The Hawera Star. FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1925. POLITICAL REPRESENTATION.

Hawera Star, Volume XLV, 8 May 1925, Page 4

The Hawera Star.

FRIDAY, MAY 8, 1925. POLITICAL REPRESENTATION.

Delivered every evening by 5 o’elnek -n Hawera, Manaia. Normanby, Okaiawa, Elt-harn, Mangatoki, Kapnnga, Alton. lUirleyvilie, Pate 3, Waverley, Moltoia, Wiiakamara, Ohangai, Meremere, Fraser Road, an Ararata.

Except when the Fascisti do something spectacular, few people in this country are particularly interested in Italian politics. Among to-day’s cables, however, is a short message from Rome which calls for more than passing notice. A commission appointed to draw up a scheme of constitutional reform in Italy has brought down its report, recommending, amongst other things, that half the members of the Chamber of Deputies shall be elected by territorial divisions, and half by technical corporations, commerce, industry and agriculture. This idea of sectional representation is no new one, and, since the fate of commissions’ reports is more often than not an official pigeon-holing, the l experiment is probably as far removed from Italy as from New Zealand. At the same time, the underlying feeling of dissatisfaction that sets theorists feverishly searching for new and 1 improved systems of democracy is not wanting even in our own country. It is all a variety of what Karl Marx and' his present-day disciples call the class war. Our political edifice has been built up on'the assumption, that politics, the science of government, is something quite apartfrom our daily toil —that it is always the concern of the whole people rather than of any one particular section, that the goal to be striven for is the greatest good of the greatest number. Those who advocate the representation in Parliament of sectional interests, while they may not admit it, have really lost faith in these present beliefs. When we bear in mind the extent to which Governments to-day are called to interfere. in economic questions, when the ever-increasing growth of industrial legislation is taken into account, it is not surprising that men should be reaching out after some means of securing greater efficiency in these, divisions of a legislature’s work. Nor can any objection be taken to such a feeling. When a question involving the handling and marketing of, say, butter and cheese, comes before the House, the men to. whom it looks for guidance are the farmers and commercial leaders, not lawyers and retired schoolmasters. (Similarly, if the pension paid to sufferers from, miners’ phthisis is due for review, the House will listen with greater respect to men who know from experience the full terrors of the disease. So far, so good. Every member of Parliament with specialised knowledge get his - opportunity to make use of it- and to help his fellows over unfamiliar ground. But it becomes a totally different thing when ,a member is returned as the direct representative of one particular interest, presumably pledged to push that interest at the expense of all others. In the present state of affiairs a member is, or should be, an M.P. first and a farmer, a miner, a plumber or a banker afterwards.. It is when he becomes primarily a farmer or a plumber that the trouble begins; and that danger Avould be present immediately under a system of sectional representation. The argument against territorial representation is that there may be no community of interest whatever. One man may be a baker and his neighbour a motor manufacturer; one may play ragtime and the other Beethoven; one may be an Imperialist and the other have no interests beyond the corner “pub.” Yet. both are represented in Parliament by one. man. But would industrial and commercial representation be any improvement on that? No two bakers, produce loaves exactly alike; it is not to be expected, then, that their outside interests will be identical. And wherever sectionalism" is enthroned, there the wider interests of the public at large are bound to be infringed. The time must come before long, more especially in Britain, when the problem of an overloaded legislature will demand solution. Possibly then a separate province of usefulness may' be assigned to properly constituted Parliaments of Industry. But to encourage sectional representation in the regular Parliament of any country which has adopted the party system of government is to invite inefficiency, bitterness and chaos. The Country “Party” which is seeking to take its place in New Zealand politics is moving in that direction.