The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1908. OPENING THE CAMPAIGN.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 281, 20 August 1908, Page 6

The Dominion. THURSDAY, AUGUST 20, 1908. OPENING THE CAMPAIGN.

The Parliamentary election, campaign was opened last evening so far as Wellington is concerned, when Mr. A. L. Herdman, a candidate for tho Wellington North seat, delivered an address at the Concert Chamber of the Town Hall. Mr. Herdman represented Mount Ida in the House of Representatives in the preceding Parliament, and his defeat three years ago, due mainly to his removal from his old electorate, was' regarded as a loss not only to the Opposition party, but to the House itself. Because of this his promised address was looked forward to with more than ordinary intorest. Thoso who read the report of his spccch this morning will recognise that the interest evinced was warranted. It was an agreeable change to find a candidate seeking the suffrages of the electors advocating broad principles; telling hard, cold truths; pleading for a higher national spirit, and preaching a return to that self-reliance which has been so insidiously underlined by the administrate methods of tho past 14 or 15 years. Instead of a host of petty promises of benefits to come, Mr. Herdman took the higher ground, and wb venture to think that ho will lose nothing in the estimation of the public by his departure from the electioneering methods too commonly practised in thiscountry of late years. It is not our intention to follow him in detail in his estirnato. of the political situation and his way to better things. His exposure of that mockery of justice, the Arbitration Act as administered by the present Government, excited the interest it deserved ; and the contrast between the methods of the Wade Government in New South Wales and the Ward Government in New Zealand was well made. This subject, however, deserves a night to itsftlf to do it full justice, some of Mr. Herdman's points, excellent though they were, being hurried over in order to crowd them all in. Tho feature of the address which pleased us most was the higll standard it set for the coming contest. It is time that the politics of this country were placed on a higher plane— that petty, personal, and party interests should give way to broad principles and high ideals—that the welfare of the nation, not the, interests of a particular political party, wliould bo the first conThere are many thinking people who hold the view that New Zealand has. reached a critical stage in its career. We have reached a position when our .interest charges on borrowod money total a sum greater than the amount which comes into the country annually as new borrowed capital. More and more is collected each year in taxation. The annual surplus in which the Minister for Finance takes such delight is merely it "hlboding of tho taxpayors," as Mr. Herdman aptly styled it; when, but for the extravagance of the Government, the money could bo returned to the public in reduced Customs duties on the necessaries of life. These facts are coming home to the people.- What would happen if our borrowing policy was stopped? and what is going to happen at no distant date if the present rate of piling up the public debt continues? These and other la,rge issues directly and vitally affecting the whole community should be freed, as far as is possible, from the heat of party politics.. But it is only by laying down and adhering to broad principles as guides to given ends that there is afty hope of scouring the adoption and carrying through of a sound policy of reform. Tho burden of Mr. Herdman's complaint last evening was that the Government has not fixed principles— that it is guided almost invariably by expediency and vote-catching. The majority of the public, we believe, recognise this; what they require to be shown is tho injury this condition of things is doing to our public life and national character. Mr. Herdman has done something in this direction, and other Opposition candidates could, with advantage, follow his example.