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Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 5267, 10 July 1888, Page 2

It seems to bo quite settled now that tho Electoral Bill will stand no chance of being passed this session. This is much to be regrutted, for there is nothing like etriking when the iron is hot. There was not a member of the House who went down to Parliament after tho last elections who was not convinced that the electoral law must bo altered if the people were to be represented. Ah time passes tho subject naturally gets cool, and tho cheating and rascality of the elections get forgotten. Next session momberH will be beginning to think of the next time that they will have to face tho electors, and will bo much more anxious to pleaso them than to assist in placing obstacles in tho way of jjcrsoiisition. There can be no doubt that personation in largely practised in New Zealand elections, and though the law makes it a crimo, und renders tho criminal liablo to severe penalty, it has apparently come to bo looked upon as one of the privileges of an elector, to touch which is unpopular. It is simply astonishing how cautious our members of Parliament are of expressing any strong opinion concerning , the facilities that our eloetoral nystem offers for dishonest voting. Whether it is that so many of them have availed themselves of dishonest means to get into tho House, and, thorefove, havo little desire to change tho old order of things, or whethor they are frightened of curbing the pleasantries of tho free and iudepondaut elector, we know not, but their silence is suggestive of toth of these suppositions. To ensure the purity of election should bo the first aim of a House of Representatives ; wheroas, in this colony, it is not thought of half bo much importance as legislating- for police interference with' tho liberty of honest people. The very first tbing which the new Parliament should havo taken in hand was that of tho Electoral Bill, so that our statutes should havo been cleansed of a law that permitted such proceedings as characterised and disgraced tho last elections. But tho Houso of Representatives docs not think there is any urgency in tho matter, although, if it considered tho subject at all, it must havo occurred to tho least thoughtful of its members that, in tho ordinary course of nature, some vacancies must occur during tho three years of tho life of a Parliament. A bye-election is just as important to tho constituency concerned as a general election is to the whole colony, and why admitted ovils should bo allowed to bo continued when they can bo remedied is inoro than we can understand. The seat for Ashley is now vacant, and tlioro will shortly be an olection thoro, when we may expect, jf tljyre are two candidates in thy

field, the same degrading exhibitions to which we have been so accustomed whenever the people are called upon to elect a representative. No good reason can be brought forward to show , why the law should n€t have been altered last year; but a very bad reason can be offered, and that is that the members of our House of Representatives as a whole are lazy, and indifferent to tho best interests of the colony. They are absurdly paid for doing tho least possible work of tho worst possible utility, and the work that they do is so badly done that it has mostly to be gone over again. Regarded as Houses of legislation, our Parliament is not, worth what it costs the country, and undoubtedly its efforts for the last fifteen years havo been so wrongly directed that _ tho colony—naturally tho finest country in the world—is rapidly becoming not worth living in.