THE TYRANNY AND THE PRESS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1252, 7 October 1911, Page 6

THE TYRANNY AND THE PRESS.

WARD GOVERNMENT INDICTED, AS AN ENEMY OF POPULAR LIBERTY. [Bγ. JuBYIUN.] VI. THE STRENGTH OF THE NATION. New Zealand experience shows that the liberty of the press involves the liberty of the people—The Government's Habit of Concealment—The Nature of a Tyranny— J. S. Mill and Sir. J. G. Findlay-Tyran-nies Tend Towards Revolution or Subjugation by a Foreign Foe—The Press Under Past Tyrannies—An Appeal to the Electors. The test of sound popular Government is the liberty of speaking and writing. Ko despotic rule, no hollow form • of a liberal constitution, no simulated democracy, can enduro the temperature of a free press.—llaesoy's History of England during the Beign of Georgo 111. And undoubtedly no considerable nation was over subdued in which the public affections were sound and vigorous. It is public spirit which binds together the dispersed courage of individuals and fastens it to the commonwealth. It is, therefore, as I havo said, the chief defensive principle of every country. Of all the stimulants which arouse it into action, the most powerful among us is certainly the press; and it cannot be restrained or weakened without imminont danger that the national spirit may languish, and that the people may act with less zeal and affection for their country in tho hour of its danger.—Sir James . Mackintosh. I conjure you to guard the liberty of the press, that, great sentinel of tho State; guard it because, when it Ginks, thero sink with it, in one common ■ srrave, tho • liborty of the subject and v the security of the Crown.—Curran, Our examination of the dealings of the Ward Government with tho press has brought us face to face ■ with constitutional issues, which, though often overlooked in current political controversies, are of the gravest importance. Wβ have seen that the judicial system of this country has been warped by the partial destruction of tho right of trial by jury, as well as by extending the jurisdiction of those magistrates whose positions are wholly dependent upon the favour of the Ministry. We havo had to contemplate instances of Parliaments overborno by Ministerial domination, and forced to endorse pronouncements whose iniquity and absurdity were patent to the meanest intelligence. We have had occasion to notice that, if the Government had had its way three years ago, a large number of election contests must have been determined largely by such considerations as cannot endure tho light of public discussion.

The Most Democratic Institution, Thus in the plain course of our review of the Government's attitude towards the Press, we have seen—and by tho nature of the case' we have been compelled to see—that the independence of the electors, the independence of Parliament, the independence of the judiciary, have all been attacked or threatened in the process of destroying tho liberty of the press. And if clean elections, . representatives who will vote according to reason and conscience, "an open Conrt, and an indepependent Bench" are among the strongest safeguards of popular freedom, then it is not too much to say that the recent history of New Zealand has freshly illustrated the truth that every part of tho public libertieSris involved.in,. tho-,liberty of the pross.-V- n ■' ■ '• And the press is the most democratic of all our institutions. It arises spontaneously in the midst of the people, to express their opinions, and to communicate those facts withoutwhich opinions on national affairs cannot bo formed. All its power is given to it afresh every day by the peoplo themselves. It keeps them posted in their own common business, and their support of it is meroly tho reward of its faithfulness in this task. If it fails, therein, no wealth or skill can long savo it from decay. Those who would impede or degrade it are enemies of the people. A Secretive Government. The power that is trying to debase and fetter the press in New Zealand is becoming moro and moro a secret power. It instructed Civil Servants to give no information Jo reporters. It refused a full inquiry into the Mokau-Jones transactions. It concealed the invitations to mombera of Parliament to attend tho Coronation. It. caused Judges Cooper and Chapman to investigate privately the maladministration iii the Taxing Department; it authorised a Departmental inquiry, also private, into the same matter, and tho reports of those two investigations are even yet withheld from tho public. It sent the Chief Justice to Earotonga as a secret agent. It has covered its borrowing transactions with a veil of mystery previously unknown. It prevented Parliament from discussing the proposals that were to be placed in New Zealand's namo before the Imperial Conference. In its attempt to bully the cities out of their rights and properties, it has the insolence to mark its draft tramway regulations "confidential." It tried to smother tho charges made by Mr. nine— charges which were in almost all instances fully proved. It went through the election of 1908 without submitting .a policy to the electors, and until the other day it was keeping them equally in, the dark as to its intentions if again honoured with a semblance of their confidence.

