THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVII, Issue 195, 16 August 1906, Page 2

THE SCIENCE OF POLITICS.

Mr F. G. Ewington delivered his seventh lecture to young men at the V.M.C.A. Hall last evening, bis subject being "The Functions of Government." Administration in the past, he said, had varied widely between laissez-faire and extreme socialism, and each succeeding year now proved how widely the functions of government were extending. Instead of embracing only matters of internal and external defence pertaining to police, army, and- navy, government embraced nearly all departments of life, and, whether men like it or not, State socialism is In the air. Government already dealt largely with the family. It instituted and protected property, regulated its transmission, and in various ways guarded against fraud. Possibly the time would come when it would limit bequests and the accumulation of wealth in individual hands. Government even went so far as to regulate for working men their wages, hours of: work, place for meals, sleeping accommodation for shearers, and various other matters. YVhere was It all going to stop? Mr Ewington thought it would not stop until State socialism, pure and simple, were established, and people who wanted to see political affairs based on a safe and equitable basis should arouse themselves to help the Church to diffuse principles of true religion, so that mere legal government should rise to moral government and men be induced to observe the golden' rule without* legal compulsion. If the religious basis of the State were Ignored, the lecturer said he saw no safety for minorities. The majority was fickle. Politicians flattered the 1 multitude and almost led them to believe that the voice of the majority was the voice of IGioA Prophets, martyrs, and others had be.en obliged - sometimes to defy majorities. The tinw was coming when Individuals and minori-

ties .would have to stand-up against tyranny, because the multitude seemed to think that the majority had- a perfect right to extend the functions of' government to the length .of-human will without due regard to its accordance with the revealed will of God or. Nature's laws. In any land-1 any law giving legal preference to trade ' unionist workmen, and making it unlawful: for employers to exercise a choice between one man and another, married: or single, ; was a violation of the Decalogue and a t law of Nature. Man had to work or starve -, unless ho possessed what had" been saved . from labour, and he was Divinely enjoined, "Six days shalt thou labour." Legal pre- * ference violated the principles of fair play, 1 of charity, and of Democracy, because there j; were only abont 18,000 unionists against 53.000 non-unionist workers in New Zealand. It had been sought to show that 1 the licensing of sharcbrokers, auctioneers, doctors. Uotelkeepers, and others was on ail I fours' with legal preference to unionists; but there was no true analogy between these cases. Non-unionists had to main- • tain famines, pay taxes, and lay down their lives ■in defence of their country .if called upon to do so, and they ought not to be legally debarred from selling their labour to willing buyers. In the lecturer's , opinion it was impolitic, because it must lead to force being met by force, for the 55,000 would combine against the 18,000, and it was as unjust as a law preventing Catholic butchers from selling meat until. Protestants had first of all sold theirs, aud it was to the credit of the Roman Catholic Church that she was the only one that bad , authoritatively claimed equal rights in the labour market for working men.