THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1928. A PLEA FOR PUBLIC SERVICE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 19947, 16 May 1928, Page 10

THE New Zealand Herald AND DAILY SOUTHERN CROSS WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 1928. A PLEA FOR PUBLIC SERVICE.

What the Minister of Finance has said to the Chamber of Commerce about politics as a vocation has interest and importance for others as well. Indeed, Mr. Stewart dropped quite a broad hint that he meant it to go beyond even the somewhat comprehensive membership of that body. It is not easy, he said, for commercial men to take part in politics. Engrossed in business pursuits, even if not beset by business cares, they cannot readily find time for public life. From a more leisured class, as a rule, have come most politicians in most countries. Experience in Britain shows that the way to the more eminent places in worthy statecraft is more open to this class than to those less fortunately circumstanced. - With these things in mind, Mr. Stewart has pointed a moral for New Zealand's younger generation. The sons of the well-to-do are not taking part as they should, he says, in the affairs of the community. Many of them have the equipment of a liberal education and are without the ties of private business; yet they do little or nothing toward the efficient conduct of the country's business, being often more concerned in getting across to the Sydney races every year than in attending to public duty. They have a public duty, Mr. Stewart believes and does not hpsitate to say in very plain terms, but they neglect it, ignore it, give no thought to qualifying for it, and are lazily content to let it be done ill by others. It must be admitted, even by the most casual observer, that there is serious and stinging truth in the charge. It is not to any one class alone, however, that Mr. Stewart's challenging words have application. As he himself puts it, in New Zealand there is no aristocracy of birth or of wealth, and there is consequently a golden chance of producing an aristocracy of character and brains. There has not been developed in this country any class able to monopolise privilege. Here, as elsewhere? breeding tells and money talks, but not to the exclusion of other things—the character and brains, of which he speaks, that have scope for exercise in public duty. There are circumstances, such as universal adult suffrage and the salaries paid to members of Parliament, that make tolerably even the chances of all sections of society in their efforts to acquire influence in the State. None with any marked qualifications for political service need despair of finding a way to the very top, and there is abundance of room, short of that eminence, for the capable and willing. In spite of what the Minister has said about the disabilities of commercial men, some of these have found it possible to give considerable attention to matters of local government, and even to the larger interests of national politics. It is theoretically practicable, at all events, for all to bear a share of the burdens of national business. Here, if anywhere, the comparatively modern experiment of democracy has a chance to prove its practical worth. Its value, as Mr. W. T. Stead once emphasised, does not consist in giving every Tom, Dick and Harry an equal share in government, but in giving an opportunity for every Tom, Dick and Harry to acquire a share by proving his ability to use it well. Democracy of this useful type is invulnerable to theoretical criticism. Where it is often open to attack is on its practical side. The opportunity is not used. Instead of a prevalent eagerness for public survice there is a prevalent avoidance of it, and the governance of the country often gets into unworthy hands—unworthy through lack of skill more often than through lack of earnestness.

In this appeal of the Minister is a challenge to youth. Too often, youth finds its laudable ambitions barred, even in so free a country as this, by the jealous hold that age has on affairs of State. It is a fact which the leaders of Mr. Stewart's own party s among others, should lay to heart. This is election year. Aspirants for political honour and service are already making known their willingness and wish to serve. What has the Reform Party to say to them 1 Apparently very little that is encouraging. It is understood that, in most electorates, there has been reached a decision that the sitting members of the party are again to have the party nomination. Suppose, in the face of this, a young member of the party aspires to be a candidate. He may have excellent qualifications —better than those possessed by the sitting member; but he lacks the party imprimatur. What can he do? He is forced, by this practice of standing by the older representative, either to nominate in spite of it, and so to split the party support, or else —to take Mr. Stewart's words —to go across to the Sydney races. With Mr. Stewart's plea for a more prevalent readiness to enter public life there must be general agreement. It is well based. A widespread, practical heed of it would imparfc, even to the Reform Party, a needed impetus. But that heed is not likely to be given—it is positively discouraged—so long as there obtains a marked preference in the party councils for the candi-

dates who hitherto have been entrusted with the party banner. It may take some courage to deny official support to these oft-elected and seemingly safe candidates. But a really national outlook on the nation's business would dictate a departure from the established rule. Youth is not denied opportunity in other professions. Why should politics present so glaring an exception ? It is possible to carry dangerously far a gratitude for services rendered, and the logic of Mr. Stewart's plea impels acknowledgment of this truth.