THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1892. DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

Temuka Leader, Issue 2307, 19 January 1892, Page 2

THE Temuka Leader. TUESDAY, JANUARY 19, 1892. DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

A writer in the Christchurch Press recently argued that public morality was incompatible with democratic institutions; that is to say, that where Parliament was elected by universal suffrage, corruption must, as a natural consequence, follow. No Parliament elected by the people on the one-man-one-vote system could be honest, he said, and in proof of this he showed how the present Government were pandering to the working men, and how they were going to swamp the Legislative Council with persons pledged to act as their willing slaves. This, we believe, will be admitted to be one of the boldest assertions made in recent years. It reads more like the thoughts of a royal partisan in the days of the Stuarts than those of one to whom all the enlightenment of the nineteenth century is accessible. It is inconceivable how anyone could be so bold as to make such a statement, in the face, of not only history but existing facts. We need only turn to Russia to find there a refutation of it all. In Russia there is no Parliament, and no elections in the sense understood by us under free institutions, and yet it is the most corrupt nation on the face of the earth. There is not an officer in the public service of Russia, from the highest to the lowest, who is not capable of being bribed, and not only that, but persons who can afford to give large sums will escape the pains and penalties of their misdeeds, while the poor, who have nof the means of purchasing the goodwill of the public officers, have very frequently to suffer for crimes of which they are innocent. Russia is noted for its corruption, and then we have only to cross over the border to r j?qrkey ; where an almost similar state of things Germany the people have move liberty, and are less corrupt, and so on until we come to England, where there are free af)4 no corruption. Canada has recently distinguished itself as a hobbed pf corruption, but the members of Parliament- there are iio* elected on the one-man-one-vote system, except so far as the Western States art? concerned. -It is a remarkable Tact that it }s pot if? these states in which the manhood suffrage principle obtains that the corruption exists. All this goes to prove the fallacy of the arguments used by the writer in the Press, but if we were to appeal to history hO)V much more convincing we could make our contention. Just in proportion as the liberties of the people have b eei f extended, so have they become fpore l/oupst, more selfy“«nectifig, and Je§§ po ri; Upt. W e have not, however, time nor inclination now to trace this su!?, iect t history, but there is one point to a.-’ 1 we desire to direct attention. Recently we pointed out how • the Conservatives were endeavoring to re-establish plural voting, and in this connection the article under review confirms our suspicions as regards the designs of the capitalistic party. They are disgusted because of the extension of the franchise, and are determined to adopt some means by which its effect will be counteracted. It is no use to discuss the appointments to the Legislative Council further than to say that if any Ministry were ever justified in making fresh appointments to that Chamber

the present Ministry are. In the first place there are about seven vacancies in the Council now, and they may legitimately fill them, and in the second place, they cannot pass measures without making fresh appointments. It is therefore not only their right, but their duty to to strengthen their influence in the Council, and we trust they will do so, and thus be uhl« til carry their measures.