The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Waverley. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1913. EVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 23 December 1913, Page 4

The Star. Delivered every evening by 5 o'clock in Hawera, Manaia, Normanby, Okaiawa, Eltham, Mangatoki, Kaponga, Awatuna, Opunake, Otakeho, Manutahi, Alton, Hurleyville, Patea. Waverley. TUESDAY, DECEMBER 23, 1913. EVOLUTION IN GOVERNMENT.

"We recognise in this colony in a practical way, that the good of the colony - can be worked .out only by honest diversity of opinion, given effect to to* the best of our abilities." This was said as long ago as the 15th of May,. 1888, in the. House of Representatives, by Sir Harry Atkinson. ' The statement is singularly simple in the sense of being entirely free from all pretence to superior wisdom, yet it ' is so characteristically British and sd s . true as a description of plain, practical statesmanship, that many readers are . fairly ''sure to find themselves in agree-; ment with it as a description of government by party, and also in sympathy' with the system as a good old English I institution, still the best that is practitjcable in the public interest. Yet Jkijwpgs have changed much even in New MJmvfend since Sir Harry Atkinson spoke 4 ;<m-the subject, and were he now alive, .he might, with that comprehensive good, jsense and Liberalism which Were; I so j characteristic of him, see and admit the need for more scientific methods.; Turn, for instance, to Australia, where j : ; |fasjjjMjpent Commonwealth elections.; and the state of parties in the Vic-j J tdrian IlSta\re Assembly show that poli-i -%ieaV partisans are so evenly balanced: '• thAmghotit the Ans*fblian electorates,! that party government itself has be-j come all but. unworjteble, in the ab-i sehce '^gtable and efffSAtormajorities.j 'Should these conditionffiSSaLtinue, a fc.Mr^AaV- -con*- , n^Bißßi., , , : state' of chrome deadlfttTis sbkely to ensue, «r governmen|^Haiji|g||B 2 conl/stant ?. cpnc^sion^qirlc^^^^^e^Vhich •■ would spell ineff ectfir§ri'ess i>Ton l^ ph and costly scale.; This, too, might happen just as w Purely in New Zea-. jand^if li^ £gstrpa^iPesi r we v hav^ had some slight experience* srf- ityft<im the Mackenzie GovetSfiAent^s :sWr^; tenjjre^^f jpf^ice in 1912. As a^atterl df-^fffct, party, government everywher^ nowadaysi.)toov,?foequeiiily fiiids 'ftself) UP aS%HSIt a stone wall, with the-;~reT gWpl^mi^Tinholy compacts or tindefwNwli pPompromi3*#W# "Sometimes the' I Ji^|i^ ;CqnsideVdtion "iff these cqnv f ■^di'tioiwn'hiasi jledr airwriter -^K/^the. >38&w-< I j.^imajfiWley^cr ->Ji ewj t00,.".-.»> -3ri4,«- t> mendingjat tp (^jj*..cpnsj(<4ajrj>tian -o% Bri-^ j; tish do^^lMH|e^: As he says, san p idj»ebl««^&tiocracy should express thep fiaodtii' viH'ii.. '^ai vaii -"^d- r hm& , .";'c I \ '

possible for a small jmajority to impose I a change on the nearly equal minority I .opposed to it. We all know by experience or observation that the failure of Parliamentary, government, lieslargely in the failure to avoid-this defect. Tlie writer in the" Edinburgh therefore strongly favors the; USwiss, system, which, he says, provides: at once for the sure and frank expression of the people's will, and the stnooth working and stability of government. The essential point is that the executive is not renewable all at once; neither is it dependent on the vote of a majority. Moreover, it can still initiate legislation, and if this is rejected there is still no crisis for the executive. It merely disappears, government goes on. as before. - .The two Chambers of the Legislature are equal and co-ordinate. In addition there is the | direct control afforded" by• "initiative" and "referendum." .' ! Fifty thousand electors in; the fir^t instance, and thirty thousand in the second, can apply these checks. Quite naturally, perhaps, the writer becomes sarcastic at the expense of the party system in vogue in England and the Dominions. "A member is sent to Parliament to give his best brains to the service of his country, and he contents himself with giving his two feet to the service of his party." He goes on to say that people in England are becoming weary of the party system, and turn from one party to another, as a sick man turns in his bed. He strongly advocate's the referendum, and he pours scathing criticism on the cost of a general election, contrasting this with the £196 that a recent Swiss referendum cost the community. One of the curiosities of the. Swiss system is that contested elections are very rare. The re-election of a sitting member is little more than a formality; not because the people fail in interest in political affairs, but because they know they always have an efficient remedy in their own hands. If the full significance, and also the simplicity, of all this were to be thoughtfully assimilated by public opinion in New Zealand we might, within the next quarter of a century, see a change complimentary alike to the intelligence oft the people and conducive to the more effective and more economical administration of the public business.