NOT A GOOD LOCAL MAN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1651, 15 June 1887, Page 2

NOT A GOOD LOCAL MAN.

One of the most outspoken politicans who has yet come before the New Zealand public is Mr. R. S. Hawkins who is a candidate for Wairarapa North against Messrs. Beetham and McCardle. Probably even those who least agree with him, will admit that his sentiments are worthy of admiration He said :—": — " I stand before you to be judged, not whether I am a successful farmer, not whether I am egotistical, not whether I atn of gentle birth or courteous manner, or smooth of tongue, but whether I have such ability, such knowledge, such experience in public affairs ; whether I hold such opinions, and whether I am of such proved courage and honesty of purpose, as will justify you in accepting me as your representative in the Parliament of this colony. I want to impress upon you that if you choose a representative only with a view to local interests and not with a view to the interests of the entire colony, you are doing the greatest injury to yourselves, and utterly failing in your duty to the colony at large. It is because men bave been sent to serve only their own districts, and not to do statemen's work for this colony, that tou are to-day so grievously laden with public debt, oppressed with taxation, and threatened with the curse of pauperism. Whomsoever you send, whether it be Mr. Beetham, or Mr. McCardle. or myself, I beg you to break with tbis evil tradition of the past. Do not longer degrade your member to crawl up the backstairs of the public offices of Wellington, to sneak about the lobbies of the Hou^e get a billet for one, a pension for another, a gratuity for a third ; to obtain public money for one township, or a public building for another, to go from member to member to haggle, to bargain for corrupt support to corrupt expenditure, till all politics are degraded to the level of the public bar, and may be summed up in ' Shout for me, and I will shout for you.'" Those who remember the first introduction of the loan policy into the New Zealand Parliament in*lß7o will recollect that it was then predicted by some of those who opposed it, that so soon as the House of Representatives began to handle large sums of loan money for public undertakings, it would degenerate into a huge board of works. It was predicted that certain men would devote their time and talents to getting as much money as possible for their particular districts, honestly if they could, but still they would try to get it somehow. Unfortunately, now that we have a public debt of some 32 millions, the correctness of the prediction has been made only too clear. In this district it is commonly remarked that Major Atkinson is a first class man for the colony, but that colonial affairs occupy so much of his time that the particular interests of the district have been lost sight of. On the other hand we on Monday reprinted an extract from the Post, a strong antiAtkinson journal, in which the member for Egmont is accused of unduly pressing a bill through the ] louse in order to benefit his own constituents. We shall look forward with interest to the forthcoming election, in order to see how many men are returned, who, like Mr. Hawkins, have honestly avowed their intention of considering colonial interests first, and of making district interests a secondary consideration. The days of more borrowing are numbered. As the colony reverts to a sounder state of affairs, men will seek representation who have made colonial polities their study. Fewer " grab-alls" will have any inducement to enter polities simply to snatch fall to the share of their district. The laiger slices of loans than honestly next elections should show whether aty, or if any, how many politicians who distinctly decline to make the satisfaction of districts war.ts a first consideration, can hope to be returned to Parliament.