THE POLITICAL SITUATION

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2255, 29 July 1908, Page 2

THE POLITICAL SITUATION

CHICKENS COMING HOME TO ROOST. WELLINGTON “POST” WANTS NEW PARTY AND NEW POLICY. (Special to “Times.”) WELLINGTON, July 28. The “Evening Post”, which recently stated that it preferred the present Government to the Opposition, has, in to-night’s paper, commenced a campaign in advocacy of reform. In the course of a somewhat remarkable leading ..article the “Post” says: “New Zealand chickens are coming borne to roost-. The expansive policy of the long Seddon administration with its trail of political influence, its taint of political corruption and its estimation of ‘God’s Own Country’, as a place where tlie public revenue could be manipulated to keep a Government in profitable office as dispenser of revenue to deserving supporters and amiable voters, was bound to be followed by a' reaction. Dubious finance, imprudent expenditure, tlie increase of departmental burdens and the decrease of-departmen-tal efficiency are certain, sooner or later, to clog the current of a country’s prosperity. Evidence i 6 not wanting that reaction is coming now, and as soon as the people become .alive to tho fact and its meaning, a policy will be developed to cut away the proud flesh that has accumulated during the years of loan, swollen revenue and concomitant expenditure. Only the labor of the man on the land and the success of the primary industries have sustained us this-long. The time is at hand, if it is not already here, when the country must take a course of wholesome medicine. The administration of the Baliance, Beddon and Ward Governments undoubtedly lias conferred great benefits upon the people, but these benefits, at least in later years, would liave been greater still if they had not been hampered by the system under which they were given, a- system of debauching the electoral constituents and of demoralising the public service. In order that the position of the Government as sole dispenser of favors might be still more firmly entrenched, democratic insurance policy has been far too heavily loaded in proportion to the advantages which it guarantees.” After some remarks on the decentralisation of executive functions, the “Post” goes on to propound a policy that practically embraces the whole opposition policy and goes, if anything, a little further. This platform is outlined as follows: (1) Clean finance, which means the simplification of the public accounts on the lines of any great public corporation duly certified or otherwise by a general or comprehensive report by the Auditor-General upon all accounts, without exception; (2) a royal commission on the public service of the colony to determine the quality and effectiveness of tlie systems and the possibilities of retrenchment; (3) a statutory public service board that shall, as far as may be possible, remove appointments and promotions from tho .reach of political control; (4) a return of the management of the railway service to a board 0 f control, as in the Australian States, benefits of sucb a change being apparent in tho more economic administration of those States; (5) reform of the House of Representatives as a public works board; (6) the resumption of private estates under the Land for Settlements Act to be, before taking, approved by both Houses of Parliament; (7) the management of independent boards of control under statute of the lending department of the State; (8) that all Government measures'.shall, as, far as may bo possible, define and limit the powors of the Cabinet' to exclusion of the exercise of like- powers by the Governor in Council under regulation.