The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1881.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 3, Issue 908, 25 October 1881, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily. TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25, 1881.

The Hawke's Buy Herald, writing of the decadence of the Legislature, says: —"The smaller the population of a country, the fewer are the politicians—men quick to grasp the effect of novel proposals, firm in administration, originative in design, and above all, honorable and straightforward in their dealings, not only as public men, but as private citizens, and in a colony like New Zealand every man of this stamp should, if possible be induced to eonio forward. We cannot afford to lose any of them, If a man have that behind him which is disgraceful to him as a husband, a father, or a citizen, he is unfitted for public life. As long as he remains in obscurity his social sins may be winked at, or dimmed by the passage of time, but when he attempts to enter into public life be by his own action turns the fierce light of public criticism on himself'. If the effects were merely to ruin him in reputation ; no one wmdd much regret it! but unfortunately, the influence of the exposure passes far beyond him. The other members of the legislature to some certain extent share in the disgrace. It is the habit of Englishmen to look upon the United Stales Congress as the embodiment of barefaced political corruption. The truth is that thecorrupt members arecompanitively few, the mass being honourable and upright, but the few have given a bad name to Congress, Every year politics in America are becoming more and more exclusively the pursuit of adventurers—the field upon which battens the indolent man who can "spout" on thestump, but has no other qualification for senatorial honours, unless a comfortable elastic conscience be placed in that category. In New Zealand we are not without this type of politician. It is not necessary to mention names —a dozen will readily recur to anyone who will devote a moment's thought to the not very difficult task, A dozen is i a small proportion in our Parliament, but it is snfficent to lower the standard of the dignity which should attach to the legislature. Honourable men do not care to sit cheek by jowl with these pariahs of the House—they feel their own self-respect lowered by the contact," The above extract which we have copied verbatim from our contemporary is probably not intended to allude to any individual candidate in the Hawke's Bay district and we do not wish to apply it to any individual candidate in this district, It expresses however in forcible and unmistakable terms a consideration which should influence electors not only in this district but in every electorate in the colony,