"CAPTURING" PARLIAMENT.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 255, 27 October 1928, Page 16

"CAPTURING" PARLIAMENT.

Attempt to Defeat Ballot Box. ' When free citizens vote for the preservation of their rights and privileges in no uncertain voice and a minority organisation tries to bias Parliament in opposition to the ballot—it is surely time that people awoke to the danger and rigorously opposed all measures designed to interfere with t'he timehonoured traditions of their liberty. Such an attempt to push aside the decision of the ballot box is operative in New Zealand, and unless voters understand the situation, our political life will abound with that self-same trickery and subterfuge which is so characteristic of American politics. Repeated majorities at the election have voted against Prohibition. Having failed in this direction to force their policy upon the people, the New Zealand Alliance introduced the discreditable American weapon of tampering with the House of Representatives, by tying members down with pledges. Electorates which cast an overwhelming Continuance vote find themselves represented in Parliament by a member secretly pledged to betray them. This "Super-Government" is a blot upon New Zealand political life and unless it is quickly removed free-born New Zealanders will be the victims of vicious ■legislation, passed in opposition to their will as expressed at the ballot box.