PROHIBITIONISTS AND POLITICS.

Press, Volume LVI, Issue 10262, 3 February 1899, Page 4

PROHIBITIONISTS AND POLITICS.

There is a strange confusion of ideas and not a little inaccuracy as to facts in the letter signed "A Prohibitionist," which appears in another column. In a recent article we urged that all minor questions, including prohibition, should be sunk at the next election, in order to get the one great requisite which the country needs —a pure and efficient administration. The. first step to brjng thts about, in our opinion, is to get rid of the Seddon: Government. Our correspondent seems to think that we hare no right to expect the prohibitionists to help to turn out the Seddon .Government, because Capt. Russell and Mr. Rolleston did not take an active part with Mr. T. UJ. Taylor in the Police Commission—because, as Jie puts it, they "did not thr.qw their great

■" political influence into the movement " which more than anything else has 'i destroyed the political prestige of the ''Government." "Now, we differ altogether from the view; that the, Police Commission ought simply to have been regarded as a means of party warfare. It was avowedly a judicial investigation into the condition of the police force, with a view to its reform. It was a scandal when the 'Government selected political partisans of their own to conduct the investigation, but it would have been a still greater scandal if the leading men of the Opposition ; had "thrown " their great political influence into it," treating it simply as a party game of shuttlecock and battledore, in which 7 the 'object aimed at was not the improvement of the force, but for one side in politics to score over the other. There is anotheV point: Mr T. £. Taylor, as the member who moved for the Commission, was perfectly justified in attending its meetings for.the purpose of bringing out' all the evidence he could to show that his demand £or its! appointment was jus- f tified. As -we have always admitted, he . did the work very ably, if not always with judicial discretion, and we are not* at all sure that he would have cared for tbe interference of any other persons in the conduct;'of the proceedings. In any case, we are. convinced that it would have been* highly improper to turn the enquiry into a political wrangle, and we refuse to believe that prohibitionists as a whole | have determined to keep in power" the corrupt Seddon Government, merely'out of pique:thajt the Opposition leaders did. not take a, more active part with Mr. T. E., Taylor in the enquiry of the Police Commission. Our correspondent writes in very, glowing terms about the work accomplished by tnat enquiry, but apparently he has not even read the Commissioners' report. It is, at any rate, quite untrue to say that the Commission recommended that Inspector Broham should be retired, so that our correspondent's fierce attack on "The Press" for " giving a warm support to the movement " to secure his retention" seems hardly warranted by the facts of the case. Bat here, again,' we rub our eyes and wonder whether our correspondent seriously means to contend that because "The Press" supported Inspector Broham against what it believed to be unjust censure, the prohibitionists are warranted in helping to keep in power the Government responsible for the worst scandals revealed by the police Commueion. AYe cannot believe thsLt they will do anything 'so illogical—so absolutely indefensible from a public-spirited point of view. They have declared over and over- again that they are for pure government, anil that in their opinion the present Ministry ,are politically corrupt. Surely, therefore, their first duty, as we have urged, is to help to put that Government out. They can, of course, please themselves | afterwards' as to whom they will support in their place, and also as ~to the conditions on ' which i that support wUI -be given. It 'is entirely wrong to say that we have "piteously asked the prohibitionists to " stand down at the next election." On the contrary, we Have asked them to stand, up, and make good their profeanens . «.