The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1919. SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 11, 8 October 1919, Page 6

The Dominion WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1919. SOMETHING FOR EVERYBODY

Readers of the Parliamentary reports in these, days will be bound at least to admit that they arc not lacking in variety. Members of Parliament, or most of thera, seem to be little intent on debating and, dealing with great affairs of State, The,chief concern of a majority is to outclass their fellow-members in putting forward suggestions and proposals for the benefit of this or that or the other section' of the community—often a section that must be rather surprised at the sudden prominency conferred upon it by serious-talking 'representative's of the people. _ If notions for the benefit of particular groups arc much in favour, so also arc varied, not to say fantastic, notions for the good of all and sundry. With 'dnc thing and another Parliament has become a regular bazaar of varieties. It is wonderful that members contrive to propose and talk about -so many things in a given time. Hard as it may be upon them, it has to be added thatthey are not earning as much gratitude as they no doubt expect to by these many-sided and kaleidoscopic efforts. The reason for this lack of gvatitudo is not far to seek. There is a feeling abroad that our legislators arc playing, with trifles and neglecting things that really matter, and the feeling- is not confined to the seasoned cynics who find a complete explanation of the present aspect of, Parliament in the fact that an election is drawing nigh. The average politician is, of course, never more complaisantly ready to propose or promise something for' everybody than when the need of catching votes becomes imminent and urgent. But, well established as it is, this fact goes at ■most only half-way to the root of the matter a« accounting for the fashion in which Parliament is now scattering its attention on matters of detail and leaving great questions untouched. '

The truth is that the electioneering tactics to which every elected Parliament descends in its closing (lays reflect and are in keeping with its whole, life. .'lt' is impossible to imagine, any invention which would nrevent politicians who depend on popular favour from bidding for it eagerly as the time of an election is closely approached. But it is not inherently necessary that the electioneering tactics which are inevitable at snch times should be contemptible, or that they should take the form of exaggerated attention to comparatively petty details at the expense of things that matter infinitely more. If politicians cultivated a reasonably wide outlook electioneering need not be the objectionable and paltry thing it too often is. That electioneering is what it is in New Zealand is an instructive reminder and proof of shortcomings in our political practice not only in election years, but in the years that follow and precede them. If the demeanour oi tho average politician to-day is that of a cheap-jack displaying his wares, the reason obviously, is that in its normal practice l the Parliament of the Dominion has fallen away from the standards that ought to obtain in a progressive, democracy. As long as member? are elected extraordinary efforts will lie made in dec'tion year to' please the, electors. But with hotter work to look back upon members seeking re-election would despise much of the cheap popularity hunting in which they now eft gage so eagerly. They would.appeal mainly for continued support in prosecuting enterprises calculated to benefit and uplift the whole population.

The cardinal featuie of the pre sent session—not, of course, a new feature—is the failure of politicians to cultivate such a sense of proportion as would impel them to deal with affairs in something like their order of importance. The Government set a good example in its Budget proposals. There was a gratifying absence of these vote-catching schemes such as aro usually to ho found in that document on the evo of a goneral olection, and with which Sir Joseph Ward's manifesto abounded, But the session.opened

nearly six weeks ago and will hardly last another four weeks, yet few of the really big questions that call so imperatively for attention have received attention. Parliament lias found plenty of time to talk about what are relatively trifles, but what has it done to promote the b6ldly enterprising programme of national development from which this country has everything to hope? Doing its duty this session and giving first place to the things tha,t are most important, Parliament would have concentrated chiefly on repatriation, housing, national _ development work, and immigration. Thus far it can hardly be said that it has concentrated upon anything. The ruling tendency is to talk in a general way about all sorts of things and to seek to embarrass the Government by proposals and suggestions designed to win votes. The problems with which Parliament now seems so. little inclined to grapple in an effective wav have been very greatly accentuated by the slipshod and inept treatment given them in the past. For instance, the war legislation passed to .protect tenants against exploitation was at best a partial remedy, and in some respects, as is pointed out in the annual report of the Labour Departhas actually' intensified the evils it was intended to correct. It has *ffordcd some protection to tenants,' but in checking building, has accentuated the housing shortage. The example is by no means isolated of its kind. The need of the hour in politics is the establishment of new standards based upon a due sense of proportion and a true perception of aational interests. With such standards recognised petty measures, some of them desirable enough in their place, would be relegated to that place, and Parliament would give time and energy first and foremost to the orderly and well-considered treatment of really big national question's on such lines as would promote the welfare of the whole population. An end would be made speedily of the conditions in which political railways are constructed at the'rate of a mile a year, arterial highways arc unevenly maintained by _ uncertain doles, and water-power is allowed to run to waste which in this island alone might be made the mqans of saving a million tons of coal every year. Incidentally electioneering of the iinedifyin.tr order now on exhibition in the Ilouse of Representatives would become impossible.. FJectioncering, of course, would continue, but it would take a nobler plane.