Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1911. RESTRICTION OF LIBERTY.

Wairarapa Age, Volume XXXII, Issue 10248, 26 May 1911, Page 4

Wairarapa Age MORNING DAILY. FRIDAY, MAY 2, 1911. RESTRICTION OF LIBERTY.

There is a pronounced vein of sarcasm in the composition of the gentleman who welds the editorial pen fo rthe Taranaki News. In a recent article dealing with the numerous laws -which have been plaoed npoai the Statute Book of New Zealand to control the comings and goiugs of the (million or so people who inhabit this earthly Paradise, lie says:—"lf tlie State would kindly detail its politicians out of session to lecture the people on the few things they may "yet do without danger of being fined or sent to. gaol, the innovation

would ibe useful. It is problematical whether half a dozen of our legislators could give coherent information as to the effect of the new legislation thrown into the statute hooks during the present Parliament. If the legislator does not know the law, the puhlic has not *a 3)ope of knowing it. The modern method of dealing with citizens is to suspect that every one of them is aching to break a law, and to police them as effectually as possible. The passage of new restrictive laws is an assumption by legislators that their constituents are all dishonest. The idea of putting a new screw on the public is very dear to officialism, because it justifies the upkeep of armies, of inspectors- and the -creation of more moral police-men. The job of being a moral policeman is bad for the morals of the policeman. Ultimately ho must conclude that human nature in the bulk is bad, and that he himself is surrounded with a halo of ispotle-ssness. In order to dis-

cover what lie may do without interference by moral policemen the newcomer to Austral lands should receive free instruction at the hands of tlie Grown law officers. He would be ahle to find out at once whether he was justified in carrying his own portmanteau, and Whether the digging of his own garden was not in contravention of the award of the Amalgamated Society of Spade Workers. . . . The State as su-

perior to its own law. No one would siimimon ia State servant for carting a. waggon load of Hansards after •. dark, nor would factory inspector s.j invade the sacred precincts of a Government building to stop the midnight clerk from miming ityis esteemed health. The-State rides by in its triumphant chariot, and notes the beauty of the prickly pear on i a million acres of its own land, but its moral policemen see no beauty in the half-acre of pear on the struggling selector's land. And for prickly pear, one may read blackberry or ragwort or any other vegetable so necessary for the existence of moral policemen. "Gome," say the States, "to these free lands and be restrict- ] edj enter these Austral paradises, and be morally policed; bring your appetites and a-mfiitions and cash with you; we will see that you shall not use itihiean. M you have any individuality leave it behind. The State is your Shpeherd, you shall not want. The State's moral surgeons will remove every trace of backbone for you without pain, and thus shall you keep alive the glorious traditions of your sainted forefathers. If you have ideas, leave them behind l , if they interfere with organised labour. You shall ibe made moral by Act of Parliament, and your children shall be taught that self-help is out of date."