The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, Judy 11, 1912. NEW ZEALAND’S HOPE.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1068, 11 July 1912, Page 2

The Manawatu Herald. Thursday, Judy 11, 1912. NEW ZEALAND’S HOPE.

A community is successful in proportion to the number of active and intelligent people it contains. The history of a country is not so much the history of its personages. There is no evidence in history of a whole people having reached a high state of efficiency or individuality. It has always been a case of few leaders and many followers. Great leaders lead because they can’t help it —it is the expression of their peculiar genius. The small, self-advertising, loudmouthed person only leads those who are unworthy to be led in order to obtain either notoriety or money. New Zealand is peculiary cursed with alleged leaders of this class. It is a proof of the old truism, “a little learning is a dangerous thing.” Among the people who presumably rule in this Dominion, it is an axiom that a .person who attains a higher degree of scholarship, power of initiative or creative ability, is a person to be scorned. The reason tor this is that, on the whole, the people are poorly educated the wild-eyed “leaders” merely selfish. Noise is so frequently mistaken for the birth pangs of ideas and constructive work, that the general outlook is often not at all true. The acceptance of destructive and lazy demagoges as emancipators makes the people lose their sense of proportion and perspective. The peculiar form of Government which has become common to New Zealand has given the people an idea that spoonfeeding is the only method possible in rearing a lusty nation. The fault that lies at the root of class consciousness is that leaders in most cases have not been fit to lead. Acceptance of views worn to tatters in France during the revolution, and in Britain during the Chartist period, are mere evidences of an imitative and not a creative faculty. New Zealand owes the establishment of its institutions and its constitutions, not to the political deraogague and inferior education, but to those high minded, highly educated and traditionary honourable men who were common to the country i' l birth struggles. In later years the people have been to the habit ot jettisoning any man who has a reasonable likeness ru matters ot attainment and principle to those earlier liniments. In dissecting the Ministries of the past two and a halt decades, the dissector is bound to conclude that high attainment or ability has been uncommon dining their Ministry. The recently defeated Ministry had no

man of outstanding qualification or high attainments. If Ministers were chosen solely lor their knowledge and statecraft, no single member ot the Mackenzie combination would pass. It' is an axiom that the people always deserve the Government they get. The people may not be prepared for a Government that will really govern, and it cannot, therefore, be decided at this stage whether the Dominion will welcome a Government which is obviously not an exalted branch of the federation of Labour, or, which will kow tow to every Tom, Dick and Harry that issues orders lor its observances. Without exception—there is one vacancy yet to be filled—the men chosen by Mr Massey are men of educative and proved ability. Because party is subordinate in New Zealand to every other consideration the secession ot Mr J. A. Millar (obviously in order that he might be included in the Massey Cabinet), it will be held that Mr Millar has not “played the game.” It is perfectly true that he hasn’t “played the game,” and he may redeem bis political character by working for the people as distinct from the Reform Party. Mr Herdtuan is essentially a strong man. He has culture, education and understanding. He must be the outstanding feature of a Cabinet superior in every way to any Government since pre-Seddon days. We believe that the Massey Ministry will end the “crank” period of Government, if it is possible to persuade Mr James Allen to take a brighter outlook inlile. Sir Joseph Ward has mentioned that Mr Massey has a hard time ahead. That is to say, Sir Joseph Ward conceives that the men opposing the Massey Administration will be acute enough to harass it and poison its effectiveness. We take the liberty of believing that in a battle of brains the men in the Massey Cabinet can welt and beat any other combination in the House. There is hope that uuder the administration of competent and educated men, the standard for candidates of Parliament may be raised. A very large proportion of members of Parliament are exceedingly ignorant men. The accusation, therefore, is that the people whom they represent are as ignorant as they. It membership of Parliament becomes an honourable career under the new administration, the long weary fight will not have been in vain.