SHOULD OUR M.P.'S BE QUALIFIED.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14835, 11 November 1911, Page 1 (Supplement)

SHOULD OUR M.P.'S BE QUALIFIED.

BY INDIGENA.

A generai, election is drawing near. Election notes are just now as common fare as the homely tubers; they are a daily dish. Candidates for the honour of representing lis aro coming forward in bewildering array. They are of different ranks in the social order, and they aro of different parties. Here we have a courtly knight of high degree; there, a candidate l who has won his spurs in the battle of hornyhanded labour. Here we have the Government colour, very alluring, very dazzling it outshines the sun ; there, the Opposition colour, and its attractions also are not hid under a bushel; there, again, a suitor for Parliamentary honours is clothing himself in a coat of many colours, a t-ry-to-please-everybody combination; while now and then we, find a candidate of -colour, a man of independent views, who attaches himself to no party. And every colour, we are assured by ,i ts wearers, is the only ono that will wear well and not come out in the washing. Moreover, on the surface, colour seems to be the chief thing, should it be unusual to think about any ether qualifications? '

Political life must be very easy to learn. As it seems to need no special preparation, it cannot be a profession. In the Herald there is an , advertisement: " Wanted Medical practitioner for country lodge." Query : Will the members wish to pay him as well as M.P.'s are paid? But think of all the years of study, any applicant has had to put in before the politicians would allow him to practise his profession; think of the cost of his medical course. And yet it. is quite right' that wo should be protected! from unskilfulness in those who sometimes hold our lives in their hands. What a blessing it is that W£ do not need protection from unqualified political practitioners! On the same page is another advertisement, for a high educational position this time. An applicant must be of high character, of appropriate educational > experience, and of proved ability as a scholar, an organiser,' and a teacher. Quite rightly, although the qualifications spell years of strenuous study and thought, arid years of exacting | practical work.' The moulding of the character of youth, tho training of the mental faculties, the w'ise leading into the paths of intelligent knowledge— duties canj not bo left to Dick, Tom, and Harry. But just fancy advertising for a candidate for Parliament, who must be of high character, of appropriate political experience, and so forth! You can graduate as a politician in a gradual ascent from a school committee (only highly intelligent people are found in such a body), though a road board or borough council, and so on to the loftiest planes. And to advertise for candidates would bo a sad waste of money; they advertise themselves. No, politics is not a profession. Is it a trade? Some people say it is, and a paying trade at that. This cannot be true. If you want to be an artisan or an engineer, you have to serve a very strict apprenticeship, and climb up step by step, and your fellowmembers in the craft will, believe me, see to it that the ladder is not shortened; it would not be fair, you know.* And just think how serious it. would" be for tho general,.-; public if unskilled engineers were *..11 owed to imperil the lives of travellers ! 'Running,'" or helping to run, a railway train or a steamboat, or even an auxiliary schooner, "is a /momentous matter. , Running a nation with all the delicate complexities of manifold inter-rela-tions is surely a simple matter; although it takes a mighty mass of machinery to run our ' big nation of a milion souls. Or, to use another metaphor, the work of drawing plans for the new Parliamentary buildings, and seeing them properly carried out. calls for nice adjustment and careful skill; while devising and rearing the structure of a Britain of the South can be entrusted to anyone who can scoop in a majority of votes somehow, anyhow. Tho question of qualification is a vital one. The influence of an M.P. is 'very far-reaching. No speeches are as widely published, as eagerly read, as generally discussed, as political speeches. They do much to mould our ideas. We, all of us. have favourite speakers by whom we are most ready to be led, whether intelligently or not, is the question. Think also how a man's vote in Parliament may tend to promote not merely our convenience or inconvenience, our gain or our loss ; but also, for example, the safe and substantial development of our country's resources or tlie strangling of nascent industries by measures that make legitimate business investments too risky. Rightly cast, the Parliamentary vote means, • advance; wrongly cast, it means at least obstruction. perhaps, retrogression. But the M.P.'s powers are more than far-reaching, more than important ; they may bo used so as to become unspeakably dangerous and awful. Our M.P.'s must at times deal with matters that are bound up with tremendous issues. Some questions affect not only national stability, but also national 'existence. And, oh, the pity of. it! We have seen our legislators deal with questions of this class with no real' appreciation of their vital importance, without knowing or caring to know what the verdict of history is, no matter how largely that verdict has been written; they are blind to the fact that., in such case, they wish to steer the ship on a course that has led. in the case of this great Empire, fiul of that, to wreck and ruin.' With light hearts, dead to tho sense of their awful responsibility, they may war, do sometimes war, with eternal principles that will vindicate themselves- without fail more surely than night follows day. What safeguard can we propose? " A manly, sober, intelligent facing of . responsibility on the part of the voters, that is, of ourselves. It is of no use to stop at blaming the men we elect. We are to blame. We are always represented as well as we deserve to be, sometimes better, thanks to the sterling men that we sometimes deign to choose. If we want the country to be served well in Parliament, we must begin by doing good service ourselves. All must take an active, conscientious share in the work of election. There must bo no shirking; every voter must do his or her part: every vote" should be cast. The privilege is a proud one; let it be worthily exercised. Even the man whose first and last desire is for self has a better self to live up to: he has a reserve of manliness to help him to do so; lie is capable of great things. r And for tho, candidates themselves, there should be first and foremost the desire to serve their country and their kind. This does not shut out a right and laudable ambition, though to make our own the proud motto, " I serve" is the highest ambition. Of course, this includes absolute straightness, a passion for fairness in all things, freedom from self-seek-ing. And what other qualifications? The better educated the better. I use the word in its true sense, as shown in a wellbalanced development of mental and intellectual powers. Sometimes a man has had, in boyhood, very little schooling; he can nevertheless, and .especialv in these days of cheap books, do much to "instruct and train himself. . Given shrewd commonsense, high ideals, and tenacity of purpose, and he can do wonders. But how are we to be sure that a candidate is up to even the minimum educational standard? Well, these are the days of examinations. Take a simple instance. If a lad wishes to enter the Civil Service, he must, theoreticalv, at any rate, pass tho Junior Civil Service examination.

Would it not, then, be a move in the right direction for the over-lords of the Civil Service to be subjected to an examination test in addition to the haphazard test of the hustings? • "