The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, MARCH IG, 1907,

Gisborne Times, Volume XXV, Issue 2031, 16 March 1907, Page 2

The Gisborne Times PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. SATURDAY, MARCH IG, 1907,

The lioiioroble member for Huranui, Mr. A. AV. Rutherford, is a curious puzzle as a politician. Though a large landowner who doesn’t believe in the bursting up of big estates, especially those owned by the Rutherford family, which cover an immense area of the Canterbury provincial district, ho was elected on the socalled Liberal ticket. Ho is an out-and-out freeholder, and yet on a noconfidence motion he must support a leasehold Government or break his election pledges. In the House ho has by his speeches shown signs of independence until the party whip was applied, and then ho always came to heel undei protest. It is perfectly clear that his views havo little in common with those of the party he was elected to support, for with all his faults, he is not a man to countenance political chicanery of the typo that wo know to havo been practised in the recent past. At any rate that was the repiitation that his friends always gave him credit for before ho entered Parliament; but he appears to be very quickly degenerating, and to-day we find him counselling a method of procedure that has brought New Zealand politics to the very lowest depths of political degradation; that is, barefaceedly bartering the support of a constituency for monetary favors from the Colonial Exchequer. Speaking at Loburn, we arc told that he Tc‘commended tho electors to return ‘their member with a much smaller ‘majority if they desired consider, ‘tion from the Government. When ‘the majority was large, the Govori ‘ment, secure of the district, ne‘glected . its wants. Ho instanced ‘Kaiapoi. Mr. Buddo was returned ‘by a narrow majority, and soon after ! ‘tlio Premier went through the district and promised a new railway ‘station at Rangiora, and other good ‘things for tho district.” -It is a deplorable condition of things, and yet it is a fact which members of the Cabinet make no secret of, that if a constituency wants a due share of public expenditure it must do something to show its loyalty to the party in power; but if it does too much tho Government is apt to throw its friends over in order to secure the loyalty of some more doubtful centre. In either case it is not an honorable thing for tho Government to do; but Mr. Rutherford, who knows them, being one of the party, says they do it, and advises his constituents not to give him too big a majority on the next occasion if they want public money spent amongst them. Look at the example of our own district, and if it does not bear out Mr. Rutherford’s words, nothing else can. Our member got in by a thumping majority, and the Government, though ho is a member of it, cannot be persuaded to give the district its due. The reason this is so Mr Rutherford has stated very plainly, .and tho electors would do well to remember his words. Indeed they but bear out tho advice given by this paper a short time ago when it was stated that it would benefit tho district very largely if an Opposition member were elected for one Parliament just to show that the electors are not satisfied with the treatment that the district has received in the matter of expenditure.: If that were done it .would bo found that tho Government

would at onco begin to coquotto with tho eloctors onco moro, and for the noxt tliroo years could got almost anything they ask for in tho hopo that they would again return tho Covornmont nominco. That is how tho business is worked now-a-days, and tho rejection of tho prosoivt member or his roturn by a vory narrow majority would bring all tho other Ministers hero ono by ono on somo pretext or another, but in reality to grant tho political bribes that would onco moro placate tho constituency. Before tho cleotion comes off, howovor, thoro will ho amplo promises given; but no liotico should ho taken of thorn, for tlioir valuo ought by this timo to ho pretty well known, and that does not amount to much. Tho electors who aro misled by promises aro not ns wise as they ought to bo, and tho experience of tho past should not bo wastod. Mr. Rutherford has boon more fortunate in his district; boing a privato momber, and not a Minister, ho has succeeded in gotting a few miles of railway built and anothor section of railway just ready to bo opened; but hero at tho present rnto of progress tho next soction that could ho finished well inside two months, will probably not bo oponod in two years, or at tho earli"est, just beforo noxt election. But, ns wo havo said, it is a most degrading thing for tho doctors to bo expected to soil tlioir votes on bloc for what should otliorwiso como to them ns a matter of right. If wo could only ascertain tho not amount of revenue paief by this district in rents, customs dues, and from all other sources of public rovonuo, and put it alongside tho Government’s expenditure within the district it would be found that wo arc contributng a vast amount over wliat we get back. This simply means that this district is feeding other places with tho means to construct roads, railways, bridges, public buildings, etc. which tho district itself requires hut cannot; got, and yet wo foolishly support a Government that treats us iu that way. All that need ho said is that if we continue to do so wo deserve no bottor treatmont.