THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1908. CONTRASTS IN POLITICS.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXI, Issue 3060, 3 December 1908, Page 4

THE Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 1908. CONTRASTS IN POLITICS.

New Zealand politicians are frequently given to pointing with pride at the legislation of their country of the past two decades, and remarking triumphantly that New Zealand is the most advanced country in the from a legislative standpoint. The public of the Dominion swallow all this, the knowing ones perhaps good-humouredly, and other people probably with an inward glow of satisfaction at the courage of their legislators. We wonder how far it is really true that New Zealand is ahead of most, if not all, other countries, and whether, when the term ! "advanced" is used as applied to legislation, it means useful legislation of a lasting character, which has only been passed after terrific political struggles. Dealing with the former point, it was thought for a considerable time that our modern labour enactments embodied all that was perfect, wise, and, above all, rational, and that the main principles were unassailable. Yet the day has already arrived when such view is shown to "be fallacious in very many respects, and the original Act promises to prove, ere long, an idol with feet of clay. And so it may be with other legislaticn of

a similarly supposed "advanced" order. It is not, moreover, generally known by the public of this country how much, or rather how little, of our genuinely advanced laws are original conceptions of our own legislators. So very many of our best statutes are simply transcripts of the legislation, or embody in themselves the ideas, of statesmen in other lands, that if an honestly compiled political inventory were taken of original legislative creations of our New Zealand Parliament in the way of advanced laws, we fear that political plagiarism would be found a strong characteristic of our general assembly. But a contrast we should like to make has not so much reference to the class of legislation credited to our political rulers as to their efforts to secure drastic and effectual reforms. in this connection we muat refer to the titanic struggle just waged at Hnme over the Licensing Bill. There the Prime Minister, with a courage found only in the true statesman, launches out to fight what he felt must be a hopeless battle, and which he predicted would bring trouble to his party. We need say little further. The cable has supplied the public with details of the recent political struggle which has reverberated through the Parliamentary hall* of Britain. Is this fighting characteristic to be found in our present ruling party in New Zealand? It is, of course, superfluous to ask this question of the party in the minority. But would Sir Joseph Ward, on his own initiative or at the call of any member of his Cabinet, lead his party on to fight a desperate cause, no matter how beneficial success might be, in his opinion, to the welfare of the country? We confess we do not think so, and our belief is not without good grounds. The Government has more than once indicated its intention of observing a back-to the-wall attitude on various policy measures, but many times has it proved very supine after all. Votehunting and th ! lust for continued power seem to us to have gradually knocked most of the fight out of politics in New Zealand, and paltry legislation is the consequence. Our Statute Books for the past six or seven years bear this out. In the days of small majorities the Government had to show some courage to maintain its position, but with security comes indolence. The present British legislative dissensions might, however, prove a wholesome corrective to even our easy-going politicians.