The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1907

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 1975, 10 January 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. THURSDAY, JANUARY 10, 1907

If wo are to believe professedly inspired rumors, there is to bo a crop of new appointments to the Legislative Council within the next week or two, or, at any rate, the list will bo decided upon during the continuous Cabinet meetings now being hold' to prepare for the Premier’s departure for Europe, and the “calls” may be made at a later period. If we had a truly democratic Government in office, it would bo safe to givj those rumors a most emphatic do nial for reasons which will presently be stated; but wo have no such thing as democracy in this country’s jiolitics now-a-days except in the form of mere idle talk, and to be used as a stalking horse to delude those innocent people who want to be democrats and cannot manage it for want of opportunity The clearest notion of what democracy should be has often been defined as “Government of the people, by the people, for the people,” and upon t ( hat definition the present party of ruling poli icians has crept into power; but with them professions are one thing and practices quite another. How does the definition in which they profess to believe square, for instance, with the practice of nominating defeated candidates to the Legislative Chamber, or, in other words, when the people have said by their A’otes at the ballot boxes that they will have none of sum and such candidates to represent them in Parliament, and after the lapse of a little time to let the defeat be forgotten, the political bosses do the very thing that the jieople have refused to do, and put I the rejected one into the Councils of State with greater power sometimes, ■as in the case of the Attorney-Gen- j ,eral, than is possessed of the elect I of the people. Yet it is pretended | that that is democracy, or “government of the people, by the people, for the people.” True, it passes for democracy, and the people are apparently content to delude themselves that they are getting the genuine article simply because it bears the name. If there was a real democrat upon the Government benches, lie would rather forfeit his seat and the emoluments of office than he should allow the very basic principle of democratic rule to be thus shattered and cast before the winds, and its place taken by a system not democratic but autocratic in the extreme. If there was a man of principle in the Cabinet his actions and professions would be consistent or he would be there no longer, and he would no more think of subjugating the unalterable principles of demo-

ornoy to selfish or party exigencies .than ho would think ol committing him kari to plon'so a political chief. Hut because tlioro is no fixed principle or basis of rectitude or consistency held by tbe ruling party, its

members are willing to govern according to the most hidebound autocratic methods, while protending tc act the part of democrats. It will be no surprise, therefore, to learn that a batch of “lords” have been called to the Upper House without consulting the wishes of the people. When that House proved itself slightly fractious and opposed to the wishes of the late R.t. Hon. King Dick, ho used to say that it should be “mondj ed 'or ended,” but-when it obeyed the behests of the “boss,” the ending and mending were conveniently

forgotten. Others members of the present Cabinet have expressed the emphatic opinion that the Council should not continue to exist on the undemocratic nominative system, and the House of Representatives has declared by a large majority vote on Sir William Stewart’s Rill, that the Council should henceforth be an elective body'. The .House of Representatives having affirmed the principle of that Rill as the representa-

tives of the people, made it incumbent upon the Government to obey

the expressed wishes ol the people; but that is just what the Government has n.; desire to do unless the command is made obligatory by Statute, which is not the case in 'this instance until the Bill passes both Houses, and the appointments will probably be made as if the House and the country had not expressed an opinion upon it. ’I bus wo have a fair sample of what is called democratic government, which, instead of being “government of the people, by tbe people, for the people,” is in reality government of the people by two or three of the people, lor some of the people against the wishes of t-lio vast majority of the people, and is known by the name of the modern democracy, while the real democrats who wish to reform the CounI oil, in accordance with real democratic principles, are called ConserI vatives by the men who do not want

to know what real democracy means. It will bo interesting to see the list of political laggards and nondescripts chosen as our legislative rulers, and it is quite safe to predict that they will bo chosen, not from any special personal aptitude for legislative work, but on account of some narrower consideration not in the least degree consonant with the public welfare or desire. That is what the system binds itself to, and that is how the party bosses who care not a jot for principle desire it to be used, and do use it. Yet we try to flatter ourselves that we are democrats and that wo lead the world in Socialistic ’legislation, while in reality' there is not an atom of true Socialistic principle given effect to in any one statute that is not dependent upon the Inspector or the party’ ruler for its legislative force, so that instead of being governed by correct principle, the freedom of every man, woman, and child is subject to the vagaries of the undemocratic political machine, and so it will continue un-

til public opinion asserts itself more emphatically on the side of principle than it has ever done before.