The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1881.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 4048, 19 December 1881, Page 2

The Evening Star. PUBLISHED DAILY AT FOUR P.M. Resurrexi. MONDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1881.

The adoption of the American system of holding all the elections on the one;day has answered well in New Zealand. It was strongly opposed by the Conservative side in the House, bat its members had to giro way to the popular will. The one disadvantage to the plan we have adopted is found in the fact that if a good man hasr been beaten at one election no other constituency is open for him H^il the next general election takes by the death or the resigna.la the House, as at the loss of Mr almost make us desire system—but a three member for Mount take. The Our election!

promise annually to become more exciting and closely contested. Hence the strain of election contests, extending over many days, will become more severe with tke increased interest and attention paid to -politics. Not one hundred years ago the election of Fox at Westminster commenced on the first of April, and the poll closed on the sixteenth of May followingWe could ill afford any parallel for | such a waste of time as our forefathers ! sanctioned and approved The character I of our commerce and our lite !.avc elianged. j Trade has become more engrossing in its i demands, and competition has become, \ more keen. A great change has come over our national life, the full development of which is seen only in Ihe United States. Strange as the assertion may sound in some ears we are surely but slowly following our American cousins in all their political aiid fiscal developments. Our whole theory ad practise of Government is changing- In all human probability the present House of Representatives will move still another step forward and say before it-passes out of existence that no man in the future shall Lave more than one vote. When this great result has been achieved we shall be enabled to change the basis and*the incidence of our taxation ~- but not until then. Nations have little conscience except interest, and their main law is. that of preservation. Gradually but slowly we appear to be moving onward, whereas we are only going backward, after all, to the laws which ruled Great Britain before the installation of the House'of Brunswick. And the first principle on which the English Monarchy rested after its foundation was that those who heldthe land should mainly contribute towards the expenses of the Govern- - ment of the country. As we said before, however, a very great advance has been i made in having our elections all on the one day. : - • '■'■.'■ _, ■- ■ --- ' !