POLITICAL INFLUENCE

Evening Post, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 74, 28 March 1914, Page 4

POLITICAL INFLUENCE

One evil in politics has been the power of toll-and-dole enjoyed by the Government of the day. It is the old scheme of particular doles with the toll of the taxpayers. Who has not witnessed the political power of the public puree in this country ? Who has not observed the golden stream of public money used to irrigate the Gardens of the Voles? Of course, the Liberal Administration denied that even one pound sterling was used for vote culture, but the protestation could not have deceived anybody of average ifttelligence. Besides, the Government practically admitted the charge by holding back the Public Works Estimates till near the end of the cession. Thus any fractious members of th* dominant party were kept in harness and in obedience to the order from the box-seat or the flick of the whip. Mr. "Massey aaid his Ministerial colleagues, when in opposition, were trenchant, pitiless critics of that method, which inevitably tended to degrade public life and to weaken the fibre of the public, but this is the third year of the Reform Government — and the promise of a change to respectability in the allocation of public funds is still a promise. We cannot see good excuses for the delay by men who appeared to be so deeply pained in other days by the toll-and-dole scheme. However, the Premier has promised that the old order will be changed next session, and the management of public works is to be free from political influence. That is a large promise for an election year, but Mr. Massey will not be allowed to forget it. While the Government is working on that necessary reform, will it be conveniently blind to the political control of the railways? The Government found that the Reform bath was rather cold, and it did not step right in. One leg is still on the outside, but the water will not become warmer for the waiting. It is a big political advantage — much larger than the-man in the street suspects — to retain a political hold of the railways. .Ho doubt the Government's Reform spirit is willing, but the political flesh is weak.

The members of the American Trade Commission — Messrs. D. M. Parry, John Kirby, and Dr. Snowdon— will on Tuesday afternoon, at the Chamber of Commerce, deliver addresses to Wellington business 'men and others interested in trade between New Zealand and the Vaited Statee,