DEMOCRACY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVI, Issue 4900, 9 November 1925, Page 3

DEMOCRACY.

A TIIAVELLER’S OPINION. SUCCESS. ONLY BY BRITISH RACE. Interviewed by a reporter, Dr. J. A. Gilruth, formerly Government Veterinarian for New Zealand, and also at one time Administrator of the Northern Territory of Australia, gave'very > decided'views on the question of democracy and democratic government. ' SWINGING BACK. “I am giving my views merely as one who has. travelled, and has been in contact with a number of different countries and their Governments, said Dr. Gilruth. “So far as I c,an see, most of the democratic govern--ments are among the British race, but that is no real credit to them. It is owing to biological influences. Countries other than British that have tried democratic governments are swinging back to autocracy, examples of this being found in Italy and Spain. For hundreds of years, in those countries, the great majority of the people have been serfs, accustomed to be ruled, ruled by force, whereas in Britain they have alw.ays been independent. There the original people were x impinged upon by Romans, Saxons, and Normans, who were all males, and each of a virile and independent character, and amalgamated with ’ the people. __ “The only countries which have been able to manage for any length of time with two parties in Parliament, I have observed,” he continued, “are Britain, the United States^ —an offshoot of the British—and the • British Dominions. On the Continent they have a number of separate parties, and their Governments are never stable. I do not say that this is due •to the climate of Britain, or anything else of that sort, but to the influences I have referred to, and the British are the only people in the world .who can have true democracy. In other words, if you have in the vast majority of a race people who have been bred from serfs, whose lives have always been ordered for them, then you cannot ex- - pect .them to rise .as a whole to the. position of being able-to decide what iis for themselves.” . A BIG DIFFERENCE!. -“But were not the British serfs-?’ Dr. Gilruth was asked. “No, not strictly serfs. ■ You had all the- yeomen, who were never really serfs, and also the Scottish people. These were not serfs in the sense that Continental races were. In Scotland, the chiefs were ‘primus inter pares,’ that is tb say, first among equals, and obeying orders from an autocrat.” ; T«e great difficulty of the world, he thought, - could be solved more easily if the legislators had a knowledge of history and human beings. A sheep breeder did not expect to get a 500guinea ram: from among his culls, but from theiselec.ted stock. In the world we sometimes tseemed to expect to • find a man to lead us all from what might be called the flock sheep. "Apropos my travels,” he went on, “I have been through the world, and seen many/ countries ' and governments-, and. I believe strongly that some nations are not fitted for democracy; France attempted to obtain it in 1789, and a few years; later Napoleon was at .the, of one of the most complete autocracies the world has seen, and France is now in her third period as a .republic. Russia has' gone to so-called deniocracv, .but from what one reads it is another —form of autocracy.” . NEW ZEALAND’S PROGRESS. Speaking of New Zealand, Dr. Gilruth said .that he was seeing the country, again after 17 years, and he was tremendously impressed with the progress that had been made during that period. He could see evidence of progress on every hand, especially in the towns. He could not speak in detail, but he had noticed from statistics and personal observation that, while the population in the towns, particularly the secondary towns, had increased by four or five times in a. quarter of a century, the population of the coun- ' try as, a whole- had -only hbout doubled. Whether that was a good thing or not remained to.be seen. New Zealand was not a manufacturing country; the towns did not produce, but the country did. • "The tendency seems to’be,” he said, in conclusion, “to make life in 'the country more comfortable for the primary producer. • The roads on the whole are better than those of Australia, and electricity has become ,of ' great value to the farmer; alpo, I no*ticed in many farmhouses the telephone. So it seems that the tendency in New Zealand, is to make life more comfortable for the man who is really the backbone of the country, the man on the land. His communications and comfort are much better than they used to be. All of this is in the highest sense conducive to the comfort of the inhabitants and to the genera? prosperity of the Dominion.’