THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY. MAY 8, 1911. THE TRUE OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT.

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume I, Issue 121, 8 May 1911, Page 4

THE H.B. TRIBUNE. MONDAY. MAY 8, 1911. THE TRUE OBJECT OF GOVERNMENT.

Signs are not wanting to show that the people of New Zealand are , awakening to the fact that their Government has passed the con- ‘ fines of democratic principles and ; is now well entered into a policy of i class legislation which is directly J opposed to the safe and sound Gov- ; eminent of the New Zealand demo- i cracy. Most of us are now made ; aware that laws instituted to free j one class from forced inequality or ■ servility can swing too far and im- ■ pose the same evils on another j class, creating a new injustice in ; the removal of the original griev-! ance. Instances of this are to be ! found in many of the measures passed in recent years. Take for instance the labour laws of New j Zealand. The industrial Aribtra-! tion and Conciliation Act when' passed nineteen years ago was ne- ; cessary to prevent sweating, pro-' vide the assurance of a fair day's i pay for a fair day’s work, and for ■ the settlement of industrial dis- , putes without resource, to strikes, i For a time it served its purpose and i removed injustice and hardships. ■ Then it passed over the cordon line - of equity and immediately • became ’ a factor creating trade disputes by demands which a few years earlier would have universally been condemned as unreasonable. Take again our tariff duties which are imposed, not with a view to revenue, but to protect ion of certain trades. The imposition of small

umies may oe considered a legitimate democratic policy in the direction of protecting industries and safeguarding the employment of a certain class of workers, but to impose heavy burdens on the shoulders of others who uo not directly benefit from the protected industries is a serious departure from the principles of sound government. It may be asked what is a right conception of good sound government and the duty of democracy? Mr. Roosevelt aptly supplies the answer in his articles on Nationalism and Progress. He says the true object of government is the effort to accomplish a general distribution of welfare. The true object of a democracy should be to guarantee each man his rights with the purpose that each man shall be enabled to do his duty. Government is a failure, he says, no matter how well it preserves law and order, if it results only in securing for a few people an enormously disproportionate share of power and materia] wellbeing while the conditions for thegreatmassofmen are such as to forbid them from achieving success by hard, honest, intelligent work. Similarly, he contends, democracy merely means failure if it substitutes a big privileged class for a small privileged class, and if this big privileged class in its turn desires nothing more than its selfish, material enjoyment. In the following manner Mr. Boose volt- proceeds to.' characteristically explain his meaning. The man who receives what he has not earned and does not render full service for all that he has. : < r ut of his place in a democratic >nn' unity, and he is equally out of ; la- e whether he is a man living U ; dle luxury on millions which l.c has not earned or which he has earned in ways that represent no service to the State, or whether he is a man living in idle poverty enjoying the luxury of squalid sloth, content to exist on some form of charity, or, what is worse still, on what is in its nature the plun-

der of the industrious. The division ; between the worthy and the un-' worthy citizen must be drawn on conduct and good character, and not on wealth and poverty. Still we need good laws just as a carpenter needs good instruments, and unless the man ami the woman are of the right type, the laws can accomplish nothing. If betterment of social and industrial conditions : means merely an increase in ease , and sensual enjoyment no good can • permanently follow such better-, ment. Can anyone supply a better ; definition of good government?: We doubt it. In Mr. Roosevelt’s , conception we find "equality of op- ' portunity,” and what is equally ne- 1 cessary, “equality of sacrifice.” A Government which professes a democratic platform must restrict the i word "equality” within proper: bounds, and not concede that all men have an equal right to all 1 things, but that, to whatever they have a right, it is as much to be protected and provided for as the 1 right of every person in the community.