It can only be a "semblance," because the people cannot really trust thoso who do not trust them; and a Government cannot be said to trust the peoplo when it keeps so many secrets from them I have mentioned only secrets that have wholly or partly come out. What of those which are still kept close?

Liberal? Democratic? Progressive? A Government which makes a practice of covering the affairs of the public with secrecy—a Government which, in order to make itself supreme, does not scruple to debase the electorates, the Parliament and tho Judiciary—a Government which strives to suppress free discussion and to deny the people the right to control their own affairs—a Government which as-sails, in the liberty of tho press, every form of the liberty of the subject—such a Government cannot be called, by sane nersons, either Liberal, Democratic, or Progressive. It is scarcely, in any true English sense, a Government at all. _ Its proper name is what T have called it all- along —a Tyranny.- Notwithstanding all differences of outward form, it is the same kind of Government as that, of tho Stuarts, of George lit and of Louis XIV. The Mexicans have just swont away that sort of Government; tho Youmj Turks recentlv cast it out; the soil of Russia yet stn'ams with the blood that was spilt in a liko endeavour; and there arc signs that oven the immemorial patience of China will scarcely endure it longer. The Nature of a Tyranny. I do not say that the 'Ward Tyranny has reached such extremes as those othcTS. But it i-- moving in tho Fame direction. It is ■'■f t!if- nature of tyrannies to grow more nun u-."ro tyrannical. The appetite for power grows with what it f<vd= on. Each infringement of the constitution, twich wresting of tho law, each limitation of tho people's libortins carries with it the seed of tho next. Every wrong ref|iiir..-s another to buttress it. The people, scarcely realising what is being done, acquiesce, and gradually sink into a habit of submission. It is not required of them to think, and, indeed, the exercise of their conscience or their reason is discouraged. For a long time they may fancy (hat they are still voting like freemen, whereas they aro but casting their bnllots in obedionce to bribes or threats. At ono stage the people of a district may be told that the building of a railway, tho bridging of a river, or some other work in which thnir prosperity is concerned, will depend upon their voting lo retain certain persons' in office. At another stage an effort is made to porsuado a whole peopio (hat if they exorcise their right lo brine aliniit a political change, all trades and all classes will bo mined. And at every slain the. Tyranny binds individuals to it=elf bv ruiS-use of its power of patronage, and draws Tactions of ill sorts into

