The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1919. THE LINE OF TRUE PROGRESS

Dominion, Volume 13, Issue 60, 4 December 1919, Page 6

The Dominion THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 1919. THE LINE OF TRUE PROGRESS

At least one conspicuous feature of the Commonwealth election campaign is equally in evidence in this country. In each case'.theye is a strong and growing movement, not merely for tho restoration of Parliamentary government, but for the establishment of representation on a better basis than obtained before the war. The fact that the same need and the same effort to meet it are apparent in both countries makes the progress of political events on the other side of the Tasman Sea even better worth watching than it would be' in normal times. As in New Zealand, whatever measure of apathy is shown bv the Commonwealth electors has been attributed with some reason to the fact that politicians have got out of touch with the people, and ha.vc fallen into the habit of proceeding by a set of artificial rules and conventions which are far from being adjusted to national needs. The remedy in each case is the same. Obviously what is needed is that politicians should get into the closest possible touch with the people, not with an eve to the slavish pursuit of votes, but in order to find better puides to action than tho nod of a Minister or the whispered injunction of a party Whip. No doubt in Australia the developing revolt against hard and fast party lines is greatly stimulated by the fact that one party in the election—the Caucus Labour Party—stands for machine politics carried to their most vicious extreme. In the Caucus ranks individuality and a sense of individual responsibility count for nothing. _ The. conditions that would arise if the Caucus Party contrived to secure the election of :?8 members to the Federal House of Representatives were well summed up the other day by an Australian writer. The whole of this group, he observes, would have to vote as pno man on the floor of the House in accordance with the secretly arrived at decision of a majority of its numbers. "Thus 20 members of the new Parliament, who might consist of its wildest and most reeklesslv irresponsible elements, would dominate the remaining 55. No one outside tho secret Caucus room would be permitted to know bow the decisioris of the twenty oligarchs were arrived at, or from where the strings' were pulled by which the whole.marionette Parliament would be compelled to dance." The natural revulsion against this reactionary degradation of politics is to be seen in the alignment of the forces opposed to the Caucus Party. It tlocs not seem far-fetched to suggest that these forces derive thengreatest strength from the fact that while thev are agreed on some cssontial points they arc in other respects materially at variance. Tho members of the Farmers' Tarty agree with the Nationalists in opposing the wild-cat schemes of the Caucus Labour Party, but they are opposed to the referendum proposals put forward by the Nationalist Government on the ground that these would enable it to "embark on dangerous Socialistic and nationalising enterprises in every field of commerce and industry." Naturally, also, the Farmers' Pa'rtv candidates aro pledged to assart effectively the claims of the man on the land. In a typical utterance one of them declared recently that Governmental interference, fixation of prices, and export embargoes iliave played a far greater part in bringing about our lessened acreage under crop than even the dry 6eason. Remembering that the existing Nationalist Party is a rather loosely united combination o! Labour representatives and Liberals, it is evident that if anticipations are realised and Mr. Hughes is i#:-cstab-hshed in power the forces behind him will present the strongest possible contrast to the mechanicallycontrolled Caucus faction on the other side of tho House. The system of preferential voting is expected, to give tho anti-Caucus voters of tho Commonwealth an opportunity of exercising independent [judgment while unitedly opposing the common enemy—from this point of view the impending election, with preferential voting as a new" feature, constitutes an experiment of absorbing interest—and at the same time prospects are raised of establishing a Government in office which will be dependent absolutely upon tho ability of its supporters to arrive independently at agreement on questions of public policy. Mk. Hughes himself, though he is a leader of assertive type, has been compelled to recognise that new forces are operating in politics. "Every member of tho Ministerialist Party," he said not long ago, "is pledged to his constituents and to no one else on earth. They are their own masters, and servants of the people—the whole people, not a clique or a section, nor a few people who met behind closed doors. The pledges they make, they can keep." The desirability of establishing such conditions is even more apparent with reference to local conditions than in looking further afield. The need is as clearly established here as in Australia of installing a Government that will be upheld, not by the slavish supporters of this or that leader, but by men who find themselves able to act freelv in common for the national good. Readiness to act on these lines and in this spirit is the only worthy foundation of political unitv and harmony, but it is all-sufficient. What needs to be realised is that the cx-

trcise by each representative ol the people of unfettered and independent judgment, except in so far as he is specifically pledged to his, con; stituents, is the only condition worthy of modern democracy, and that anv attempt to upset this condition, in whatever dress it may be tricked out, is a reactionary attack on freedom and on true representation. The electors of this country are not faced, as are thoso of Australia, by an immediate attempt on the part of the Caucus Labour Party to grasp the reins of power. But the Caucus Party' is already active, and it hopes to profit by the weakness of the failing Wardist Party and force it sooner or later to conclude some sort of compromise agreement which would lay open the country to greater, because more insidious, dancers than those of unmodified Caucus rule. Electors ran'readily stave off these dangers by concentrating their support on candidates who are agreed on the broad essentials of sound government and progressive, policy, without being committed to the role of mere, party hacks. This undoubtedly is the true line of politico] progress. and it is-because members of the Deform Party have shown themselves clearly aware of the fact and have taken up a corresponding attitude that thev are, to-day so much better placed to'" offer the country a sound lead than their Wardist and 'Labour opponents.