The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1908. THE TAIHOA POLICY.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVI, Issue 2341, 6 November 1908, Page 4

The Gisborne Times. PUBLISHED EVERY MORNING. FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 6, 1908. THE TAIHOA POLICY.

On Wednesday night the Hon. James Carroll expressed regret that what he described as parochial matters were sometimes permitted to overshadow the larger questions of national policy. He claimed to have not neglected local interests, but urged that lie had always taken the widest view of his parliamentary duties. This is, of course, a very plausible method of cloaking over the fact That the lion, gentleman is, from a district point of view, one of the least satisfactory members in the whole of the Parliament. Wo do not want parochialism in our politics, but so long -as tho present system exists it is absolutely necessary that a young district such as ours shall be represented by a member capable of doing a certain amount of hustling in order that we shall get something more than the scraps from the Parliamentary table. Of course, the spectacle of the Native Minister, hustling lor this ob any other purpose is much too dreadful to contemplate, but.there is no doubt the district pays dearly for the privilege- of maintaining this stately dignity in its representative. But when we come co consider this yearning of the lion, gentleman for broader considerations of statesmanship, what do- we find l ? We find that tho Government of which ho is a member is responsible for maintaiuingthe parochial system, and that l:o himself makes no effort to remedy it. The one faulty in our legislative machinery which is responsible petty methods of the roads and bridges member is the system by whi-i Parliament controls the expenditu r< of monies for purely local works. So long as this system is in vogue, so long will our Parliament bo of tho nature'that Mr. Carroll professes to deplore. Bub it is this very s-y-stem which provides the Government of the day with its chief opportunities of exerting political patronage, and it is evident that reform will never come from the so-called Liberal party, who have promised almost- every year dol-

ing the past 15 years to introduce legislation dealing with die subject. No oho who has studied the n.ultvr can fail to realise that the adoe-.ion of a system of local government whereby all purely local matters shall be taken from tho control of the Parliamentary machine and placed in the hands of local authorities, is one of the most urgent needs of the day. Once this is done, there may bo a chance of Parliament attracting, not merely district delegates, but men with national ideals and statesmanlike qualities. Tho Hon. Mr. Carroll knows this perfectly well;'so does bis Government. Yet wliat is he doing in the matter? Nothing at all, and if the hon. gentleman were in Parliament from now until Doomsday no one would ever expect him to move in the matter. If his Government were to hring down a Bill he Mould probably support it, but to- initiate so desirable a reform would be quite .foreign to his methods. Wherefore the Invercargill member will continue to vote sums of money varying from £5 to £SOOO lor purely local works in the North of Auckland, concerning the merits of which he knows absolutely nothing, and the Auckland member will continuo to vote on the desirableness of painting tho prison at tho Bluff or putting a bridge over a Southland stream. TV© noted the other day the which tho tailioa policy is likely to put this Dominion in regard to national defence, but it is evidently quite useless to expect that Gisborne’s representative is going to give a lead on this important subject The iact ol the matter is the Hon. James pictured as a legislator working on broad national lines is something of a joke, for no one ever yet found him doing anything more statesmanlike than expressing compliance with the view’s of his colleagues in the Cabinet. Nature lias endowed Mr. Carroll with brains and a rare gilt of expression, but lias withheld the power of action, with the resulb that ho achieves practically nothing. Words, after all, do not count for much, and the orator is lost in the 20th century when placed among men of action. Judged from this standard-, Gisborne’s present representative is just as unsatisfactory from a national point of view as he is when considered as .a district representative.