KAISERISM IN NEW ZEALAND.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIV, Issue 12323, 13 October 1900, Page 3

KAISERISM IN NEW ZEALAND.

TO TUB EMTOH. Sir, —From time to time we haV6 bdjh - regaled with stories of tie exaggerated conceit of Kaiser William of Germany, hi#. > claims to absolute power by divine right,' and ids playful habit of getting his opponents imprisoned on charges of *‘l6ss majeslte” if they indulged in open criticism' of his exalted! self and actions. And we have listened to these accounts with a mixture Of amusement at the comic humour of seeing' a powerful monarch indulging in such vaga- ‘ ries j of contempt for his ridiculous pretensions to imperial infallibility, and of 'disgust" at his disregard, for personal liberty and hi# attempts to extinguish the rights of pha |h‘£ dividual to freedom of thought and speech. And doubtless we have thanked our stain, that We lived in the teost democratic of ,tW British colonics, where such actions on ths part of our Governors would not he tolerated for a moment. _ . . .. Meanwhile, behold, we find tJhat in. fh/i. g&vernment cl this country ther® is a large grCWtli of “Kaiserism,” which i threatens ominously the freedom bf thbUghif. and speech of the people’s elefcted repre- t sentatives. It is, I think, always tacitly, assumed that in electing men Ob the basip , , of their adhesion, to the pasty lb power,' they are expected to carry that adheSihii duly to the point b! giving a general Slip*.. port to the party, and preventing its replacement in power by another party Jfear in accord! with the majority elf public. opinion, rights, of criticism and difference s in regard to matters of detail being always reserved. Upon no ether basis can any Jf* ’ respecting, thinking man accept delega.tihb to represent any portion of the electeti. Yet it appears that our M.H.E.’s on ib* liberal side of political thought ate expected by the leader for the time being of tfe»V party to accord ?b unquestioning adheheflpS to . his mandates. Surely Premier forgets that progressive political thought existed here long before he entered the arefib as leader of the Liberal Party, and will continue to‘survive his disappearance from that arena.

When a representative lias been elected, as a Liberal, and) has xleitliei.v traded Ijii rote to a Conservative leader nor transgressed the limits of intelligent cmtdAa and free Speech, it ;a a gratuitous insult teii those who elected him for anyone, even tkfc Premier of the colony, to attempt to‘ order him over to the Opposition. Somfewhaty worse is the attempt that appear? to haVe been made to damage a political reputation hy the Arse of machinery at the dispSsSl d£ the Government to (secure the circulatioh of ex-parte statements of a highly coloured, and partially untrue character, It seSimi, to be a great pity that it should be possiMf to use the Government Printing Olficefobti. side of the publication of for ' tba .dissemination of the personal attack* which form such a discreditably large portion of our Parliamentary debates. And, in any case, the use of such means should bit accompanied by the most scrupulous regafi for fairness to an opponent, more especially;' perhaps on tthe part of the organisation! which possesses the control of the Printing Department. Unfortunately, this is hot thti first occasion on which the Premier has hi- - lowed a, perhaps, natural impatiCnCa of OWte did criticism to betray him into the atsump'l tian of a totally false position, find to reVMI to our astonished gase the sight of a D#* mocratio leader claiming to eJtetciso auto*-' cratic power and reproducing in thS Boiith* era Bees the KaiSerism which site Upofi till' safety valve of free speech, and aimi at rule upon the basis of a centiallsed coirtsol’ which places all power ultimately in tnt • hands of one man.—rl am, etc., JULIAN vans;