The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1910. POLITICS AND THE PEOPLE.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 843, 15 June 1910, Page 4

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 15, 1910. POLITICS AND THE PEOPLE.

The Reform party held a meeting in Auckland recently—probably it was the Auckland section of the party—at which various matters wore discussed, including the question of platform campaigning work. While in a very cheerful mood at the signs of increasing public sympathy with the aims of the party, Mit. Massey stated that the general opinion was that it was not desirable to enter on an organised campaign at the present time. No doubt the Leader of the Reform party is correct in this estimate of the position. Parliament will open its doors very shortly, and the country will have quite enough of politics during the next few mouths without any platform work from Ministers or their opponents. At the same time anyone who has followed the public addresses delivered by Mr. James Allen during the past fortnight must have felt that he has done much service not only to his party but to the country. They must have realised also that if the Reform party carried out such campaigning systematically during 'each recess the public would, in addition to hearing "the other side" on a great many questions of general concern, obtain a better and a sounder knowledge at first hand of the Reform party itself.

Of course there are difficulties in the way. Ministers are constantly before^the public, but they possess a great advantage over their opponents, ■ inasmuch that they do their electioneering at the public expense. It is, indeed, more profitable to a financially, as well as from the party point of view, to be travelling about the country, than attending to his duties in Wellington. It pays from all points of view, save that of the public interest. Members of the Reform party, however, have to pay their expenses themselves, and they can hardly be expected, therefore, to do as much travelling as Ministers.. who make a profit out of it, but they should certainly do more in this way than has been their custom in the past. We do not suggest that Mr. Massey should leave his home in Auckland w chase after- the Pbijie Minister whenever Sir Joseph Waed goes electioneering, say, in the wilds of Otago; or that he should follow the Minister for Lands.on his periodical trips to address settlers at Cheviot or elsewhere in the South. There are members of the Reform party in the South Island quite capable of attending to visits to that part of the Dominion, and members in the North Island, in addition to the Leader of the party, himself, fully equal to the task of combating Ministerial efforts in the North. There can be little doubt, however, that if the Reform oarty.systematically followed up Ministers on all occasions of importance and presented its case beside that of the Government, the party would stimulate its own supporters throughout, the country, and, on the merit of its platform and programme, rally to its assistance many who, while distrusting the Ward Administration, have hung backfrom actively espousing the cause .of the Opposition. Although backed by a numerically strong party in Parliament, • the Government is weaker to-day both in ,-the country and in policy than it has been at any time during the past 15 years. One of the best things that could happen to New Zealand at tne next general election would be a gain of a dozen seats for the Reform party. This would make the two parties so nearly equal in strength that the attitude of members towards their obligations and the atmosphere of Parliament itself, would be completely changed. The demoralising influence, the outcome of practically unbridled power, would be removed. Legislation would not only be subjected to the closest scrutiny by the strengthened Opposition, but the moral force which lies behind the weight of numbers would assist to check recklessness, and force Ministers to act with a caution to which they have long been strangers. The administration of the Government would be more searchingly analysed, and weaknesses not merely dragged to light for a momentary glimpse and then smothered out of sight under the solid mass of the Ministerial majority, but the equality of party strength would enable reform to be enforced. No longer would Ministers bo able to overwhelm criticism and fool the public by the exonerating. v otc of a large and obedient majority. Very few people, even possibly the Reform party itself, fully realise the extent of the perhaps unconscious influence on the public mind of that exonerating majority. The public, does not know how Parliament conducts its business—it cannot conceive that many members of Parliament day after day record the votes which they are sworn to exercise to the best of their ability in the nation's interest, without the slightest knowledge of the merits of the matter they are voting on, and often without oven knowing what they are voting on. They vote as the | party Whip tells them, or thoy follow the Leader of the party into whichever lobby he may decide to go, without troubling to ask at all. And these arc the votes which exonerate Ministers from charges of maladministration ; which secure' the passage of legislation of vital moment to the whole community; which enable the seven or eight men who constitute the Government of the day to do exactly as it pleases them, right or wrong. An Opposition numerically weak is a direct in- : centive to a Government to go wrong. Knowing that it can always overwhelm its opponents by its weight of numbers, it becomes careless, and, under such conditions, from carelessness to corruption is not a very long step. -Every lover of honest government; every nian or woman who has any regard for the future, of this country, even if merely from the purely selfish view of self-interest, should regard with satisfaction and lend encouragement to the movement to strengthen the. Reform party. A good Government is stimulated by ( a strong Opposition; a bad Government requires a strong Opposition to kcec it straight.