The Daily News THURSDAY, JULY 11. THE ART OF STATESMANSHIP

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 11 July 1907, Page 2

The Daily News THURSDAY, JULY 11. THE ART OF STATESMANSHIP

livery business, except thai of polities, lias lo lie learnt. It. retina's more nppli- ; cation to become 11 . dniinlayer than to liecome a politician. .Sonic persistence of the use of speech; some ell'ort to liecome ''popular" may lie necessary to become :i fiiily-lledged politician, hut, unlike the profession of ilrainlaying, no previous training or aptitude or education is iu the least necessary. A politician's training begin* when lie is being fully paid for the Work* lie sometimes doesn't do. That Is to say, as far as New Zealand is concerned, a politician of thirty years' service (and who may ihcielore have hud time to study May on Parliamentary procedure I is looked upon as only of equal value to the railway porter who joined yesterday or the bookse!l»r who won his scat last'election. It does not really mailer whether the I'arlini itarv representative Ims been n navvy or an iI.A.

It is right and proper that the New Z-a-land lloiiM' of Representatives shou'd lie recruited fnu.i every class of the community. This country say„ ii is democratic. Hut it is not right and proper that any man should be given a position in anv line of life unless lie 1u,., |i :u l some (raining. The M.11.1t. make* the law. At least he is supposed to do so. If ho really did make (he law there would be no need for any Parliamentary staff outside the people's representatives. The judge Sees not make the law. lie administers the law as. supposed to be made by the M.H.R. One would imagine a man required to know less about a business he had no hand in than the man who created the business. And yet no appointment to a judgeship has ever been made iu Xew Zealand in which the appointed judge has been suddenly transplanted from private citizenship, or a grocery store, or a farmstead to the Supreme Court Bench.

In tlie management of your farm, when you propose leaving it to take a trip to Europe, yon do not send to town for a draper, and the directorate of a bank has never yet made a bank manager of an ironmonger. Put in the management of a country, the people say definitely that anybody, no matter' what his lack of training-may be, is a lit and proper person to do the most Important work of all. A .Minister <jf the Crown is not necessarily a trained man as far as the duties pertaining to his office are concerned. He becomes the head of a great Department of State even though the previous day he has never done anything more intellectual than grubbing furze. He may. of course, be a better man as a Minister than as a grubber of furze. If the Ministry went out of office next week, there would be a new Cabinet. Although members of the new Cabinet need not necessarily have ever been members of a Cabinet before, yet the sudden rise to a position they were quite unfitted for through inexperience would mean the trebling of their salaries and the increase of their perquisites and social status.

The Hon. Mr .Scotland has some ideas on the subject and gave them utterance in the Upper House the other day. He said that a man might be a bush carpenter one day and a statesman the next. Which is perfectly true. But if by "statesman" the Jlou. Legislative Councillor means "Minister of the Crown," it follows that the bush carpenter must have had some Parliamentary experience as n member. Un the other hand, a man may never have passed the sixth standard examination in his life. He may have made money. He need not necessarily be able to write three words in English, hut he can at once be made an M.L.C. As to ■"professional" politicians who came in for the scorn of the Legislative Councillor. That is the point of our argument. 'the curse of politics is its dilettantism. Politics is 100 much of a spell between tile everyday rounds of work. The newest member, who has been living the strenuous life chopping Imsli, goes int.. Parliament and affects the blase air ..I' lie- old Parliamentary slumberer. He Icarus more quieklv than anything else that he mav lie- down in hi- place in tin- House, 'that l»e mav ke»p his ].-it on. although the wouldn't think of doing so in a court where "his" laws are administered, and he also learns thai lie may go to sleep and even snore in the presence of an admiring public and the ladies' gallery. Jle also learns that it is the best of Parliamentary good form to he in the House as little as possible, and to have "urgent private business" pretty often. As a man who has pledged himseif to work bird for his constituents, he knows that the library or the lobbies or any other place is near enough to the chamber to be when an important matter is in debate. As long as the "whips" know where he is and can g,.t him to vole on a matter be doesn't understand for the Party tliat only wants his vole ami not his opinion, bis service to the country is complete.

We regard tlic proposed appoiulineul of four Parliamentary under-secrclaries, whose Julius shall be apparently .Ministerial, with mixed feeling*. Presumably when a .Minister died of overwork these Parliamentary under-secrctarics would become boiut-lidc Ministers. They would at least have had some trainiug, and wouid probably be able to dash off signatures in the fastest ministerial manner, it is, of course, supposed that i'arliametilry secretaries would increase the cost of administration by several thousands of pounds a year, it is recognised that Ministers work very hard in New Zealand. They are übicpiitous. They travel constantly. They open everything, from a new fishpond to a railway station, Seeing that it is now possible for Ministers to spend three parts ol the year dushing round the country opening railway stations and "keeping things steadily in view," and seeing that it is possible for many members of the Lower House to keep their billets even though they live in the lobbies or the card-room, it seems a little incredible that a country so heavily manned as regards administrators should still reipiire more, Parliamentary salaries are paid for the whole year whether tin- people paid are working one month or three during any year. In fact, it seem- to be an axiom thai good legislation can only be effected by (he least possible work being done in the least possible ti at the. greatest possible expense. The administrative work for a town'-, population spread over a couple of islands js as expensive as the same work ought to be if this country were crowded to tlie shores. The importance of politics is greatly exaggerated, possibly hecause politicians fear that should the public become really alive to the unnecessary expenditure they should call for a curtailment.

There lire too many M.'sH.R. The necessity for three or lour representatives lor any city isn't apparent. The colony (we shall have to call it a Dominion directly) could very well weed out ten ■city members and half the Legislative (..•nihil could do all the work that the whole now undertake. Government departments are crammed to bursting. Some other departments are always worked short-handed. The reason why some me short-handed is that men of no experience are useless to them. The men ui' no experience get the same wages as the others, and the stamp-licking and waste paper industries thrive, while the necessary work languishes. And this being so. it is. imm the point of view of Ihe average "statesman," highly neces-

sary to increase the administrative staff hi' Parliament. As loDg as we have a lai-jrt' Parliament and huge staffs that :nv paid all the year round whether they work (ir mi. what matters the women ulin die nf loneliness in the back-U'"-U n -ample truth about which was lull! hy \rr .Icnnm.r, Hie other dav? 1Vll: Ml (its (In- liiK-U-lilot-ks telephones. making life more possible us lim« as Tlin.'ini mill fiiveivm-jriil hnic t]„. !a((ls( |-ii(ni-riiij:iii H -' telephones? What matter the back-country roads of Tarnnaki. inaiiy of which as we write are actually mill entirely impassable, as long as Dunedin has the finest railway station in Australasia? What matters anything so ">iiU ns_ Parliamentarians are made' and j tint trained? What matters the people as lone; as politicians are paid? What ninl I its the development of the hack- ' eouiiivy as lonj. as Ministers are to get i skil'ed belli? What matters politicians talkiim as if New Zealand were the earth and lbe co-mo, revolved round it?