DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20988, 26 September 1931, Page 12

DEMOCRATIC GOVERNMENT.

Sir, —Your correspondent, "Elector," is surely a Simple Simon if he imagines that under existing conditions "the constituencies would return better men (i.e., than the present representatives) if given the opportunity." The workings of our democracy over the past 50 years or more justify no such rosy optimism. Our democracy is entitled- to reap just, what it has sown, and the condition of affairs in New Zealand to-day, so eloquently portrayed by "Elector " in your columns on Thursday, is the harvest. Without doubt it is a mighty poor crop. I have had the opportunity during nearly 40 years of the closest association with "the political, Parliamentary and administrative government of the Dominion to observe and study our democratic principles and their results, and my conviction is that they have failed lamentably to give New Zealand the good government and sane administration she had a right to expect. The fault lies, of course, with and if the pinch and stress oflheso hard times lead the best elements in the community to' take a deeper and more responsible interest in > the conduct of the affairs of the Dominion we shall have gained something from adversity. By all means, therefore, let us "stew in our own juice" for as long as may be necessary to allow democracy to learn its lesson and so avoid Buch an upsetting and expensive luxury as a general election, at this time. In my judgment, the first and great lesson democracy has ttf learn is that the present system of party government, with its mean and petty personal and parochial intrigues, is the real cancerous growth on our body politic and the cause of most of the evils which oppress us to-day. The citizens of New Zealand are rightly at the growing menace of cancer in the physical body and are organising their forces to combat it, but it seems to me that the need to remove this poison focus of party government from our national life is of even greater importance. The events of the past few days show us clearly how completely the party system fails when the country is face to face

with disaster and bankruptcy, and surely that should be sufficient to convince all thinking and intelligent electors of the pressing need to get rid of it. Is there one intelligent elector who would consent for one moment to his own private affairs, or to any financial, commercial or industrial concern in which his money is invested, being administered and governed on the party government system ? Then why allow the greater affairs of the Statu to b« mishandled in the present imbecile manner ? Why, even in these days of dire peril to the nation, we have been daily informed through your columns that the party leaders who have come together to form a Coalition Government have been choosing their colleagues, not because of their brains, their ability, their statesmanlike qualities, or their experience, but because of sectional and parochial considerations. Yet democracy accepts this iniquity, and "Elector" wonders why ifc fails. J. ,D. Ghat. Matakana, September 23, 1931.