Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News. SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1908, POLITICS FOR NEW ZEALANDERS.

Te Aroha News, Volume XXVII, Issue 43386, 17 October 1908, Page 2

Te Aroha AND Ohinemuri News.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 1908, POLITICS FOR NEW ZEALANDERS.

This above all—to thine own self be true, \nd it must follow as the night the day Thou canst not then be false to any man Shakespeare.

The general election for the new Parliament is now very near at hand. It is a gratifying feature of these

degenerate, selfish and unpatriotic days to find, at election times, so many gentlemen in New Zealand are anxious to sacrifice - their ease, peac e of mind, business gains, and numerous etceteras, to serve their ( country in Parliament for a paltry £25 per month, secured by law, as nobody else’s wages are, against butchers and bakers. It is downright magnanimous. The ambition to serve their country in Parliament is a very laudable one, provided the aspirants be qualified and otherwise suitable. Ah, there’s the rub! If a blacksmith wanted _to pull my tooth out, or if a butcher wanted to physic me from dyspepsia, 1 would object. Their abuse of each other, their noisy self-assertion, and their persistent offers to do ithe proffered service, would not affect me one bit. I would choose a dentist and a doctor because they have qualified themselves to treat certain bodily ailm ints. That would be ordinary prudence. It is not so in politics. “ Dick, Tom and Harry, ’ without any qualification whatever, but simply because they have selfconfidence or audacity, come forforward and not only offer themselves, but positively thrust them selves upon a community and actually abuse the other side for presuming to doubt them or to contest their claim. That sort of thing does not strike us as being singular, although it would strike us as being so if any person not qualified as a solicitor trust himself upon us for important legal business. History proves that it struck the ancient Greeks as being extremely anomalous when Glaucon, the son of Ariston, attempted to have a share in the Government of the State. Socrates questioned him as to his ability to do good service to the State. Poor Gloucon was put to shame by his confessed ignorance of the very A.B.C. of the science of Government. Socrates did the same with Euthydemas; and to expose the folly of those who that, for the difficult work of legislation and government, no previous study and qualification are required, he makes his pupil say: “I, O men of Athens, have never learned the medical art from any one, nor have I been desirous that any physician should instruct me, for I have constantly been on my guard against appearing to have learned anything; nevertheless, confer on me this medical appointment, for I will endeavour to learn by making experiments upon you! He says: “At this mode of opening a speech all who were present burst out into laughter ! But how comes it that, whereas a chemist’s assistant or a quack doctor gets punished for ignorantly compounding medicine l that kills one, or for unskilfully ■ setting a broken bone, politicans who ignorantly injure the body-politic through their incompetence, and thus do infinitely more harm than poisoning a ’ host of people, get off scot free ? How comes it that whereas lawyers, carpenters, blacksmiths, and '.other professional men artisans have to learn their callings, politicians who move on the highest plane affecting the nation, it may be for generations, do not prepare ? Men who can not, for lack of brains or industry, make a living at hard work, rush into politics and make a trade of it, as if, forsooth, everybody could formulate, discuss, or decide on good laws to make people happy and prosperous. If to vote for the election of an unqualified man to act as superintendent of the Auckland Hospital were absurd and mischievous, how much more so to vote for an unqualified man to make rules or laws for the body-politic, involving great questions of international laws. educi.fcion, national defence, foreign trade, and social, moral and economic well-being ?

Thatsome men ignorant of politics ?nd who never succeeded in doing much good for themselves or the community, should “ take such extravagant pains occasionally for the mere sake of doing good to ol hers ” in Parliament is what baffled Lord Halifax in the 17th century, and still baffles many to-day. “ Such a self-denying zeal in such a selfseeking age is so little to be imagined that it may without inquiry be suspected. ’’ We entrust poli icians with our money and our liberty, with our domestic and public welfare ( but we would not make some of them truitees for our wives and families), therefore it is most necessary that we make a wise choice when the time comes. It is not enough that “ He’s such a nice man ”, or tha “ He has got such a large family”, or that “ He has got the gift of the gab ", or that ■* He won’t be sat upon ’ Politics is a most difflcult and complex science, involving, as it does, a knowledge of economics, sociology, history, civil liberty, and human nature. Shortly the people will be called upon to choose legislators for a term of three years. Will they rise to the occasion and do their duty ? Will they without fear or favour, affection or ill-will, choose only such men as will do credit 10 those who elect them anc good, service to the Dominion? They will be the men of our choice. We shall be judged by history for the choice we make. We shall entail upon ourselves and our children the consequences of our choice. , Judging from the past, it is certain that a great number of’

persons will be too much absorbed I in pleasure-seeking, money-making, or other personal pursuits, to trouble at.all about the election of good or suitable men. Some of these who ought to know better will even go so far as to call him “ a fool for his pains ”, if a man exert himself to get suitable members elected. They will say “He had better mind his own business. ” Mr. Herbert Spencer had a word for such as them He said: “ The man who, expending his energies wholly on private affairs, I refuses to take trouble about public affairs, pluming himself on his wisdom in minding his own business, is blind to the fact that his own business is made possible only by maintenance of a healths 7 s icial state and that he loses all round by defective governmental arrangements Where there are many like-minded with himself; where, as a consequence, offices’ come to be filled by political adventurers, and opinion is swayed by demagogueswhere bribery vitiates the administration of the law, and makes fraudulent State transactions habitual, heavy penalties fall on the community at large, among others on those who have done everything for self and nothing for society. Their investments are insecure, recovery of debts is difficult, and even their lives are less safe than they otherwise would have been. ”

Surely love of Country is not dead ! Surely the political privilege of choosing our own legislators is one not to be abused, or misued, or neglected. Let us even now seek out suitable men and each one rise to the occasion and do our duty in the next election, when it comes. To the winds with political apathy ! Surely none of us will : “ Let lightly fall, without recall, The written Scroll a breath may float; The crowning fact, the kingliest act Of freemen, is a free man’s vote. ”