PARTY POLITICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXIX, Issue 62, 4 July 1914, Page 4

PARTY POLITICS.

The game of Tarty Politics the world over does not seem to be improving. We in Nov, Zealand are apparently leading up to a hitter party wrangle before the General Elections. In England much of the old dignity which for so long graced the proceedings of the Imperial Parliament has disappeared. In the neighboring States of the Australian Commonwealth matters are just as had, and in a recent issue the Sydney Daily Telegraph, under the heading of "Dirty Politics," says :—"The concluding stages of the present Federal Parliament have been disagreeably marked by what would too politely be called recrimination.! It is scarcely to be said that either, side sets any example in behaviour c'o the other, but the Labor party has achieved the doubtful credit of going furthest by its charges of jerrymandering and other devious jugglings with the electoral rolls. As far as the Government is aimed at in these accusations it may perhaps he said, with truth that they are not out of the ordinary way of tilings. It is deplorable to reflect that there is nothing unusual in one party asserting that the other is rigging or has rigged the rolls with the deliberate purpose of preventing qualified persons from voting or of enabling unqualified persons to vote; but there it is. Lahor's excess is in its unmistakahle innuendo that Ministers are acting in collusion with officials whom they are inferred to have corrupted to doctor up the rolls to Liberal advantage. There is not a tittle of evidence to support this charge against the officials, which appears to have been made in the heat of debate by several Laborites. If the politicians find the hurling of opprobium at each other irresistibly tempting, at least they might refrain'from throwing mud at the public's employees, whom there is no reason at all to distrust. But even apart from that, the tone of the House and the hustings in this contest is deplorably suggestive of depraved politics. The warning that the fighting would be 'dirty' is already heing unpleasantly justified. Have the politicians addicted to these tactics become so deeply inured to them that it is too late to urge them to cultivate a little decent self-restraint iii discussing the country's affairs? They may he sure that the public does not want 'dirty' fighting. On the contrary) that sort of thing soon palls, and when persisted in only brings politics and politicians into contempt. It is not just to the public that its business should be clouded and issues of vital importance obscured by vilification and abuse in the discussion. And it is anything but complimentary to the country that a few politicians should consider ite their privilege to turn a general election into a riotous occasion for exchanging personal abuse and wild charges of corruption."