Untitled

Taranaki Daily News, 12 May 1920, Page 4

UNRESTRAINED PARTISANSHIP. "All is fair in love, war and polities," is an adage that is often quoted by way of excuse for acts that offend against the canons of fairness and decency. Such a plea is a relic of the age of the cave dwellers who were a law unto themselves and knew not the ethics of .civilisation. Thousands of years have elapsed since then, and civilisation has advanced, slowly, perliaps, but surely, and with it a dej]> sense of fair play, tolerance and chivalry. British people pride themselves on "playing the game." It is, therefore, most deplorable to find savage instincts still asserting themselves occasionally in ;i country like New Zealand, where the people enjoy all the blessings of freedom, education, and good government. Such scenes as those which were witnessed at Stratford and Inglewood last Thursday evening after the closing of the polls, when, the defeated candidate was howled down and refused a hearing, and maltreated generally, are a blot on the fair name of the Stratford electorate m particular, and on the Dominion generally. Surely those who were opposed to Mr. Hine in politics should have been fuly satisfied with the result of the polling and not subjected him to treatment (that was as disgraceful as it was unBritish. It is the invariable custom of parliamentary candidates to briefly address the electors after the closing of the polls, and it is recognised by all reasonable people that a fair hearing should be accorded both to the victors and the defeated. The exhibition on unrestrained hostility towards Mr. Hine by partisans who allowed their feelings to run away with them deserves the severest condemnation. It was really cowardly, for however high party or personal feelings might have run during the campaign, when the verdict was given it was incumbent on the electors to extend to the defeated candidate that toleration and courtesy which has the force of an inwritten law throughout the Empire. The country needs the services in Parliament of its very best, most able, and broadminded men, hut if such tactics are used as those referred to we have no right to expect that any self-respecting man >■ proved fitness for election to Parliament will come forward and run the gauntlet of unrestrained partisanship. There is no doubt that many men who would make ideal members of Parliament are deterred from coming forward by reason of the unfair and harsh treatment they might hive to undergo. The loss is not theirs, hut the Dominion's. A live interest in political contests betokens a state of healthiness and is to be commended, but unbiidled political passion, vented on a particular candidate is as reprehensible as it is deplorable, and can only lead to harm and disaster.