PUBLIC OPINION

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 644, 23 September 1933, Page 6

PUBLIC OPINION

G. HAMILTON

FRASER.

The "Post" at all tlmes welcomes con espondence from its readers. It must, however, be clearly understood that we accept no respc-nsibility for the views expressed by ' our correspondents.5 , PARTY POLITICS. f To the Editor. Sir, — Party politics are obsolete. Therein you have the fundamental cause of political incompetency and chaos. Party politics have served their purpose, but a prevalent lack of perception of this fact is endeavouring to force their obsolete equipment to function in a new evolutionary era. In short, the machinery of medieval times is attempting to tackle and elucidate 2th century problems and necessities. What wonder' the general collapse! The "old order" has changed, our method of government wags behind. like the tail of a dog. Our whole machinery of government needs scrapping;. And a complete structural ehange is essential. Anything but a struc-tural reorganisation is useless. Of what use readjustments ? Temporary expedients ? Bolstering up old systems? Or that most futile evergreen remedy from our political •ills — change of party. Ch'ange of party at its best is but a palliative, at its most but an aggravation. The substitution of one ill for another. It is a futile procedure, because it does not remedy the deficiencies of the system. And'-it is the system that is fundamenta-lly obsolete, archaic. Each and every party invariably passes out of power, leaving a heritage of halfformulated plans, -half-fulfilled work, broken promises, and a welter of problems, mistakes and debts. The new party scraps that which it considers unessential or immaterial — not to the country's welfare, mark you — but to its party policy. And, so we find, the present a confused inefficiency, and futurity is mortgaged in a most eulpable manner and we are in a continual state of political juggling. Our national existence is being continually subjected to the chaotic, selfinterested s(trategems, talkative ignorance of economic and administrative amateurs. That which will gain popular favour, that which will maintain candidates in power, enable them to down their opponents (no matter at what sacrifice of principles and personal integrity) that, and that chiefly, is considered legitimate politics. And, completing the vicious circle, the democratic vote! With the intelligent, the sound men and women hopelessly over-ruled by the thousands whose political minds, as far as it can be said they have political minds at all, have been formed in the cinemas, whose comprehension of the fundamenjfial > signifieanc^s of social exigencies is comparatively negligible. And at election time we witness that 'appalling farce - whereby the vote of the degenerate, the half-wit, the crook and so on is of equal value to the vote of the honourable, the sane, the thinking, the decent citizen. The intelligence, the pathetic stupidity of it. And the remedy? Vocational control. Let the candidate for governmental office be duly qualified for his office. Let him stand before the electors as an individual expert, offering himself for election and selection on the basis of personal achievement and proven charaeter. Let this candidate be elected to a specific office. In explanation: For argument's sake, I wish to become Minister of Education. So I ; must, with such an objective in view, adopt education as my vocation and become ahsolutely au fait with every phase, every study pertaining to education, a supremely important science. The doctor, the lawyer, the architect, the plumber, and so forth must learn their jobs — imperatively. Not so the parliamentary candidate. The irony of -it! A piece of plumbing needs doing. So! The plumber is engaged — tnot the lawyer. Niaturally. And yet — (the idiocy of it — we see, for argument's sake, an ex-grocer, an exmerchant, appointed Minister of Health, Minister of Education, and so forth and so forth. It is imbecile. As matters stand, politics alone escape the world's demand for expert guidance and control. Wtll, sir, until administration of a country is considered at least as important1 as our •household plumbing', what can we — . in all logic— reasonahly expect? Just what we are experiencing — no more, no less — jthe electors f£d on political cant; that highly intricate, complex science — our national ^ life — subjected to manifold deplorable exhibitdons of maladministration ' of ignorant deleterious practices. — I am, etc.

Remuera, Sept.,21, 1933.