Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1907. EDITORIAL NOTES.

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXII, Issue 2032, 20 December 1907, Page 4

Rangitikei Advocate. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 20, 1907. EDITORIAL NOTES.

SIR JOSEPH WARD proposes to introduce a Bill to amend the method of election so as to prevent a candi date being elected without having a majority of votes cast in his favour. At present where three or more candidates are in the field it may happen that the- one who is elected does not obtain half the votes, and therefore may be considered to represent only a minority of the electors. The remedy suggested in the Bills brought forward hitherto is that there should be a second ballot in cases where the candidate at the head of the poll does not receive more than half the votes. This system is in vogue on the Continent of Europe, but it does not appear to have much to recommend it, the chief objection being that it entails a second polling day. Most people find that one polling day every three years is quite enough, and it would be very difficult to bring them out for (he second ballot a few days after the first. Thus the second ballot might fail to be any more satisfactory than the present system. The alternative,to second ballots is that each voter should arrange the candidates in order of merit, and a complicated system of transferring votes is provided for. The present system, however, works well, and there appears no sufficient reason to demand a change. At the 1905 election only 12 members were returned byless“than a majority of the whole number of votes polled. Of these 10 are followers of Sir Joseph Ward and two of Mr Massey. The latter are Messrs Aitken and Lethbridge, who would probably have been chosen under any system, and the same argument applies to the 10 Government supporters. Sir Joseph Ward apparently feels that he will not have enough work to put before the House next session, so he is looking for new proposals.

THE commander of the Antarctic expedition, Lieutenant Shackleton, besides being an intrepid explorer is evidently a student of mankind. He is naturally grateful to the Dominion Government for the contribution of £IOOO to the expenses of his cruise, and has expressed his thanks to the people of New Zealand in the most generous terms. This, however, is what any man might have done, but Lieutenant Shackleton goes beyond this. He promises to send collections of bird and natural history specimens, and mentions that traces of gold and tin have been found in the continent to which he is going. After an artful suggestion that the country may prove a second Kloudyke, he adds that lie will gain the land for the Empire and that it will be in the sphere of influence of New Zealand. The picture is a glorious one. The land from. Auckland to the North Pole is already taken up, but we can spread our influence South and include the South Polo under the sway of Sir Joseph Ward. The Premier has taken up the idea with enthusiasm, and has already established a post office in King Edward VII. ’s land, and has worked off 100 sheets of penny stamps on the expedition. The usual custom to get a foothold in a new country is to send missionaries to convert the natives. There are no natives in the Antarctic regions, so our resourceful Premier sends postage stamps and gets cash down for them, as a means of establishing Pur claim to supremacy.

WHEN our politicians are in difficulties they are seldom destitute of ability to dodge them. Their methods sometimes take the form of urging other people to do something or make some concession. When a politician finds that money cannot be borrowed in a foreign market be boasts about being selfreliant, and raising it in the colony, and forthwith the cash held by public departments as trustees is converted into “ Government debentures.” And when a Ministerial policy has largely increased the cost of everything and done its utmost to erect barriers against trade and commerce with other countries, a politician begins to gird against the owners of a trade route constructed with their capital, and denounces them because they will not make sacrifices which might to some extent compensate for the effects of. his own errors and bad judgment. Accordingly we find our Premier assailing the management of the Suez Canal, because the dues prevent our frozen meat being taken by that route, and prophesying that their discomfiture will occur when the Panama Canal is opened. But the Panama Canal will also exact heavy dues to pay interest on its enormous cost, and the open sea will still be the cheapest route for conveyance of our produce. Of course the directors of

the- Suez Canal will be;able to deal’

with any competition of vtho Panama rente, and we may also rest assured that they will pay ho attention to anything Sir Joseph may say or do. In the meantime he may, however, ‘earn some popularity without expense, by assailing somebody else. But if he really desired to benefit our trade, increase our commerce, cheapen freights, and aid the development of the industries on which the prosperity of all the people of the Dominion depends, ho would first see Ito the removal of the barriers which he and the socialistic trade unions have been instrumental in raising to prevent us utilising the services of other nations. When we have removed these barriers there may be some reason for asking others to do something to cheapen the cost of transport, but not till then.