AN UNDESIRABLE PRACTICE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 9035, 28 February 1908, Page 4

AN UNDESIRABLE PRACTICE.

The practice adopted by certain propagandists of selecting Parliamentary candidates to carry out their special tenets irrespective of all other political duties is not one that commends itself to the judgment of those who would put the welfare of the people as a whnle- before any section of it. It is becoming a custom all too common in this country for organisations dominated by fads and representing, mere sections of the community to enter the political arena with a one-plank platform, and insist that the candidates who are to receive their support must pledge themselves to be their Dolitical factotums. It matters not to any of these propagandist organisations whether the candidates it selects are "fit and proper persons."' to represent the constituency and State in the House; the main consideration is, whether they wilH, im return for the support of the- party,, under all circumstances advocate in season and out of season the demands of the "school" desiring their aid. Our Parliament contains many members who are fettered by pledges to more or less important organisations of a qjasi public character, and whose usefulness to the State at large is consequently dwarfed to the infinitesimal. Already there are indications that at the next general election members will be called upon to give pledges to support various particular social movements regardless of all other considerations; and. the organisers of each of these movements will, no doubt, find willing slaves—not always because the candidates believe in the narrow platform submitted for their adoption, but because each earnestly desires to secure the much-coveted prize of a seat in Parliament. Three hundred pounds a year—with a prospect of an immediate increase—and the glory and pickings attached ti membership of the Legislature, is an irresistable temptation to many aspirants to political "honours." They tall under it with remarkable readiness. This sort of thing is demoralising to our Legislature. The "axe-grinding;" element is ever becoming stronger in our Parliament, and /ve would fain see it entirely eliminated in the interests of the political and social well-being of the country, but nothing will secure that end until.a true spirit of national patriotism takes: hold of the heart of the people. Under existing conditions Politics and Patriotism in this country are antithetical. The weeds of the former prevent theblossoming of the> latter.