NOTES 0F THE DAY.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1371, 23 February 1912, Page 4

NOTES 0F THE DAY.

Tflfc wire-pulling and attempts that are being made on behalf of tne Government to induce members pledged to vote against the Ward Administration to break their pledges has Kvc/ffn to the dimensions of a public scandal. Even some of the members of the flovornmonr, parly are thoroughly disgusted with the luetics which are being pursued. The Oovenimcnt are alrnid H> come In a division because 'hey know Ibaf at (lie present moment, they would be beaky ; nucl i!ie.y nr« thpiviorr keep iug'tbc debate going and wasting

time and the country's money in the hope that they will be able to pull wires enough to force the memjiers in question to dishonour their pledges and betray their constituents. Members are realising that whatever happens the Government cannot hope to carry on and that failing the Jlcform party being given a trial an election some time this year is practically inevitable, With'the temper of the country such as it is, Wnrdism would certainly be annihilated in the event of an election, and we are inclined to the opinion that '51 u. Massbt's best move would lie. to give the Government a little more rope and play for another election. It would certainly prove n sharp lesson for the schemers and wire-pullers who are besmirching the politics of the country and degrading the name of Liberalism at the present time.

ATthe back of the present strange Parliamentary situation there is all the, ( tiinc a great source of satisfaction for the friends of political reform. The old evils of "Liberalism'' are at an end. We arc reminded of one of them—the withholding of the Government's Bills for the session j and the resultant end-of-the-session j scramble —by some observations made by the Governor of Illinois at the City Club of Chicago the other c'ay. He complained strongly of the mr.nncr in which the Illinois Legislature marked time for weeks and waited until near the eiid of the session to do any real work: "Emergency Bills and appropriation Bills which must be passed are [ put through early, and then at the last minute everything is put in thq hopper." The Governor blamed the rules of the Legislature, and a New York paper, observing that probably he, had to lay the blame there, said that the_ ordinary citizen would not be "so ingenuous." And it, got down to the heart of the matter in this way: Jt is neither rules nor the inertia that must he overcome in getting largo bodies in motion that is the trouble. The situation is deliberately produced by the legislative leaders, whether by means of the bi-partisan combination that lias disgraced Illinois, ur by the simpler, but equally effective, system of majority control that nourishes elsewhere. It is not scientific, management that our Legislatures lack, but honest intentions. That is absolutely true of the case of our own Parliament in recent years. "Liberalism"'has fooled Parliament and the people session after session simply because the Government lacked honest intentions. The Reform party, we hope, will end this had system, and will find the work of government a _ pleasanter and more zestful thing in consequence. The gain to the public will be enormous.

Although we think we may consider Civil Service Reform a won cause now, wc may give some, prominence to the following London calile message printed in yesterday's papers: — "The Times" says the only remedy for the slate of the South African Civil Service is a permanent Public Service Commission, similar to those in Knglaud and Australia, which Mr. J. X. jlcrrimau formally proposed, the proposal being rejected. The position in South Africa in this respect is worse, than in New Zealand, worse almost than it was in Canada under the late Liberal ri'i/ime, and worse by far than in America, where Mr. Taft, following it)) the activities of Mit. Jloosevei/t, with the cordial approval of the best men and best newspapers on the other side, has strangled the "spoils system" and carried nearly to completion the removal of the Civil Service from political control. One of the _ new Canadian Government's earliest acts was the appointment of a Civil Service Commission, and, as the London Times noted, it was a striking indication of the length to which the "spoils system" was carried by the Liberals in Canada that action had to be taken against several Civil Servants who actually spoke and wrote in public on the Government side in the election •campaign. In South Africa the Government, and General Hertzog in particular, has been shameless in its application of the "spoils" policy. were merely continuing the principle of tho late Mr. Krugeu, whose newspaper boycott was adopted by our own "Liberal" Government. In his excellent book on The Union of South Africa, the Hon. R. H. Brand said: In the eyes of a large section of the Dutch a Government is not worthy unless it can make appointments of its own free will and find posts for its friends and supporters. . . . The pernicious "spoils system" is ruinous to any country. ... A sound law protecting the Government from itself will be required if the high traditions of British Civil Services are to be maintained. It is good to know that with the shattering of "Liberalism" in New Zealand, our country will fall into line in the general march towards clean government.