The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1889. THE POLITICIAN.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume X, Issue 3259, 18 July 1889, Page 2

The Wairarapa Daily THURSDAY, JULY 18, 1889. THE POLITICIAN.

Few men in the community can be designated politicians, and it is perhaps a fortunate tiling for it that such is the case, It lias been said , that " happy is the nation which has no history, and this may be para- ' phrased into "happy is the colony | which has no politics." Never was Now Zealand more surely on the road | to prosperity than at tho present time, and never has it been, in a political senso, mom dead and dull, During the past fortnight tho Kaiwarra ; murder case has been a hundred times more attractive ns an object of speculation than the sayings and i doings of the House of Representatives. Who cures to talk about 1 Atkinson or Ballance, or will listen to conversation about them when the magic word "Cliemis" is uttered, Almost every individual in tho com- ! munitv has formed an intelligent opinion upon the Kaiwarra murder, { but nineteen out of twenty havo not 1 arrived at a deliberative judgment upon tho leading Government sures. In the city, as well as in the country town, the same want ol interest in politics is manifested, Th. leading Wellington journal condense: its parliamentary reports into a ver} small compass und prints them on it: back page, knowing full well that thej are about tho last piece of news thai the bulk of its readers want to peruse Of conrso there aro times when t settler Bihlb that he has a persona interest in some measure or soini member, and for a brief period hi may be classed as a temporan politician, but as soon as this persona interest ceases he again becomes ai ordinary mortal, and leaves t> legislators tbo task of governing o misgoverning tho country. Th number of peoplo who all the yea round take an interest in politics i extremely limited, and pnrhaps it is o well that it should be so. Some times we have a moderately goo Government and sometimes wo hav a moderately bad one, but the ba Government cannot altogether ma the fortunes of a settler or the goo' Government make them. A ba Government, 100, has usually a slioi life, because when members find th colony to be on the downward grad they get frightened und give it speedil its coup de grace. We never knew time during tho past five and twent ycars-ind within that period w have had as miich misgoveraraent a most countries—when a thrifty on industrious man .could n.ot'mak headway;, or take it the other way during fjie most prosperous years when loan mojifiy Ijas been poure forth with lavish hand, the iin'thrift, and the idlo man has made leeway, i may be fairly ?aid that whilo goo; government bpßers A iff 611 ''? chance and bad gov,erntn,ei>t Jjeeaeng it> he cai do more for himself tl)p the legisla ture can accomplish on his behalf, I ho gives an undue share of his tim and attention to politics, his privat business suffers. There ara hundred of men in' New Zealand of this stani] who aro wont to drift into difficultie and (Jiptress by making, more of th public qi the colony than o their own private vp.fa, and \vh inevitably attribute their misfortune to political causes, when, as a (nq,tte of 1 act, they themseJvQ? are solely t

blame for them, The man' who lias a craze for politics, unless he lum his own. privato affaire undor thorough control, is not to bo envied, Happily 'he number ofpolitioians of this class is not very great, imd most people may (airly bo congratulated upon their gojd sense in not taking too absorbing nn interest in the doings of our rulers and legislators,