Marlborough Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1881.

Marlborough Daily Times, Volume III, Issue 302, 26 October 1881, Page 2

Marlborough Times. WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1881.

I.v a recent issue we discussed at some length the qualifications necessary in a candidate for Parliamentary honors, and since then we find that one of our Napier contemporaries, the / fuwkes Bay Herald, in discussing the same subject, takes similar views to those we expressed. After pointing out that when the legislature of a country falls into disrepute the best men decline to enter into politics, and leave the reins of Government in the hands of needy adventurers and political quacks, our contemporary says : —“ Poets, it is said, are born, not made, and as it is with poets, so it is with politicians. Some men could sit in Parliament for the space of an ordinary life-time, and yet at the end of their term have no more understanding of the real principles of political economy than the schoolboy who, for a special prize, makes literary hash of Smith, Fawcett, or Mill. The smaller the population of a country, the fewer are the politicians—men quick to grasp the effect of novel proposals, firm in administration, originative in design, and, above all, honorable and straightforward in their dealings, not only as public men but as private citizens, and in a colony like New Zealand every man of this stamp should, if possible, be induced to come forward. We cannot aflbrd to lose any of them. If a man have that behind him which is disgraceful to him as a husband, a father, or a. citizen, he is unfitted for jndjlic bj'f. As long as lie remains in obscurity his social sins may be winked at or dimmed by the passage of lime, bnt when ho attempts to enter into public life, he, by his own action, turns the fierce light of public criticism on himself. If the effect were merely to ruin him in reputation no one would much regret it; but, unfortunately, the influence of the exposure passes far beyond him. The other members of the legislature to some extent, share in the disgrace. After alluding to the prevalence of political corruption in the United States, our contemporary says :• — “ Every year politics in America arc becoming more and more exclusively the pursuit of adventurers—-the field upon which bar-

tens the indolent man who can “spout” on the stump, but has no other qualification for senatorial honors, unless a comfortable elastic conscience be placed in that category. In New Zealand we are not without this type of politician. It is not necessary to mention names—a dozen will rea lily recur to anyone who will devote a minute’s thought to the not very difficult task. A dozen is a small proportion in out Parliament, but it is sufficient to lower the standard of the dignity which should attach to the legislature. Honorable men do not care to sit cheek by jowl with these pariahs of the House—they feel their own self-re-sjrect lowered by the contact.' 1 The journal from which we quote then goes on to allude to the retirement of Messrs Richardson, Stevens, and Gisborne from political life, and points out that although “ private business” is put forward as the reason, it is more than possible that if they told the whole truth there would he found at the bottom of their motives a large substratum of disgust at being put in the same class with some with whom honorable men do not care (o consort. “At the coming general election,” says the He.ruhl, no doubt many of this class of adventurers will come to the front, trusting to the redistribution of seats, extension of political power, and the general turning upside down of our political system to throw to the sutface some of the flotsam and jetsam of politics, of which they form a portion. If the constituencies return any large proportion of these men the result must be a gradual abandonment of politics to a class of professional stump-orators, having no interest in the country, caring nothing for tomorrow, and anxious onfy to feather then own private nests while the opportunity is given to them. It will be a bad day for New Zealand if our wealther men of leisure are driven from the legislature ; yet there is no small fear of such a misfortune if care be not taken within the next few months to select as members the most honorable and capable of the hundreds of candidates offered.” We have taken the liberty of republishing the above remarks for the reason that they are well worthy of being carefully studied by the electors in view of the pending contest. Coming also, from a distance as they do, it is readily seen that, if they have any bearing upon our local politics, they were certainly not written with that object.