Political Nuts to Crack.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 214, 12 November 1896, Page 6

Political Nuts to Crack.

* QUESTIONS WHICH SHOULD BE ASKED OF CANDIDATES FOR PARLIAMENT. An esteemed correspondent, who, we might mention, is not a candidate for Parliamentary honors, sends us the following interesting • budget of queries and observations which we give without comment, merely explaining that we do not pin ourselves to any particular article of political faith foreshadowed by him. Would you be in favor of reducing the number of members of the House of Represent'atiyes, and doing away with the honoraria I If not, why not ? Are you in favor of a qualification for voters ? Would you be in favor of placing the grog trade under the control of the Government ? Would you pledge yourself to support a measure placing the police force under the control of local bodies, getting rid at the same time of the Government corruption and inefficiency ? Will you support a measure that would take the control of our railways out of the hands of Government and place them in the hands of a Company, such Company to pay a fixed rate of interest per annum, and to work the railways efficiently ? Would you be in favor of one session in every seven beiDg set apart for the purpose of enacting new legislation, the intervening sessions to be merely for amending and regulating of the affairs of the land ? Would you promise to support a bill making the election of Ministers a duty of the House ? Would you be in favor of cutting down by one half, the Civil Service list of the colony, fixing the highest salaries at £500 —the lowest at £100. . . Would you be In favor of doing away with all pensions in the Civil Service ? If not, explain why Civil Servants should be treated differently to private wage-earners. Would you be in favor of cutting off all expenditure for higher education, and endowing technical education with the proceeds ? Would you support a freetrade and nonborrowing policy ? Would you, if elected, support a Ministry that would carry these views into law 1 comments. 1. It is quite evident that we have more members than are required to carry on the ■ business of the country. Time limit has had to be put in operation to stop members' tongues. The work of the reporters is becoming enormous, and the dimensions of ' Hansard ' colossal, while the real work is being hampered by the number of timeservers and salary-hunters, without the quality of the work done improved on — indeed, the reverse is actually the case. 2. It is quite evident to thinking men and women that the free and unqualified franchise is a huge national mistake, and was only carried on a wave, not of common sense and wisdom, but of unreason and theoretical madnnss. A thinking man is pitted to vote against the ass, and the old colonist to pair with the new arrival; a thinking woman with a girl of easy virtue, and so on ; learning with ignorance, experience with folly, and the youth with the grey-beard. 3. By placing the grog trade under the control of the State, it is quite evident that there .could be no motive for adulteration, or no motive to encourage drunkards to spend. Also, by placing the sale under State control you would have command of the trade and resulting profit, and could thus deal with your drunkards by setting apart a portion of the profits as a nucleus for au old age pension fund. It will hardly be possible to have Colonial prohibition because of many resulting consequences, too grave and too intricate to mention here. 4. It is widely known, and is a common scandal, that the police force is too much "under the blighting curse of political domination and corruption to be of any great service as a reforming medium' to colonists. The " force "is a mere sink-hole of political nepotism, and under local control would certainly be no worse, and might be better. 5. From one end of the colony to the other the cry has long ago gone forth that our railways are not run in the interest of the public, or are run so as to pay interest on the cost of their construction. It is run by the scale of charges that Ministers have at various times influenced the management in the interest of friends and supporters. Now, if the railways were leased under certain restrictions to safe-guard the interest of the colony, they might be mads to pay fair interest on the money sunk in them, and still pay the lessor. . 6. From the number of laws that are every year dropped, and bad laws repealed, it is quite evident to the merest child that laws are passed that are not required, and others are taken up and time wasted on them that tells everyone quite plainly that they are dealt with only to pass away the time. If a certain number of years was allowed to pass by, and no work on new ones allowed bylaw, the colony and its legislators, judges and public servants, would know better what was required either by way of altering existing laws or framing new ones. Necessity should always pave the way for new laws, not laws make the necessity. 7. Experience has repeatedly taught us . that one man should not have the power of either selecting or keeping a Ministry together. A Ministry should be selected from the House by a vote of the whole of the members, and no Minister should hold office longer than he had the confidence of such House ; but, at the same time, the retirement of one man should not be allowed to reflect on the other members. 8 and 9. In all branches of the public service it is admitted that there is an excess of employees. These should be reduced so as to bring the Civil expenditure within reasonable limits. No pensions should be granted for services rendered, and salaries suould be considered in the light of full payment. Some public servants are over-paid ; others under-paid : this should be remedied by reducing the one and increasing the other. No salary should exceed £500, and none should fall below £100. No extra inducements should be held out by Government to attract men and women from striking out paths for themselves in private life. This evil is seen widely spread over New Zealand to-day. 10. It is quite a common remark that those who take advantage of our higher system of education are quite well able to pay for it. But that is beside the question. It ia in technical knowledge that we are losing ground. The world is not run on the dead languages. Greek and Latin are not likely to assist us, as a nation, to hold our own with the people of other nations in the arts and sciences. It is in the field of industrial science that we must hope to progress. Such being the case, we should try to inculcate a knowledge of that which is most likely to be of use 'to the rising generation. 11. A nation that depends almost entirely en its exports of raw material cannot afford ■ to impose a heavy duty on manufactured imports unless at a great loss to the consumer. Free trade is absolutely necessary in a young country where all classes live largely on what they produce off the land. To tax imports is to tax the consumer, and the consumer is generally, in a young country, the largest part of the community. The working . olasses form the largest portion of the com--munity, therefore to tax the consumers of . " -imports in a young country, is to tax the working classes. To tax the working classes ; V:fdr the benefit of a few local manufacturers is .evidently bad policy, and has a bad effect all round. 12. Is self evident, and requires no comment.

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