THE LOAVES AND FISHES.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10066, 13 August 1910, Page 4

THE LOAVES AND FISHES.

Mr Hine is not the only rrember of Parliament who has this session endeavoured to impeach 'those who would use political influence to forward their own interests or those of their party. In the course of an address in the House of Representatives the other evening, the member for Wairarapa made a vigorous attack upon the Government for the manner in which it had dispensed the public works revenue. It was remarkable, he said, that every election year there was an enormous increase in the public works expenditure. He gave a series of illustrations to show how, in his district, promises of public epxenditure had been made on the eve of an election, and no attempt was made to redeem those promises. Mr Buchanan is sufficiently experienced in Liberal methods to know that the Wairarapa is not singular in the treatment it receives. It is reported that the result of an election in a constituency not many miles from Masterton turned absolutely upon a promise that a certain estate would be resumed for closer settlement. That this promise has not been kept is a matter of notoriety. Similar cases could be cited from one end of the Dominion to the other. Rot who is to blame? Is it entirely a Government whose chief objective is the retention of office? Are not the electors who barter their sacred privileges equally culpable?