its train by sacrificing the general welfare to particular interests. Unreal Philanthropies. A Tyranny may profess a paternal spirit. It 'may say that it restricts the freedom of tho individual for tho sake of the. welfare of the whole. But that kind of philanthropy is subject to the fatal defect that it degrades the very persons whom it is supposed to benefit. To deprive a man of the right to seek his own good in his own way is to treat him like a child or an imbecile. If he submits— as ho will, until ho realises what is being done, to him—ho becomes less and less of a man. Free choice is taken away, and his faculty of judgment withers for want of use. The sense of responsibility dies out, and as he continually becomes less capable of taking care of himself, the Tyranny takes him moro and more completely into its charge. Initiative is not required of him. lie has but to perform some State-regulated task-work, and be amused in his leisure, hours. For this purpose tho Tyranny will doubtless provide military reviews, festival decorations, lectures by an Attorney-General, and other kinds of circuses. One gathers that, in tho Tyrannies of the future tho private citizen will not even bo permitted to lovo and marry after his own nature; a board or a department will supervise all that sort of thing—a.nd doubtless every care will be taken to breed from tho most docile strains. Impoverishment of the People. This whole process of tyranny, in addition to its other disadvantages, is very expensive. It rests Inrgcly, during its earlier stages, upon a hu?o system of administrative rewards, and the money for tin's purpose has to be provided either by heavy taxation or by borrowing, which is usually taxation postponed. In the later stages of tyranny, punishments are used moro than rewards, but even if these are less costly, the rulers have become so accustomed to having the taxes and loan moneys to epend that they think they cannot reduce their demands upon tho people. Meanwhile, tho people, having given up thinking, produce- less wealth than belore, because wealth is made by brains as well as by hands. Thus, while they are burdened with more and more taxes, they have less and less of the wherewithal to pay thorn. "A State Which Dwarfs Its Men.". Part of this process of the degeneration of a people under the heel of a tyranny was accurately described by one of the great thinkers of the last century. Ho held that "a.Government cannot have too much of the kind of activity which docs not impede, but which aids and stimulates individual exertion and development," and he indicated that such activity on the part of Government must mainly consist of the collection and diffnsion of information and the invoking of tho proper tribunals in cases where local authorities disobeyed tho law. 110 proceeded:

Tho mischief begins when, instead of calling forth the activity and powers of individuals and bodies, it (tho State) substitutes its own activity for theirs; when, instead of. informing, advising, and, upon occasion, denouncing, it makes them work in fetters, ■or bids them stand aside and does their work instead of them. Tho worth of a State in the loug run is the worth of tho individuals composing it; and a State which postpones the interests of their mental expansion and elevation, to a little more of administrative skill, or of that semblance of it whicJi practice gives, in the details of business; a State which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more doeilo instruments in its hands, even for beneficial purposes—will find that with small men no great thing can really be accom- . plished; and that tho perfection of machinery, to which it has sacrificed everything, will in the end avail it nothing, for want of tho vital power which, in order that the.machino might work more smoothly, it has preferred to banish. Who is "Discredited"? Those nro the concluding sentences of John Stuart Mill's "Essay on Liberty," and it is .not'.at all surprising to. learn, that this'is o'lie'of'thb Ixjoks.'wliich 'Sit c John Findlay does not like. In his speech at the London School of Economics, ho said: Ho was aware that in that country Mill's doctrine of individual liberty still held good, but lie could tell them that New Zealand had discredited that doctrine in practice and theory. There is a want of exactitudo in this phrasing. Tf the learned knight meant that his Government had acted contrary to tho teaching of Mill, and contrary to British ideals of liberty, and that the peoplo of New Zealand had supinely allowed them to do so, then he spoke truly. But if ho meant that tho cxporieneo of New Zealand had proved either that Mill was wTong, or that liberty did not matter, then his assertion was exactly contrary to the facts. The Goal of Tyranny. The Ward tyranny, in tho steady pursuit of its one settled policy of aggrandising itself by a progressive destruction of tho liberties of the people, is impoverishing us all, and making us daily less liko men and more like waxworks. To produce a nation, of imbeciles is tho perfect work of tyranny, but this has never yet in any country been fully accomplished. Some sort of disaster has usually supervened. In some instances a freer, and therefore stronger, peoplo has rushed in from outsido and subdued tho whole country, as little England overcame tho whole continent of India, or as tho Barbarians of tho North conquered Imperial, but abject, Home. In other cases, the alruost-be-waxworked peoplo have shown that they could oven yet rebel, and then thero has been a revolution. Towards one or tho other of thoso disasters—revolution or submission to a foreign foe—every tyranny sots its subject pooplo moving at a pace that quickens with every step, like the stampede of tho Gadaroau swine. Tho Ward Tyranny is no exception. Neither the Imperial tie nor the most efficient military system can save New Zealand from the fato for which her rulers ore' preparing her. No one can save her but herself. And she c<lll do it easily, if she will but awake. It is only becauso sho has been dozing that the Tyranny has been able to grow. The Sress has enabled her just to retain some pgr.ee of consciousness. Hence tho Ward Tyranny sees in the newspapers its natural enemy. Said Ciirran, in his defence of Rowan: It is the right of the people to keep an eternal watch upon their rulers; and in order to that, the freedom of the press has been cherished by tho law of Unt'land. Tho rulers of Now Zealand do not like to bo watched. That is why they try to destroy the freedom of tho 'pressPast Tyrannies and the Press.

