The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1894.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXXXII, Issue 10483, 22 October 1894, Page 4

The Lyttelton Times. MONDAY, OCTOBER 22, 1894.

A ’Wellington newspaper which has a habit of ’looking at most political matters from a Ministerial point of view, ■ has; made the vote on the Midland Railway Bill the occasion for delivering a little homily on the wickedness o| seeking to abolish party government. It looks to the principle of palfcy government to curb the power of the log-rollers and to preserve some shred of political purity, Now it must he clear to anyone who has observed closely, that the party principle has done nothing in the past either to euib the ascendency of parish politics or • to restrain logrolling. It isequally patent to those conversant wife the state of opinion in the present’Hogse of Representatives that no amount of party pressure could heqe altered the vote on the Midland Bailway question. The Wellington journal has confounded things which hive no connection with each other. An argument, whose chief strength lies in an anticipation of what would happen under a set of circumstances absolutely now and untried, is always a weak one, and our contemporary’s argument that the referendum and elective executive would facilitate “log-rolling,” certainly belongs to that class. It is further weakened by the fact that the evil complained of has flourished under the existing political system. Even if party discipline had saved the Midland Railway Bill, we should have considered it a casp of one evil being mastered by a greater one. In so far as members may have voted to defeat the Bill from political convictions or on business grounds, we respect and honour them, just as we would have despised and condemned them had they allowed party consideration in this or any other matter to override their judgment or interfere with their duty to the public. There is in our contemporary’s argu.meat an implication that the Canter?

bury supporters of the elective executive proposal have been punished for their heresy to the grand cause of party government by a withholding of the power of the party engine, which could alone have obtained for them the much-desired completion of the Midland Railway. Wo hope there is no ground for this reflection upon the sincerity of Ministers with regard to the Midland Railway Bill. If the insinuation is in the other way—that the leaders’of the movement for the abolition of party government are actuated by a desire to “log-roll” a railway loan policy—we can only wonder at the verdancy of anyone who would propose to take such a roundabout way of cultivating a spirit which is now and has always been a leading force in New Zealand politics. We do not contend that the abolition of party government would eliminate all demoralisation from our political life; it might have no direct effect upon the log-rolling spirit; hut it would assuredly assist the development of greater independence and uprightness ou the part of members, and indirectly it would tend to raise them above partial politics. There is in the system of blind party obedience a far greater danger of a reckless borrowing policy than there would be under a system which should leave representatives free to vote according to their convictions. The true remedy for the “ log-roll ” is the introduction of proportional representation, and for that change public opinion in this colony is rapidly ripening.