Correspondence

Feilding Star, Volume XV, Issue 122, 21 November 1893, Page 2

Correspondence

PARTY GOVERNMENT, COURTS OF ARBITRATION. J Letter No. 4.] TO THE EDITOR OF THE STAR. Siu,— l quite agree with Mr Goodbehere that a sprinkling of honest disinterested lawyers would be a desirable element in the House ; but the difficulty in this colony is to get the honest and disinterested men to stand. Apparently every lawyer who enters the House does so in his own interests, and not in that of the colony ; ho wants to make a name, and having done so retires immediately, or he works hard either for or against the party in power, and as a reward for his support, or a plum to stop bis month, is given a Government appointment— it may be a judgeship, he has some log to roll, which having accomplished he retires, rubbing his hands in invisible soap, and smiling at the credulity of his supporters, humming to himself Carlylo's well-known saying : ' That the world is made up of fools and knaves, chiefly the former.' These articles are written as tersely as possibly, consistent with clearness, and in saying in letter No. '6 that our laws were drafted by Government law officers I meant it in a general sense. Private members sometimes draft their little Bills themselves, but they can also have the advice of the law officers. The policy Bills are mostly drawn up in the first place by the permanent head of a department, who consults one of the law officers, and after the Bills are circulated in the House, and referred to a select committee, the said Bills are frequently referred to the said law officers ; in short, as I have previously stated, lawyers as representatives are not necesssary to help the other members to put the laws into shape. Before leaving the subject of Party Government, I would very much like my readers, who are really interested in the good government of the colony, to get the manifestos and speeches of say a dozen of aspirants to Parliamentary honors at the present time, and compare them with each other. I think it will be found that they do not agree except in a few points. They cannot be put into two classes, and yet the men who utter these manifestoes, if elected to the House, will, under tbe present system, be compelled to join ono of two parties, and will have to vote on many occasions against their consciences and convictions with the party they have joined. Hitherto I have written in a general way, and not in the interests of any section of the House or of the country ; but I would like to draw the attention of a certain portion of the community to what is taking place in Madrid, Paris, Marseilles, and Vienna. Hardly a day passes but a telegram is headed " Anarchist Troubles ;" and then follows an account of what has taken place. I have no sympathy with dynamite or other outrages, but on the other hand I think that the various Governments under which these ontrrges occur are, to a certain extent, to blame for these outrages Tbe Government of a country exists for the people. In very early days the chiefs owned all lands, and all power, and the members of a tribe existed tor the benefit of the said chief. Then came a monarchy with the power in the hands of a sovereign and a few privileged people who took care to secure all the good things. Then followed a limited monarchy with the middle classes rising into power and weight, and then follows universal suffrage in which, in the eye of the law, all men are equal. Of course all men are not equal physically or mentally, but so far as the laws are concerned they are supposed to be equal. I say supposed to be equal; tho labouring classes know that although they have the franchise yet they aro not truly represented in the Govern* ment; that the monarchy, nobles, and Janded proprietors, and lawyers, keep them in tbe background, the consequence is they resort to dynamite. The undoubted remedy for this is to do away with that absurd and archaic form of Party Go* vernment; let all measures be discussed on their merits ; let the people have a voice in the laws through the referendum, then the outrages will cease because they wijl know that they have in verity a real voice in the country. Which is the better and wiser plan ? Allowing the people to spend their energies in voting for or against a measure, or in arson, murder, and dynamite explosions ? Tie down the safety valve and we shall have an explosion. Let the aspirations of the people be spent in their natural outlets, in accordance with their natural rights, and New Zealand will never be troubled with nihilism or anarchy. I am, etc., GEOROB WIIiKS. Clare Lea, Feilding. *