The Hastings Standard Published Daily THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1897. THE HUMBUG OF POLITICS.

Hastings Standard, Issue 321, 13 May 1897, Page 2

The Hastings Standard Published Daily

THURSDAY, MAY 13, 1897. THE HUMBUG OF POLITICS.

For the cause that lacks assistance, For the wrongs that need resistance, For the future in the distance, And the good that we can do.

Foe six long weary years and more the street politicians, the tap-room talkers, ancl the job-hunting Press have done their utmost to discredit the Government. According to our system this is quite right; and if the Liberals were out and the Conservatives in the same rule would be scrupulously followed. In this circumscribed area of ours —for after all New Zealand is very small—and with our limited population we soon exhaust a theme. The critics have pelted the Government from all sides, and some of their shots have been well aimed and effective. At first the criticism was of a high order. The policy of the Government was ripped up ; but after six years of experience, though much of the policy has been found unsound and unsuitable, still there is a moiety that has proved beneficial to the community. The opponents of the Government pegged away at the policy until they suddenly discovered that it was in many respects very good. Now we hear nothing about policy—indeed, the policy of the Government has been assimilated by the Opposition—and in their distress the critics have turned their attention to administration. They have got the idea fixed in their minds that every administrative act of every Minister of the Crown is the outcome of corruption or some gigantic villainy. This is surely superlative rot. The administration is no doubt weak —bad, if you like—but we are far from believing that the pivot of its weakness is corruption. Ministers of the Crown are capable of committing errors, and it would indeed be remarkable if during a six-years' tenancy of the Government buildings they were not guilty of many stupid mistakes. Of course the Seddon Government has blundered in its administration; but we cannot believe that the blundering was due to corruption. The acting-Premier, the Hon. John M'Kenzie, in the absence of his chief, has to bear the brunt of this newest of new criticism. He has been heckled and worried over Bushy Park ; and if one could credit the ravings of the slush-loving critics, the sale of this estate to the M'Kenzie Bros, is a gross and gigantic job. There are always two sides to a story, and one stands good until the other is told. We have had the story of the political deadbeats and wind - bags, and we shall probably have to wait until Parliament -meets to get the other and perhaps the true story of Bushy Park. If there is anything in it we may be sure that the member for Patea, who has already shown that he scents the job, will worry it for all it is worth. We may pass Bushy Park, for if it is a job it is of a brand new description with which the country is not familar. The mud-rakers have during the week discovered another supposed job, and it refers to a road in the neighborhood of Dunedin. It is stated that this road, which cost a few hundred pounds, has been made to placate Mr Larnach, and that the money has been wrongfully takftn frjpm the moneys borrowed for Crown lands improvement. Let us

assume this to be true, and do we not feel an unbounded desire to roar with laughter at the pious horror displayed by the Opposition Press over this alleged job ? The Conservatives and the Conservative papers will do well to carry their memory back to a decade ago, and reflect whether or not their own hands are clean. What is the history of our railways ? Is it not a fact that thousand of pounds were thrown away in Conservative jobs. Why are our railroad tracks so serpentine in character ? Is it not because of the numberless jobs of carrying the line through big men's properties so as to give them compensation. The sort of jobbery that is alleged against the Minister of Lands now is, so far as New Zealand is concerned, many years old, and the inventors of it are the Conservatives. The people have become quite indifferent to that sort of thing, and it is uselese to ask them to view it as a job. Look where we may, in any direction we see evidences of past jobs, and are we to shrink from the mild sort of thing which is now poked under our noses and labelled " job." The Opposition will do well to quit this mode of heckling the Government and return to the more pleasing form of criticism. Deal with the policy of the Government on a broad basis. Let the administration alone, for if that is bad now it was degrees worse not so very many years ago; and, as for jobs, they are common to both sides. True political honesty is unknown in this colony, and the people do not look for it. If they can get good legislation with the minimum of jobbery and corruption they are quite satisfied. The present Government must to a very great extent fit in with the demands of the people, otherwise it is impossible to believe that they would have been returned to Parliament with a majority at three successive elections.