Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878] THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1892.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XIII, Issue 4289, 8 December 1892, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times. [ESTABLISHED 1878]

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 8, 1892.

second edition

Bbino the extended title of the Wairarata Daily, with which it is identical

Political life in America surprisingly resembles political life in New Zealand. The sumo onuses produce ' similar phenomena, and if we desire to know what the habits and thoughts of people here will be say ten years hence, we have only to take the exist" ing condition of one of the more ' advanced sections of the United States to get the point towards which we are working. The" Engi-, naering Magazine" for November thus portrays the interest taken in politics by Americans:- •' These are the facts in American life, and they are the facts with which we have to reckon. Men of the highest qualifications are retiring from political management because they .find its operations futile, They i are tired of laws conceived only for purposes of political chicane, and designed rather to interfere with personal liberty and to obstruct than to confer benefits. Men are quite right in assuming that tho belter citizens are becoming more and more neglectful of their so-called political duties, But they are mistaken as to the cause. They attribute it to absorption' in personal and selfish objects, when, as a matter of fact, it is due to promptings of a higher instinct. None are so sympathetic and broad as the better citizens, many of whom almost forget the date of even a general election, and would forget to register were it not for the frantic promptings in the editorial pages of the daily press. The question recurs here if we can ever look for an amendment in this particular, Evidently not; for the causes that bavo produced this iudifferenoe are still at work, and tbo more farsighted men, instead of amending their habits, will be mora likely to enquire if any amendment along political lines is desirable, The trend is still upward, If the men of best qualifications have no longer a wish to attend to political affairs, it is because political (•flairs are no longer thought worthy of attention; and the road which the best men are following is the road that all men will follow when they have had time to get the direction," Might Qot the foregoing have been written with equal truth and force of New Zealand, Even in the Wairar- ■ apa we can. point to men of the ■ highest qualifications retiring from ! political life, to men, who, if they are now asked to become candidates for the Assembly, soy " No," not from ' »n ignoble or cowai dly fear of defeat, ! but because of tho higher instinct i referred to in the article whioh we have quoted. It will, perhaps be . many years before we quite reach the ( present Amerioan standpoint ;th ere t

is atill even in the Now Zealand legislature a fair percentage of men who have not bowed the knee to Baal, who do not belong to the low type of professional politicians, and who are worthy of the ooufidence of all good men and honest settlors. But year by year the percentage of Buoh men is decreasing, and it remains to be seen whether .in another generation they will become as extinct as the moa. The settlers of New Zealand may still assert themselves and keep at bay the carpet baggers and adventurers who now rnle them, but will they do 80?