CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10133, 6 December 1910, Page 4

CRUMBS FROM THE TABLE.

The degrading method :of distribut-; ing the°public works "fund according: to political , exigencies, instead of, from the point of view of public requirement, has been adopted in New Zealand for some years past. It has been condemned by every publicspirited journal in the Dominion, and still it is allowed to contaminate our politics. Members of Parliament are reduced .to. the level of the parish pump'for no other reason than to permit Ministers 'to purchase votes by a system of patronage. The threuts' which ; were made by the Minister of Works to Messrs Ross and. Poland last week, and carried into effect in one instance, of penalising the electorates on account, of the actions of their representatives, were absolutely disgraceful, Messrs Ross and Poland, who, by the way, are Government supporters, have every, riglit to exercise their constitutional privileges as.they think fit. They,are responsible to their constituencies, and not to the Minister of'tlie' day. The spectacle of a Minister throttling his followers, as it wete, and coercing them, inter ; subjection by cutting off grants made to, their electorates,' 'Vas so brazenly autocratic as to be almost revolting. A country which will permit Ministers to utilise the public revenues in the way in which they were utilised by the Hon. R. McKenzie last week, will permit anything.