POLITICAL PLEDGES.

Putaruru Press, Volume VI, Issue 257, 11 October 1928, Page 4

POLITICAL PLEDGES.

THROUGHOUT the Dominion there has been a general condemnation by the press of candidates pledging themselves to any sectional organisation. Nevertheless various organisations are striving to bind the freedom of candidates for Parliament. The Bible-in-Schools League and the NeW Zealand Alliance have both made public their intention to seek pledges. Now the New Zealand Manufacturers’ Association is in the field to seek the support of candidates for “ adequate tariff protection ” and support of the establishment of a permanent Tariff Board. “ Adequate tariff protection ” might mean anything; but most probably it will mean higher tariffs. In an editorial the Christchurch Press writes very straightly on the matter. Our contemporary says: “ In thus seeking to obtain promises from candidates it (the Association) is - no doubt unwittingly—acting as directly against the public interest as the other organisations which would make everything subordinate to their particular aims. It might be supposed that if every interest and idea and movement in the country were thus to throw their logs across the main political paths the result would be as if they had all left the candidates alone. But this would not be the result. . in the scrambling for votes many anxious and perplexed politicians would give insincere pledges to

minorities of one kind or another, and the power of the well-organised and ruthless minority would be greater than the power of the majority. Every candidate must have, or ought to have, a general opinion on every public question cf importance, and nobody could object to his being asked for his opinion. But if the candidate were both intelligent and honest he would simply state his opinion, r and would not bind himself to support any particular proposal that was not a recognised part of his Party’s programme. He is not only entitled to claim for himself freedom to deal with these extra and subordinate questions according to the circumstances in which they might come before Parliament. It is his duty to do this unless he is willing to enter the national Parliament as a sectional delegate. And it scarcely requires to be pointed out that the national interest requires that sectional delegates should be kept out of it; To allow any other view is to risk putting the country’s affairs in the hands of particularist minorities.”