Evening Post.

Evening Post, Volume LXXII, Issue 6, 7 July 1906, Page 4

Evening Post.

SATURDAY, JULY 7, 1906. FROM DESPOTISM TO DEMOCRACY! - - «a» We have been endeavouring in a series of articles spread over tihe last week and a half to sum up the effects of the Seddonian regime upon constitutional practice and political morality in a manner more nearly resembling the impartiality of the historical spiritl than, the prevailing fashion which during the last few weeks has in many quarters transformed a virulent opposition into an equally extravagant adulation. In our own case there was fortunately no virulent opposition to suffer this strange metamorphosis, and the excellence of our personal relations with the late Premier was sufficiently testified by the kind thought which inspired his cablegram to us from Australia just before he embarked on his last voyage. Our general estimate of his policy remains at any rate exactly what it was while he was stii) the uncrowned King of New Zealand nor can we help thinking that tifiose who tind themselves in a different position should be able to give some better reason for their change of faith than that he has since paid the debt which nature exacts from us all without altering one iota of the work accomplished by us before the summons came, or the principles by which in death as in life it must be judged. On its Imperial side, Mr. Seddon's work was as acceptable to his average fellow-colonist as to hie most ardent supporter, and we could hardly say more. Occasionally marred by a bombast and a truculence which it would be absurd to ignore, his sturdy Imperialism was strong enough nevertheless to secure a more than respectful hearing all round the Empire, and the present generation at any rate is not likely to forget what a stimulus to the national sentiment was given by the offer of help which ho induced this colony to make, and to make good, to the Mother Country during the South African War. It was also our privilege to support him on the general lines of his advanced legislation ; and though even the best of it cannot yet be regarded as secure of the favourable verdict of history, it is not for us any more tlhan for the people of this colony in general to blame him for leading where on the whole we have all- been glad to follow. But anybody who casts an impartial eye upon Mr. Seddon's administrative record, and upon the changes which he has introduced into the working of our institutions, the personnel and spirit of our politics, and into the popular attitude towards public affairs and civic duty, will surely have little difficulty in anticipating the verdictl of history upon this far-reaching phase of his activity. Democracy under Mt. Seddon's guidance has trampled upon many ancdent privileges and has seemed to trample upon many more;. and there are few, if any, of these privileges that ire at least would recall. But the popular victories have been won at a terrible cost. It is as poor a bargain for a democracy to gain the whole world and lose its own soul as for an individual, and the finest crop of model laws in the world will ill compensate a people if it has thrown away its self-respect! and taken to cringing, crawling, devious ways in the search for them. The plain truth is that the victories of our democracy have been won with a despot at itls head. Years ago a man who combined scholarship and politics in a manner that the advancing tide of democracy renders more and more difficult made the striking remark that "the best history of New Zealand that has been written is that of Grote" — meaning thereby that the vagaries of democracy recorded by the historian of Greece supplied an exact parallel to its course in this colony. Nevei was this happy paradox better illustrated tfhan during the last ten years. In the days when oligarchical or aristocratical government was the rule in Greece, ib was a common thing for an ambitious politician! to raise the cry, "Down with the oligarchs !" to hound the people on to cut their throats, tb get himself installed in power instead, and in due course, by means of a bodyguard which he was supposed to need for protection against his ! enemies, to substitute a despotism for an oligarchy. Has not oiw own case been as like that of anoientl Athens as modern customs will permit? Have not we seen a, popular champion returned to gower, by the popular vote, and then consolidating it by means of a bodyguard into an absolute despotism? And the weakness of a despotism, however benevolent it may be and whatover immediate benefits it may provide, is that it ruins every other authority and leaves its subjects morally and politically poorer than a much more- meagre provision from a free Government. "He that seoketh to be eminent amongst ablo men," says Bticon, "hath a great) task, but that is ever good for the public But he that plots to be the only figure amongst ciphers is the decay of an age." The decay of all other political institutions is the price we have had to pay for the wonderful ascendency of Mr. ' Soddon ; and it has been the aim of our previous articles to prove this in detail. Tho Cabinet was never weaker, as people realise now that its commanding figure is gone, and pve,n its own supporters aro considering how many of the ciphers left behind must be dropped to make way for things of some intrinsic value ; things that will not owe their whole importance to their position, but will be strong enough to strengthen any position by their own merits. The Legislative Council was never weaker ; here again the ciphers look incredibly small now that the figure has been removed from in front of them. Of this strange collection of fossils and mediocrities, which instead of representing tho intellect and independenco of the nation, really stood for tho will of a single man, would it bo unfair to say that, with a few exceptions, mostly survivals from tho pre-Seddbnian era, they are individually insignificant and colloctively contemptible? Tho House of Representatives was never weaker ; meekly it has allowed itself to be stripped of privilege after privilego, so that it, like tho Cabinet, should become the tool of a single strong man, and the electors have been content to return representatives whose chief qualifications were to servo as commission agents for their constituencies and ballot-papers for the autocrat in charge of tho cashbox. The doctrine that a seat which can only bo retained by Government patvonago really belongs not to the member nor to the constituency, but to the Government, has become as clearly established as tho right of an English nobleman a century ago to tho pocket borough which had come to him by descent or purchase. The Civil Service was never weaker. The protection which was provided for it by previous Ministries of opposite colours has been removed inch by inch j the dignity, of the «ervice, contingent upon a

nice gradation of self-respecting and responsible authority, lias been sapped by incessant Ministerial interference in tbe pettiest details of administration ; . the lower positions have been systematically allocated for political purposes; and, as we have seen, almost tho final act of tho late Parliament was to empower the Ministry to give to every one of ite hangers-on who had been jobbed into the Civil Service in defiance of" the law the full status of a Civil Servant after five .years' service. The general public morality waa never weaker. While districts have been bought by a judjeious administration of tho Public Works Fund, which lends them to believe that their wants will not be attended to unless they vote for a Government candidate; and throughout the whole community — whether it is a country settler who wants a load, a ne'er-do-well a billet, a merchant a contract, or a lawyer a brief — the notion has been impressed upon every class that public office is not a public trust to bo administered with strictness and detachment, but tho perquisite of the ruling party, and to be farmed as such among favoured applicants in return for value received in the shape of political service. The scope and the intensity of the evil have been augmented by the combination of a time of great prosperity, a leader of abohl and buoyant spirit, and a general belief in the universal capacity of tho State. When the Stale sete up as a sort of universal providence, the allocation of ite bounty necessarily -becomes an instrument of enormous power, and in the hands of an astute and autocratic manager it has proved irresistible. Proportionate to his strength hus been the weakness of the parasitism which has fastened and fattened on it; and of this wholly unlovely growth we must hasten to get rid now he is gone. For the democrats who can only advance by riding on another man's back there is now no room. Men who can stand on their own legs, express their 1 own opinions, and fight their own battles, are wliat w© want, and to spread ; the people's power among many depositories instead of con centrating it in one means more democracy anidi not less. "Afore life, an,d fuller — that we want" ; and to. get it we must go back to democracy from the despotism which has recently prevailed.

Following the example of the Christchurch Tramway Board, the New Zealand Electrical Syndicate, of Harris-street, has imported a" Curtis turbine of 500 kilowatts, equivalent to About 750 horsepower.