Evening Post.

Evening Post, Volume LII, Issue 162, 30 November 1896, Page 4

Evening Post.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 1896. DANGER TO THE DEMOCRACY. ♦ The greatest danger that can threaten a Democracy lies in the power of its rulers to mete out rewards and punishments. If its leaders can reach to power, and maintain 5 that power by the aid of a docile and unquestioning following in the Legislature of the country for a sufficient length of time, it will come to pass that the Government of the day will entrench itself — unless imbued with patriotism, rather than lova of office and greed of authority — behind a power of reward for political service and punishment for Party antagonism that nothing but a com- * plete revolt of public opinion can weaken or destroy. And the rulers of this country are so entrenched to-day. By the aid of an unquestioning following the Premier has had placed upon the Statute Book measure after measure dealing with varying forms of property, and privilege the disposition of which is in all cases more or less at the arbitrary disposal of a Government that is ruled by one man in the name of the people^ It is for this reason, more than any other, that we would dispossess from present power Mr. Seddon and his colleagues. Masquerad- , ing in the garb of Democrats, they have succeeded in filching from the people the right to exercise more arbitrary ! personal power than has ever been wielded , by any Colonial Cabinet in this hemisphere since the inauguration of responsible Government. From the highest to the lowest, men and women of all kinds and degrees have been brought within the reach of the personal influence of Seddonism. The greatestlandowner in the country may reflect that while it is in the power of the Government of the day to wrest from him his estate for the ostensible purposes of the Land for Settlements Act, his most prudent course, the only one on all-fours with hi 9 own interest, t must be to support a set of men whose > arbitrary powers, were he a free man, he would be the first to overthrow. This is not the liberty that should be born of the popular voice, the offspring of a people's Government, but rather the . arbitrary sway of tyrannous bureaucracy. That such things have not been done is no f answer to our charge. It is enough that such tremendous power has been aoquired by the men who are now in office, and may be used n for the basest political purposes at any hour. s That the needs of the country will require * the resumption of private estates from time to V time for purposes of close settlement we have fully recognised, but that any Government ihould be armed with such vast powers as ,t are conferred by the Land for Settlements Act li is without parallel in modern legislation, and Q in direct antagonism to the highest aims of y true Liberalism. It is Seddonism, not De.. mocracy, and represents the thing that ere c another week be past the people should destroy beyond recall. Aud if we follow our illustration, what remains behind ? The Seddon Government has made a law under whioh it may take a man's estate against his wil . It is enough for the Minister to say the country needs this resumption. It may be, for instance, 3 the estate of Captaao , Russell in Hawkes j Bay, or of Mr. Buchanan in the Wairarapa, or both. Assuming them to be taken, what t follows? They would be subdivided and - ocoupied by a set of men who would become the perpetual tenants of the State ; but who . would stand in the place of the landlord ? , Not a coldly judicial impersonal entity thai could know not either fear or favour — not a just if impassive non-political agency that, while securing the tenant „ in his rights, might always be depended upon to safeguard the interests of the State — not these, but the Minister for Lands, who . to all intents and purposes holds the power I to give or take away — who may exact the * rent of the Crown tenant or evict him, or ■_ may permit his rent to accumulate and L allow him to remain in possession. y If it were not patent and palpable how this i. extraordinary power may come to be abused, o the esperionce of some of the other coloI' vies will furnish fruitful example. In New ■. South Wales, for instance, the selectors in ~ arrears of rent became a political power „ that went on its viotoriou* way until mil- ;) lions were lost to the country. First ) dominated by the Government of the day, c that bought these selectors' votes by complaisant landlordism, there came a time when, Jthrough their own members of Parliament, they so far dominated the Government as to make impossible any amending legislation that would compel * discharge of their obligation to the State. . And unless the M'Kenzie land system is to > fall to utter ruiu, the State as laudlord , must rigorously enforce the obligations of the Crown tenant. Yet but a few days ago the Premier declared from a public platform . that so long as he remained in power there should be no evictions in this country. In that statement there r 1 >y be the flerm of %

system of political corruption so vast as to be to-day immeasurable. That it is not yet does not abate one jot the magnitude of the danger. The Premier has proclaimed he will, and an enslaved Parliament has armed him with the power to give it effect. This, again, is Seddonism, and not Democracy. There are other counts in this indictment that we have not space to-day to enlarge upon, but we may here say that the administration of the Advances to Settlers Act, and the political control of the railways, even the State Farm, offer further illustration of the pernicious system of personal political control that at the present time is such a menace to the liberties of the people, and so utterly subversive of pure and honest Government. The remedy for these evils is not far to seek. These dangerous powers should be removed once and for all from the Government of the day and entrusted to tribunals above and beyond the reach of political parties, no matter of what colour or complexion, though in some cases it might be necessary to have their decisions endorsed by Parliament. But that this or any other Government should be entrusted with such arbitrary powers is to the last degree perilous to the welfare of the State, and so far as this journal is concerned it will most strenuously oppose the present or any later Government that strives to perpetuate them. Meanwhile the time has come when the country is called upon to say if it approve these things. We cannot conceive that did the electors know their real significance they would vote for their continuance, but to those that do know we confidently appeal to do' their part to dispossess of office the men who have with so much astuteness and daring reared a system of personal power and authority that must in no long time prove deeply injurious to the welfare of the country and the liberties of the people.