The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 26. ARE WE GETTING VALUE

Taranaki Daily News, Volume L, Issue 60, 26 August 1907, Page 2

The Daily News. MONDAY, AUGUST 26. ARE WE GETTING VALUE

It is now about two months since Parliament met. Day by day the press of New Zealand lias published a summary of the diurnal and nocturnal sayings of our legislators. As to their doings there is ominous silence. Those who have followed the proceedings of the chosen representatives of the people have had an opportunity of ganging the value of the services rendered by the members elected to conduct the business "of the country. Up to the present no measure of importance has been passed or even seriously considered. It is true that the House has decided in favor of dubbing the colony A Dominion. No doubt this is a splendid achievement, and will confer c certain amount of glory on the Premier for the time being when meeting other colonial Prime Ministers, but it can scarcely be regarded as a factor in the political, social, or economical progress of the colony. Up to the present, beyond the formal matters, such as estimates, there is little if anything to shew for the enormous expense entailed in connection with the meeting of Parliament. Let anyone compare the work of the list week of a session with that of the first two or three months which are invariably frittered away in a more or less culpable manner, and no rational person can come to any other conclusion than that the members as a whole signally fail to realise that they are paid to work for the people they represent, and not to sit down beside that work nor spend the time in idle gos?ip or useless bickering over trifles. There are important measures to discuss, and it is the work of making laws for the ■well-being of the colony that should occupy the time of our legislators, instead of that the Parliament of New Zealand seems to he drifting into a similar st-ito of noise and chatter to that which Aristophanes quaintly describes in "The Aeharnians" as existing in the Assembly at Athens somewhere about the year 425 B.C. If the present nge is rightly called an age of progress, there must be a screw loose somewhere, and the sooner pressure is applied the better for the people.

When a business man engages another to do certain work for him'at a fixed' rate of remuneration, lie naturally experts and insists on having value for iiis money in services rendered. Not any kind of service that the wage-earner thinks fit to •rive, but the special work assigned to him by tTip employer. Would any merchant, for example, be content to see his clerks merely put in an appearance at .his office daily from nine to five, and spend (he whole day in liscussing (most intelligently, no' doubt), the propriety, or otherwise, of the employer engaging a highly qualified botanist as head gardener,'thereby inflicting an undeserved slight on the old reliable retainer who had occupied the post successfully in the past? Possibly the gardener would shed tears of gratitude over the matter, and probably the botanist would feel slightly uncomfortable, but what would the merchant think? If ho were worthy of being c tiled a business man he would not stop to think, but his action would \-.? prompt, and tri the point, while aew fields would await the unprofitable timewasters. Surely the business affairs of a country should demand even far more concentrated attention than that of a trader or professional man, if for no other reason than that the work is confined to a few months of the year. Taking the duration of a session' Md assigning for each day when the House sits a proportion of the so-called honorarium so as to spread the totil sum over the number of days members arc present, the pay per ' day works out at a very respectable figure. This, however, is not the whole of the bill by a very long way, nor is tile expense confined to the taxpayer, as journalistic proprietors know to their cost. We .'ire are truly a_ long suffering people. Some there are who think a remedv should be found for the evil, but until the people assert themselves as they undoubtedly should the waste of time and money will continue. The question is entirely in the electors' hands. All they have to do-is to say "finis" to the'politic il career of all and every M.TI.R. who does not act up to the'ordinary canons of commercial morality by giving gaoi\ value for the piy he receives. Let there be no mistake in our meaning. We do not by any means advocate the election of "silent" members. That is the other extreme. The pressing need of the day in politics is the elimination of the time-wasters and the verbose inebriates. Replace these with intelligent men possessed of common sense (not the hackneyed phrase, but the genuine article known as "the sense of the common interest"), and imbued with that virtue from which springs the inducement of promoting the welfare of the community and the obliteration of all desire for self-aggrandisement or notoriety. If the time that is now wasted in Parliament were devoted to discussing the requirements of the people in a business-like way much good would be accomplished, many ill-consid-ered and faulty measures would not be passed into law, and the money at present wasted could be diverted 'into useful channels. Above all the reputation of the New Zealand Parliament would soon be a source of pride and gratification to those on whom the choice of representatives devolves.

It is said that among the multitude ot councillors there is wisdom; and it may be stated with equal force that the wisdom found amongst the Parliamentary multitude, it is not only difficult ot dissever, hut altogether woefully indaquate on the average for the individual. The question naturally arises as to whelhei a much smaller number, selected on a proper principle, would not prodac. better results. Here again the applica tionof general business methods shouli apply. If a person requires the scrvi cos of, say, a physician, would a mountebank be called in and his gli utterances be deemed as elfective a the skill of the scientifically trained o.\ pert in the healing art? The fomiei would talk till further orders and pic bably afford some amusement, but th latter would ascertain the nature o the ailment and prescribe the remeif after asking a few necessary questions' Ur course it cannot ue expected that a larliament of political experts will ev,' be tolerated. Government bv the people tor the people, is looked upon by th masses as the essence of that freedon winch is the pride and glory of tlii colony. There is such a thing as pa\ mg too dearly for catchword constitii tionalism, the prevailing force in whic] is sentiment instead of reason. Th trend of our legislation, of course, ha been, and will |>c, in th people's interests. The rails of the pei manent way of progress have been'aii on a good foundation, Unt the maelii nery in use is sadly in need of over hauling. There is too much puffing am blowing, too little consistent running and not a little backing connected witl our parliamentary train. The resul is that important goods get strandci on sidings, or dropped altogether while (lie officials- in charge are exchaneins views on things in general, regardless" of the precious freight committed to theii charge. The only sign of activity is when time is nearly up: then comes (he scramble for the. final run for homcor theOhristclmrch races—and it is a ease of lightening the load so as to end the journey, though with a lettered and shrunken collection of packages, many of which will need remanufacture before being of any use. Meanwhile judges, solicitors, and barristers have a busy time—and the people pay. Tt is always the people who pay', and carry their burdens with the patience of clrnnil) animals, as if it were their destiny so to do. Strange to say, it is these same people who are the masters <ii the situation, and can, provided they are willing, dictate to those who now so aptly turn the tables on their masters. TTow long this attitude will ,?ontiniin it is Impossible to guess, but that the present cumbersome, spasmodic-ac-(ioned. and ill-equipped legislative machinery needs reconstruction so as to secure the greatest speed and cfficion"y with the least noise and friction, is a fact beyond dispute. It is high timo lo take down from Parliament build iiiL's the sign of "The Talkeries" nucl replace it with another, say, that of "No admittance, except on business."