POLITICAL REFORM.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXIII, Issue 2678, 10 September 1889, Page 3

POLITICAL REFORM.

TO Tl[E EKITOK Sill, —Your issue of the 24th, contains a letter from tho pen of Mr F. C. Gormaun, and as might bo expected from 011 of his wull known knowledge and experience in local government alfairs, it goes largely into matters of detail; and shows in many ways, how extravagance prevails, and how economical reforms can be effected. In this respect Mr Germann's letter is valuable and he will carry the bulk «f the taxpayers with him. Hut without wishing to showany disrespect to the writer, I would respectfully point out that his lotter, in its essential point, is weak, inasmuch as it deals in a half-hearted manner with two of the most important questions affecting New Zealand colonists, namely, taxation and education, the former deeply affecting ourselves, and the latter our children. In dealing with taxation, Mr Germann makes little or no reference to the Customs tariff, which has been raised under 0110 pretext and another, until it has reached that happy point, that while it adds not one penny to the value of our staple products, it has greatly increased the cost of their production, and consequently made it a still harder matter for producers to live ; while, by a pleasant fiction, we are supposed to bo greatly benefitted by its productive: clauses. With regard to the Property Tax Mr Germann says there is a great cry that the Property Tax frightens away capital, as it stands at present such might be correct. The Property Tax may justly be described as a Nemisis pursuing tho footsteps of industry and enterprise, passing by the extravagant and indolent, with thccomforting assurance, that there is really 110 necessity for them to make any provision for the future, as under the Paupers Incubating Act the.v will bo amply provided for, whereas if a land tax replaced the Property Tax it would bo no hardship to the farmer or business man; for the tax would be upon the value of the bare unimproved land, and an income tax would only reach those improvements, that were really productive ; and we would be spared the scandalous and anomalous spectacle of owners of property both in town and country, which by adverse circumstances and general depression has become quite unproductive, paying a heavy annual taxation upon it, while others in the receipt of large and steady incomes go soot free. _ With regard to education, Mr Germann s views of reform are confined to departmental and administrative economies, the main system itself, he would not alter, yet we are told by one of our largest newspapers, in words that find an echo in a wide and ever increasing circle" t hat tho system of education at present pursued, is the most useless that could bo conceived, unless the object of such education is to specially fit every boy and.'girl, for the position of commonplace clerks, and nothing else", yet it is this system with savings here and there that Mr Germann would perpetuate. It is not too much to say that the expense of our State education is the least ovil attached to it. It is the utter want of practical knowledge that characterizes our school system—that condemns it. Of the colony's vast, and, as yet, almost unexplored mineral riches, of its unparalelled agricultural resources,fand of the facilities which an abundance of the raw material affords for the establishment of almost every kind of human industry, our children are taught nothing; yet every thoughtful person must see that it is upon tho development and profitable utilisation of the colony's great natural wealth that the future of our children depends ; and whatever right a parent may have to educate his children according to his own particular views no such privilege can extend to the State. State education to be worthy of the name should be such as to impart to children at a comparatively early age a thorough knowledge of their country, of tho industries suitable to it, and in the higher classes a technical knowledge of such industries. Given this, and few of us would object to the expense attached to it, but it is in this respect that the poverty of our own system shows itself, and it is in this direction I respectfully contend that true reform is needed. At tho same time Mr Germann's suggestions aro very valuable, and will be remembered by many of lis, but in suggesting that a clergyman should act as school examiner he omits to mention what denomination this gentleman should belong to, and this I fear will bo a somewhat tough question to answer.