The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE. MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1920. ABUSES OF PARTY GOVERNMENT

Taihape Daily Times, Volume XI, Issue 3565, 30 August 1920, Page 4

The Taihape Daily Times AND WAIMARINO ADVOCATE.

MONDAY, AUGUST 30, 1920. ABUSES OF PARTY GOVERNMENT

With which is incorporated i “The Taihape Post and Waimarino News ”

Party government has drifted on. through a system of beaucracy until it has developed into little less than despotism. In the course of Lis remarks on Tuesday, in Parliament, Mr Yeitch stated that he agreed with neither extreme, with neither section of anarchists, but he might have gone further and have said that one extreme came into being as the natural enemy of the iother. There is no avoiding knowledge of the course party, government is running, for those opposed to it are so rapidly increasing in numbers as to make it obvious to any political observer that the day of its extinction is drawing near; that in the evolution of government it is a worn out process which must be swept away. Around party government so many abuses have arisen that it is now more correctly termed a n autocracy and is being used a s such < A decadency of governing methods has brought the party .system into disrepute; it has been degraded until it is not recognisable by closest investigation. The more it is looked into and examined the more discoveries make obvious that it is no longer party government. The Ministry system that came as a result of the abuse of parliamentary usuages, and a disregard of the British consti-' tution has to-day been condemned by a majority of the New Zealand Parliament and also by other parliaments of the Empire. Ministries and Members are, in the present Parliament only so many ciphers to do the will and bidding of one man. That one man moves them just as he pleases; many do a lot of protesting, even get angry and threaten, others do his bidding silently, sometimes sullenly. They have been elected to support one man; to do as he wishes and tolls them to do; to do his bidding at oil times in Parliament, and they dare , not do otherwise. Mortal fear fills their souls when the party whip is cracked over them, and they walk like dumb dogs into whatever position they are told to occupy; their very existence as members depends upon complete surrender of their wall and intelligence, in accordance with the promise they gave during their election campaign. It requires na great perspicacity to discover that Members of Parliament are not legislators; that men elected to make laws no longer have any determining voice in shaping legislation. It is seen that the rank and file of the party in power dare offer no resistance to the wishes of the man they have been elected to support, and those elected to oppose that leader are in such a minority that it would do no harm if they were not in the House at all. It is true that the squirms of some indicate that the yoke a vicious parliamentary system places around their necks is just about intolerable, but they can do nothing, and so it is' that by a n abuse of the constitution New Zealand is ruled and legislated for by one-man; it is a one-man governed country. The most ludicruous methods of administration may be protested against but the one-man government either unheodg the protestations, or merely laughs at their futility. Early in the present session an effort was made to get hack to government by Ministry, but the one-man power told his party he would not. tolerate it and they had to vote against, it; and difi vote against it like lambs driven to slaughter, notwithstanding that some had

spoken in favour of a return to a more honest system. It is truly pitiable to see a inan standing up in the House and parrot-like shouting out that the present Parliament is the best ever elected; that Members will view with pride the beauty of their handiwork when the session comes to an end. No one knows better than that one man that Parliamet had nothing to do with what legislation is put on the Statute Book, other than do as the one-man told them, or compelled them to do. Mr Veitch stigmatises this as a form of anarchy, and history unfailingly discloses that this form of anarchy is responsible for another form of anarchy. There is now a war raging between two forms of anarchy in New Zealand, and what is to be the outcome from the general taxpayers’ point of view? The constitution is being scrapped daily and the powers of Parliament aje constantly being Abrogated, and usurped by the Governor-in-Council, that is the one-man government Members, and even ex-Ministers strongly protest against this abuse of power under the Constitution, but it makes no difference, for is there not a huge majority elected to servilely do the one-man government's bidding? The continuance of war legislation two years after war ceased and peace was declared is openly accepted as a threat of coercion by labour, and whether it is apparent to the one-man government or not, this idea is very rapidly spreading through every section of the working community. To threaten is to invite resentment of one character or another, and if to threaten is going to estrange all workers from an evolution to better conditions, and to espouse revolutionary methods, what has the one-man government achieved? Surely it is not presumed that a display of military strength would ever bo widely tolerated by New Zealand people; then what is the nse of contemplating anything of the kind. If what is suggested in Pa rliametary dicusssions correctly states the position with regard to war legislation, then we say, unhesitatingly, that some one is appallingly blundering; a terrible mistake is being made. No oneman government'will rule the country by force for very long; a look into all past history will disclose the fact that all attempts of that nature have come to an ignominious end_ As Mr Hanan stated, there should be-a revaluation of the human element; man collectively is still reasonable, and still capable of reasoning out a way to make life in the world all it should be —let the appeal be to reason, not anything else.