THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 1906. LOAVES AND FISHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13287, 20 September 1906, Page 4

THE New Zealand Herald. AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS. THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 20, 1906. LOAVES AND FISHES.

The control of public affairs by the people, for the people, and in the interests of,, the people, is the recognised ideal of democratic government; the unfortunate experience of humanity is, however, that, like other ideals, it is both rare and difficult of attainment. The theory of such a Government supposes the case of a people high-minded enough to seek to do justice to all, and unselfish enough to seek, no special, advantages for either 'individuals or sections of the public at the expense of the rest; it need hardly be pointed out that so far no such community has been discovered. It is unfortunately true—probably as true as it ever —that selfishness is the rule and not the exception, both in the individual and in the locality ; and the best that can be done, under any form of government, is to recognise and as .far as possible provide against the evils likely to result. It has been taken for granted, indeed, that a rough and ready method of securing good governmentwhich, of course, means just and fair government been provided when we have adopted a constitution under which (as in this colony) the rule of the majority is recognised, ; but the experience of every democratic country has proved that the assumption was unfounded. As long as local and individual selfishness is the rule, and the opposite virtues are the exception, so long governments, representatives, 'and electoral districts will remain purchasable quantities, and self-interest on a smaller or larger scale will over-ride fair play and justice. This is the experience of most* if not all, Democratic Governments. Fair government by the people, for the people's interests, would, of course, mean a just apportionment of public expenditure in proportion to the needs and contributions of the people to the revenue ; and nothing but the most bare-faced audacity could maintain that this had for a good many years past been the practice in New Zealand of our Governments. Here, as r elsewhere, Executive Governments have in the past been ruled by pressure on the one hand, or the hope of continued and increased support on the other; representatives in Parliament have placed the acquisition of special financial . benefits for their own localities and their own constituents in advance of any considerations of abstract justice ; and electors have been ready _ to reward by their support the representatives who approved and the Cabinet that adopted this policy of loaves and fishes/

Of late we have heard a good deal of the increasing practice of local deputations waiting on 1 , members of the Cabinet to represent some special need of their district and appealing to the Government to provide for it on the Estimates. The practice, it is almost needless to say, is at once an accusation and a danger. It accuses the Cabinet of ignorance of its duties in the first place, and- the local representative in Parliament of neglect of his duty in the second; and it at least suggests a bribe, in the shape of future support in case of a favourable result, and a v threat of hostility. in case of the reverse. The system is one which cannot possibly promote good government; indeed it is one which manifestly tends to corruption. But what, it may be asked, can be done to obviate the evils that attend the system? It is, as everybody knows, the practice of our Government to favour certain parts of the country at the expense of other parts, and to claim and receive the support of some of the representatives of the people, not on the ground of fairplay given to their constituents in. such matters, but on

some real or supposed superiority of their general policy in relation to the interests of some class of the public. Thus the money of the people of the North Island has for years been taken, and their future credit pledged, for the execution of public works in the South Island, not because the need was greater in the South, but because the pressure was for some reason more acute. Millions of borrowed money have thus been speat on Southern railways that give, and can for years hope to give, but poor returns; while the people of the North Island, who pay the lion's share of the interest, are contemptuously refused similar works that would certainly give better returns in cash, and would open up far more valuable country to profitable settlement. This, it may be said, is an argument which would reduce the idea of good government to a mere system of book-keeping. There are, it may be urged, far more important things in the government of a nation than those of the mere distribution of revenue for roads, bridges, and public works, and some failures in the minor duties of an Executive may be condoned in consideration of their general policy, if it promotes the general well-being of the whole people. The argument is specious, but it is hopelessly unsound. The policy which is habitually unfair in the distribution of the public funds is not to be relied on for fairplay in any direction. The difficulty, however, is a very real one, because the temptation must, as things now .stand, be a great one to any Executive. It is natural for a Government, as it is for an individual, to favour friends anty neglect if not penalise those in opposition; and as long as the power remains in the hands of an Executive it is likely to be exercised in this way. Yet after all it is manifestly dangerous. Today the North Island, and especially this end of it, has reason for bitter complaint at the way in. which it has been neglected in favour of other parts of the colony. To our South Island fellow colonists this may seem trifling, or even amusing now; the time may come when the majority that exists in the North Island will obtain the control,, and will apply the same measure of injustice to the South which has.so long been given to themselves. And for such a deplorable condition of things there would seem to be only one remedy ; it is to be found in the localisation of all surplus revenue beyond that required for certain definite Departmental needs of Government, nob by vote of the House on each year's Estimates, but by statute. Under such a system the provincial districts might easily claim the allocation of their own pro rata share of surplus revenue. Then county councils would obtain a reasonable share of roads and bridges ; then municipalities would obtain public buildings now refused or delayed and their people as a whole would receive, what they have not in the past received, bare justice and simple fairplay in the execution of, railway works out of the • borrowed money, the interest of which they pay, and the principal of which they guarantee by their taxation.