—Yours, &c., E. C. Shepherd. Whatawhata, September 2. TO THE EDITOR. Sat, —In your note to my last letter you open a limitless subject for discussion by your comprehensive statement, "England is the mother of Parliaments, and from her, not only tho colonies, but America and most of tho civilised world have taken the patterns of constitutional and popular systems of government." Seeing that England had not even tho semblance of a House of Commons till the reign of Henry 111. in tho year 1205, can wo suppose that all other history and experience had been ignored by common consent that there were 110 popular and constitutional governments in civilised communities even beforo England had emerged from barbarism, and that onwards down to our own times, freedom, though often hardly beset, had ever been without witnesses to testify against despotic power and tyranny, &c., in favour of popular rights and democratic institutions. In the case of the colonies, Hobson's choico, presented by the English Government rather than the prudent free will of the colonists, gave characteristics to the Governments of the colonies. The mother Parliament at Westminster, "our pattern," so far as the satisfactory conduct of public business is concerned, appears to be in a state of chronic inefficiency, and our New Zealand Parliament, as you often so well and so truthfully have shown, is still more unsatisfactory. In that triumph of human wisdom, almost, wo might say, of Divine inspiration, the constitution of tho United States of Air.erica, we see proof that Adams, Jefferson, Maddison, and the other great men who prepared it, were well acquainted with constitutional history in all ages and countries. They were not servile imitators, but adopted and adapted what suited best, and devised what was wanting, the result being a constitution so perfect that it even surprised its authors, and has needed amendment so little that though 129 motions for its suspension had been made, it has only been three times amended in over 100 years, one of the times being for the abolition of slavery. English freedom and Government consisted of enforced concessions from Norman conquerors and feudal oppressors. For centuries after tho Norman conquest these concessions were only obtained by force, and often after great sacrifices and sufferings of the patriotic leaders and people. Approaching nearer our own times, lesser wrongs required lighter remedies ; yet in the memory of those still living, men were judicially murdered for asking their own, vide the hanging by Government at Glasgow, about 1828, of Baird, Henderson and Wilson, for expressing themselves in favour of what now our countrymen hold as their simple rights. We find that in the United Kingdom people and Parliament are greatly exercised over the question of Home Rule, which simply means a very natural preference to have the right to manage their own home affairs at Home, instead of having them ignored or mismanaged by London centralism. Now, if granted, this will be done only partially, and in such a manner as to be a gracious concession from the powers above to the people below, whereas in America all power emanates from the people. Herein is an important difference, the theory being that the individual should possess the utmost individual independence consistent with the rights of others. Individuals combining and co-operating for their common benefit form the first link in local government possessing the power to manage all their own alfairs, not inconsistent with the just interests of other districts. Many districts or townships combining form the second link (county or city.) Following the same principles, several counties and cities form the State. Many States form Congresses and the confederations, one proved result being that in the United States people depend on themselves, aud not as we in these colonies depend upon the Government for everything. To prooure the means of gratifying tins morbid and demoralising taste leads us to prodigal borrowing and profligate squandering, to be followed by crushing taxation and centralisation, and it may be depopulation.—Yours truly, W>r. Arch. Murray. Mount Pleasant, 4tU September, 188' J. [Mr Murray's history is defective. One of England's most enlightened inonarchs — Alfred the Great—in the ninth century, laid tho foundation of the popular parliamentary system of the present day. From that remote beginning was developed by progressive stages tho existing structure, and from which have been modelled the legislatures of modern nations. The Wittnnagemots «f our Saxon forefathers were the first of popular assemblages for managing the nation's affairs ; they were tho first t\jidQ Parliaments, improved and pro-

sorved unbroken for a thousand years in our Old Country. There were distinct periods of progress, each in keeping with the onward inarch of the people— there were the days of Magna Charta, and of Simon de Mountfort, who reformed Parliament into something of its present representative character in 125(3. There is nothing in what Mr Murray says to contradict the fact that the principle and also the pattern of England's parliamentary system have been followed by other countries, even in the constitution of the United States ; or that we can learn much from the legislation of the House of Commons to suide us in reforming our own system of local government. That was the point raised. As regards the superiority of the American system, we have the statement of a thoughtful American statesman that true democracy exists only in England, where the Will of the People rules; in America they have only its shadow, as the power of veto creates the President into a veritable autocrat. —En. W. T.J __