The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1887.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4944, 21 June 1887, Page 2

The Daily Telegraph. TUESDAY, JUNE 21, 1887.

Me Suttee, the ex-member for Gladstone, is an outspoken man, and did not hesitate to expose the reasons for the support given to the Government by some of tho members. In the course of the debate on Village Settlements Mr Sutter remarked that the honorable member for Nelson (MrLevestam) and the honorable member for the Buller (Mr O'Conor) seemed to think it was their mission in the House to defend the Ministry. Anyone who found fault with any action of the Government they got up and heaved mud at. " Both," said Mr Sutter, "have their political price. The member for Nelson has his Nelson Foreshore Bill, relieving the people of that town from a burden of £50,000 and placing it on the people of the colony. Mr O'Conor has his railway swindle on. It is for these things they are blind followers of the Government." Perhaps other blind followers could have been mentioned the price of whose support was of a more personal character than either a railway swindle, or a Foreshore Bill. Sir Robert Walpole, denouncing the declarations of pretended patriots, said, " all those men have their price." And in Don Juan we read, " The most by ready cash—but all have prices, From crowns to kicks, according to their vices.". Small single electorates have much to answer for in this respect. The "strong" local man is generally the one whose principles are elastic, and whose conscience does not trouble him. To remain a " strong " man in his district he must logroll for favors, and fawn to Ministers. Because he can get a post-office opened here, and a bush railway siding made there ho is supposed to have influence with the Government, and to be the right sort of man to send to Parliament. Ministers are not slow to take advantage of members of that kind, and are willing to pay the price for their support—a bind unreasoning support at the price of keeping them in the position of appearing men of influence. It would not be difficult to name half-a-dozen, or even more members of the late Parliament who, as legislators, were not worth the' cost of advertising their electoral addresses, who owed their re-election to having secured small personal favors from the Government for their principal supporters. These little favors are not much in themselves, but they are obtained at the sacrifice of independence, if not of honor, and at the cost of the country. A Commission of the Peace is wanted for one man, a seat on. a. Land . Board for another, which Ministers can give by a stroke of the pen, but they want a quid pro quo. The Scotch phrase for these transactions is, " You scratch my back, and I'll scratch yours," but in this colony, where there is less need to bless the Duke of Argyll, it is best expressed by the familiar saying, " You shout for me and I'll shout for you." This is purely pot-house politics, but it is all that very many members of Parliament can understand, and accounts for a weak-kneed tottering Government assorting that for tho proper representation of this small colony it requires ninety-five members in the House. It stands to reason that the. more members there are to deal with the more there are likely to be who can be "got at," or who desire to be "got at" for the sake of improving their political.status in their individual districts. It is these men who have helped to* drag the colony down to its present position ; as long as they have to be satisfied a policy of retrenchment is impossible. It has been said over and over again, that a Ministry only courts defeat by proposing economy of administration, for these hungry vampires band themselves together to prevent any action that would deprive them of the profit of sucking the life-blood of the colony. . These vampire pot-house politicians stand out prominently, enough ; they aro not the men to hide their light under a bushel. They glory in what they have done for themselves and their friends, and they loudly proclaim, "'By our fruits ye .-, shall know us." They are the men in fact who can go before the electors and say,"" I did this," " I got that for you," or, what would be probably true, " I sold my'vote to the Government' to secure. from you reelection to a seat worth to me £210 a year, and perquisites." They are the men who degrade Parliament to the level of a Houso of Delegates, and who smother the possibility of statesmansliip in the government of the country by flinging the net of local demands over every measure that regards the good of the whole colony rather than the greed Of localities. In the establishment of political associations in the several large centres of population much good may arise. We notice that the most of them have for their platforms retrenchment, and a reduction of tho number of the House of Representatives. These associations are the outcome.of .a better knowledge of the really dangerous position of the colony, and the consequent determination to avert, if possible, the predictions of Mr Froude.