, but would so change , tho character of our politics; by set>

ring members free from the pressure of local interests—a relief that members would greatly appreciate—that the Executive once more put in its place as the servant of Parliament, would be unable to make any fresh encroachments upon Parliament's authority, and would be quite ready fo surrender those authorities which

it has already stolen. The power of the Hon. B. M'Kbnzie to veto the financial orders, of Parliament, the power of the Government to suspend the operation of the law, the power that Mb. Butdo, for instance, possesses of acting as a new and original statute, the power of the Ministry's officials to shut the doors of the Courts of Justice against the public in certain cases—these arc some of the things that would be swept away. Under a system built on the reforms we advocate there would be no occasion for the North Island members to band themselves together to ask for justice on the floor of the House. Ability to assist in legislating wisely in the interests of the whole nation, 'and not mere ability to wheedle local doles from tho Ministry, would be the Parliamentary candidate's best recommendation to the electors. The, atmosphere of our politics would be brightened and sweetened. Parliamentary government would once more become a fact; and the session would become a period of honest labour.for the good of- New Zealand instead of an annual intrigue for the enrichment of a clique.