Get on the Roll!

Press, Volume LVIII, Issue 17611, 14 November 1922, Page 6

Get on the Roll!

With the issue on Thursday of the writs for, the general election, the electors' rolls dose automatically'' at <5 p.m. on' ithat day. Persons qualified to vote who hare hitherto failed 1 to enrol themselves or hare neglected to make certain that their names are on the rolls have therefore three days—and only three days—in. which to repair their omission. Through indifference to one of the great responsibilities attaching to free' citizenship, or through the habit of putting off to the eleventh hour the performance of a public duty which entails a'minimum of trouble there are, we have no doubt, hundreds of persons possessing .the requisite qualifications for voting" who have not yet registered their names. They ooulcL have done it any time -for months past, but they have put it off until now the margin of time available for them is to be mea~ ;sured in hours. Even so, we trust they will display sufficient public spirit to register before it is too late. The privilege of the franchise is no slight ono, but that it is' inadequately appreciated is made evident at every election. There is probably not a polling-booth in the Dominion at which, on election cjay, some would-be voters are not informed that their names are hot on the roll. And yet the election of a new .Parliament is a matter in which, every cifcisen of New Zealand, with any regard for the welfare of th<> country, -should take a lively interest. Parliament is the biggest business in the Dominion ; it touches at a hundred points the daily lives of every soul in the 'country literally from the cradle to the grave. The, choice of the men who are to manage that business is a matter of moment to everyone, for though Parlia- , ment cannot create prosperity, if can do much to encourage it by wise and stable administration, and, conversely, it has it in its power by bad or inefficient management to create distrust and unrest, bringing distress and depression in their train. The right to exercise a voice in the selection of our Parliament is, therefore, a privilege to be sought, not. as it appears too often to be regarded, a distasteful duty to be dodged. It is not enough that Mr Maesey's victory at the polls is assured, and that we may therefore look forward with confidence to the Dominion's affairs being. managed capably for the next three years; what w wanted is ihat every qualified elector

shall be able to rote so that the Prime Minister shall be strengthened by the knowledge that, in a poll representing adequately the electorate of the whole Dominion, he has secured the largest majority ever given to the leader of a New Zealand Government.

Our readers do not need to be reminded that on more than one occasion in the past twelve months we have urged that Anniversary Day should be rescued from the oblivion into which it has been falling in recent years, and should be celebrated as was at one time invariably the case. We are naturally gratified, therefore, that, following the lead given by the Waimairi County Council, the City Council decided last night that Anniversay Day "is one of the holidays that should be observed.' and supported its oomion by resolving to give its employees a holiday on that day. The Mayor will doubtless accept a further recommendation that he should ask the citizens to celebrate the day as a public holiday. We observe in a more or less half-hearted fashion, several holidays which make little appeal to public sentiment. But the day which is really Canterbury's Foundation Day, has lately been allowed to pass almost unnoticed and unhonoured. We are glad that public feeling is inspiring the restoration of the day to its old distinction in Canterbury's calendar of the year.

It is already obvious that anyone who seeks to correct the misstatements and misrepresentations made by Mr Massey's opponents during the present election campaign will be kept busy. In one instance, however, the task is made the easier by the fact that, if we may put it in that way, the correction preceded the misstatement. In an address last week, Mr A. Hall Skelton, the Opposition candidate for Roskill, asserted that the present financial crisis had resulted entirely from the Government's mismanagement of the land. "New Zealand was to-day desperately near to a position resembling the crisis of 1890." Then followed references to Ballance and Seddon, Mr Skelton declaring that under the latter New Zealand became one of the most prosperous countries in the world. "Today, on the other hand, we> were regarded abroad just as in 1890." Yet on the preceding day the New Zealand "Herald" had published a statement by a visiting English financier, a director of an English bank, with a thou&and branches, to the effect that New Zealand's credit stood very high in Great Britain; .it was regarded as a very sound country and financiers were ready to participate in any loan the country desired to negotiate. -' » ' The "New Zealand Herald," in a reference to the old system of "spoils to the victors," points out that one of the earliest achievements of the Massey Government, on coming into office, wa«i to establish the Publio Service Commissiohership and thus "administer the death-blow to the most obnoxious form of patronage with which this country was ever afflicted.'' It admits that the present system is not yet perfect, but it does at least "rule the staffs of the departments in which comfortable sinecures could most easily be established, and with its work organised, the other departments have fallen into line. An ambitious parent with a son to start in in life does not now find it profitable to enlist on his -behalf the services of a friendly member, or to make himself useful, in some capacity or other to a Minister. An effective setback was given to the' nepotism which flourished unashamed under previous Administrations." And as the "Herald" adds, "it is the one action of the.'. Government which ;Bome of its opponents find hardest to forgive."

The problem lately presented to the Minister for Internal Affairs, when he had to deoide whether the quantity of lace on a lady's garment was sufficient to make the article an object of art arid therefore eligible to be offered as a priae in an art union, would not have troubled bim if the regulations on such matters in New Zealand were as lax as they appear to bo at Home. In what are termed Golden Ballots, which seem to be deservedly popular, the prizes have not v the faintest relation to art. In one 'recent Golden Ballot, conducted for a charity, the first prize consisted of £2500, the second free education at an English public school, such as Eton or Harrow, or training for any profession to the value of £IOOO, the third a cottage in the country or a bungalow at the seaside valued at £SOO, the fourth an aeroplane or £SOO, and the fifth complete furniture for a fiveroomed flat to the value of £250. Lower down the list came a bride's trouseau costing £IOO, and. still further down a whisky and soda every day for a year, a charwoman once a week for a year, a sitting of Orpington eggs, a course of Turkish baths, or a year's telephone subscription. In another Golden Ballot a Lancashire vicar won a ten-guinea course of dancing lessons, the chaplain at a naval hospital '25 cigars every week for a year, while other prises were a good general servant or £SO, a two-hours' ride every Sunday for a year, an evening frock from a Court dressmaker (which fell to a soldier in a military .hospital), a joint of meat for every Sunday, a course of cooking lessons, won by a private in Netley Hospital, and a five-course lunch for two twice a week for a year. How the promoters of the various funds to which the Christchurch public's attention is being directed just now must wish that our legislature took as broadminded a view of tho wrongfulness of art unions as the authorities do at Home.