History teaches that a power which uses such means to maintain itself is bound to perish. The press under Charles I was manacled by the. Star Chamber and the censorship (political enormities which have their echco.s in the- deeds of this present Tyranny), and the people rose, and beheaded'- Stratford and Laud—those tools who pandered to the monarch's hist for power. .Finding thai was not enough, the Parliament mini struck off the head of I ho King himself, and eet up a republic. The republic, in its turn, became a tyranny, tho press was still fettered, and so the nation restored the monarchy. Charles II and James II persecuted the press, and yet again the English people freed themsebes from the House of Stuart. This time they brought; a king from tho littln country which at that time was nobly singular in the possession of a free press. Under the later Stuarls Englishmen had suffered grievous tortures for bringing books from Holland. They had their reward when James fled into evilo iind 'William of Orange, bncaine the Sovereign of a constitutional British Government. The Reign of Law. The service of tho freo printers of Holland was not to England alone. Here is the testimony of n great historian: Tho Swiss Cantons, especially (ienovn, profoundly inlhioncod opinion in the days preceding (ho French devolution, but they liad no port in the earlier movement to inaugurate the reign of law. That honour belongs to tho Netherlands alone among thi! Commonwealths; They earned it not by their form of Government, which was defective and precarious ..... but by tho freedom of tho press, which imulo Holland the vantage ground from which, in tho darkest hour of oppression, the victims of the oppressors gained the our of Kmope. (Lord Acton's History of Freedom.) The rnijjn of hiw, it may licrq be pointed out, is that which makes political free- J

dom possible. When law—not tlho lawmaker, nor (lie liiw-mlminist.Tn.lor, but (.lie law itself—is supreme, "tho. Liffhost not exempt irom its jiower. Hie lowest l'cc-ling its protection," then llio liberty of tho subject can exist. A tyranny is a thing which sets itself abovo tho law.

The Lessons of the Revolutions. Perhaps tho most cruel, foolish, nml persistent of all persecutions of the prois was that authorised by I-ouis XIV and his successors, and it was followod by the French Revolution. During the saiwo period, tho English Goveniment, under George. 111, also tried to def'joy the libnrty of speaking and wrifii% and a new English revolution seemed to bo pending. When the American colonies revolted, it was recognised- that the liberties of Knglan<l, as well as the rigbts of tho oversea settlers, were involved in the struggle. Thus the repressive n".ensiires of George 111 had their natural Mciuol in a revolution which, though it did not overwhelm tho dynasty, took from it what would else have become the grandest part of tho Empire.

What Will the People Do? It is noiv possible for us in New Zealand to overthrow our Tyranny without a revolution. It has not yet become a dynasty— although the baronetcy is hereditary, rho Tyranny has proved that it can retain its position in spite of adverse votes in Parliament, but it is not yet independent of a defeat at a general election. It will, if it is left in power long enough, defy the Constitution even to that extent. An election in Now Zealand will then mean as little as it did in tho Mexico of President Diaz. Already tho Ward Tyranny has created for itself, by means of its system of rewards and punishments for voters, an apparent ■security almost as completo as that of tho Diaz Autocracy. But the ballot-box is still available, nnd if there is among tho electors enough of public spirit to resent tho insult of wholesale bribes and threats, if they are not yet enfeebled beyond nil likeness to the stock from wliich they sprang, if they cherish still a spark of the ancient fire of frowtom, they are now alxnit to sentence the Ward Tyranny to the peaceful extinction which is a kinder falo than it deserves.