The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1910. THE BLIGHT OF PAROCHIALISM

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 878, 26 July 1910, Page 6

The Dominion. TUESDAY, JULY 26, 1910. THE BLIGHT OF PAROCHIALISM

It was probably with astonishment that some of the members of the House of ..Representatives heard Me. Massey-expressing the hope the other night that the day would soon come when the House would not concern itself with roads and bridges at, all. To a good many people outside - the House, also, Mit. Massey may appear to have expressed, nothing less than the hqpe that Parliament would one. day abandon its highest function. We have often thought that it would bo useful to print each day throughout the session a list of the "local"- questions asked by members concerning the trivial or ridiculous wants of their districts. To the asking and the answering of these questions there goes a good deal of time —and Parliamentary time, according to a calculation made a few years ago, costs a great many pounds an hour—and a good deal of labour and money for printing. Then on Wednesday of each week members rise up and spend more time in expressing their opinions upon the replies of Ministers, upon whose will depend the bridge and the station verandah and the new coat of paint for the rural post office. The public as a whole pays little attention to the questions we refer to, although each separate question has its little local interest, and since those papers which, like The Dominion, have large territories of interest cannot take .notice of more than a part of the "roads and .bridges" energy of members, the public may not know what a deal of Parliament's time is occupied .with trifling local matters. For Wednesday next, for example, thero are .questions relating to post offices at seven small places; and pleas for an official to look after goods at.a little railway station that we never heard of, and for an exten-sion-of a goods shed. Last Wednesday replies were given to inquiries on such points as these: Whether a certain post and telephone office should be opened/for half an hour in the evening; whether a police station should be built at Wellsfordj a post office at Waiuku, a police station at Fendaltou, a courthouse at Hiccarto'n; whether the Willowbridge siding would be extended. One member wanted somebody to ace as a sort of porter at.Te Hana; another was anxious- about "a verandah at the Amberley'railway station"; still another asked for an extra secondclass smoker on tbe Springfield train on Wednesdays. Several - questions were asked as to the fate of various .railway projects. One member even asked the Government. Whether it would alter the name Wanganui to Whangauui. Questions like these are asked in scores every session, and by Opposition and Government members alike.' ,We do not blame these'members; indeed, the conditions being what they are,'they would-.be blameworthy if thoy diet not adopt the only means open to them of getting on public record the attitude of the controlling deities. What is to bo blamed, how-' ever, -is' the system, which compels members of Parliament to give up to ■ the care of comparatively trifling local needs the time that they should have at their disposal for. the study of national questions. So long as Ministers retain in their hands, the final decision upon every big and little piece of expenditure on public works, so long will' the Order Papei, cumbered with, these petty, and undignified affairs, come out as a daily testimony to the supremacy of local over national, issues in our'national Parliament.. Ministers, under existing condition.*,/ have not only unfettered discretion in choosing what works they will submit to the House for ratification in ' the Estimates; they have ■ the power, as . Mr. 11. M-'Kenzie showed us some time ago, of pleasing themselves as to whether they will carry out the works or-' dered by Parliament. • As we have often contended, and as nobody can doubt, tho ; pre'sont system is productive of enormous waste in the shape of unnecessary expanse. The 1 Government .admits that the pressure from the parishes from Auckland to the Bluff is enormous, and it docs not need any profound intelligence to understand that under this pressure members force the Government —a not unwilling 'victim, we arebound to.say—to spend far more than the nation caniifford in satisfying local demands. Not the least evil result of the-system that makes a Ministerial favour out of what should be an act of simple straicht-

I forward business is the creation of a class -of member who depends for his political existence upon his skill as a local tout. In time this sort of member, at first much worried by the local pressure which ho has to transmit to the Ministry, loses his interest in national issues, and devotes all his energy t'o the care of his parish. He would not welcome such a change of system as would, in relieving him of the importunities of constituents, relieve him also of his only means of retaining a grip upon his seat. Warned by the experience of the colonies, which Lord Rouert Cecil quoted with much effect in the House of Commons, and, by the experience of France, where the elimination .of the "roa'cls and bridges" member is on all hands agreed to be the most presently important, work before the Chamber, Great Britain took good •care to place the new Development Fund outside the control of.the Ministry. This was done, as Mr. Lloyd-George himself let it be seen, solely in order to keep the "roads, and bridges" disease from injuring the character of the House of Commons. If he or his colleagues or Mr. Balfour and his colleagues' could read tho average Wednesday Order Paper of our House of Representatives they would ugrce that' the thing they avoided was greater-than they even suspected. There is only one remedy, •j/nd that, is tho establishment" of a Public Works Board. Sueh'a Board would not only give the country better value for its money, by preventing the waste of public funds according to the political necessities of the party of the day, whatever, party it'might bo, but would make for a general raising of the tone of the House.