POLITICAL REFORM.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLV, Issue 13813, 28 July 1908, Page 6

POLITICAL REFORM.

A PLATFORM OUTLINED. WHAT THE COUNTRY NEEDS. [lIY TELEGRAPH.—SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wbllington, Monday. The Evening Post, -which recently stated that it. preferred the present Government to the Opposition, has in to-night's papes. commenced a campaign in advocacy of reform. In the course of a somewhat remarkable leading article the Poet says;:— " New Zealand's chickens are coming home to roost. The -expansive policy of the long Seddon Administration with its trail of political .'influence,' its taint 'of political corruption, and its deification of 'God's 'Own Country,' as a place where the public revenue could be manipulated to keep a Government in. profitable office as dispenser, of revenue to deserving supporters and amiable voters, was bound to be followed by a reaction. Dubious finance, imprudent expenditure, the increase of Departmental burdens, and the decrease of Departmental efficiency are certain sooner or later to clog the current of a country's prosperity. Evidence is not wanting that the reaction is coming now, and as soon as the people become alive to the fact and its meaning, a policy of reform will be developed to cut away the- proud flesh that has accumulated during years of ban, swollen revenue, and concomitant expenditure. Only the labour of the man on the land and the success of the primary industries have sustained us this long. The administration of the Ballance, Seddon, and Ward Governments undoubtedly has , conferred great benefits upon the people, but these benefits, at least in later years, would have been greater still if they had not been hampered by the system under which they were givena system of debauching the electoral constituencies and of demoralising the public serv/ce in order that the position of the. Government, as sole dispenser of favours, might be still more firmly entrenched. The democratic insurance policy has been far too heavily "loaded in proportion to the advantages ■which it guarantees." After some remarks on the decentralisation of executive, functions, the Post goes on tc propound a policy that practically embraces the whole Opposition policy, and goes, if tiling, a little further. This platform is-out lined as follows: — 1. Clean finance, which means the simplification of the public accounts on the lines of any great public corporation, dulj certified, or otherwise, by a general and comprehensive report by the Auditor-General. 2. A Royal Commission on the public service of the colony to determine tjie system, its quality and effectiveness, a no; possibilities of retrenchment. '

- 3. A statutory Public Service Board that shall, as far as may be possible, remove appointments and "promotions from the reach of political control. 4. Ret urn of management of the railway service to a board of control, as in the Australian States, the benefits of such a change being apparent in the more economical administration of these States. 5. Reform of the House of Representatives as a Public Works, Board.

6. The resumption of V private estates under the Land for Settlement Act to be before taking approved by both Houses of Parliament.

7. The management by independent boards of control under statute of the lending Departments of the State. 8 That all Government measures shall as far as may be possible define and limit the powers of the -Cabinet to the exclusion of the exercise of like powers by the Go-vernor-in-Council under, regulation."