MR JOHN – HUTCHESON’S POSITION

New Zealand Times, Volume LXIX, Issue 3746, 22 May 1899, Page 5

MR JOHN - HUTCHESON’S POSITION

The senior member for Wellington cannot bo felicitated upon tho way in which he planned and carried out his recent meeting with his constituents. No doubt it was his “shivoo,” as ho elegantly termed it, and ho had a perfect right to conduct it according to his own ideas ; but there aro certain courteous forms and usages with which compliance is expected from public men. A mooting of citizens convened for a public purpose is usually presided over by tho civic head of the community ; and tho'dgli such duty is a severe tax upon tho Mayor’s time, ho does not begrudge taking tho chair when invited. Mr Hiaciieson, however, thought fit to pass over tho Mayor and to choose for chairman a gentleman whoso qualification was that ho was “one of ourselves”—meaning a section of the community which claims in some peculiar or special sense to bo composed of working men. By that action, and by addressing those assembled as fellow-workers and npt as electors ox tho city, Mi* Hutcheson deliberately lowered tho status of the meeting to that of a sectional gathering. His intention no doubt was to pose as tho “labour member”—the representative of tho toiling masses and so forth—but it was a serious tactical error to do so, and already one of the labour organisations lias by deliberate vote expressed its renunciation of him. Abandoned thus by a considerable section of the class upon whom ho relies for support, it is plain that Mr Hutcheson’s chances of re-election are very slender; for it is inconceivable that lie should make terms with or receive any support from tho Conservative party. It will bo in some respects regrettable if Mr Hutcheson should retire from politics or be rejected by tho people at the coming general election. Many hopes were centred in him as an independent Liberal of thorough honesty of purpose, possessed of tho ability and tho ambition to be useful to his follow-citizens. If he has not fulfilled tho expectations formed regarding him, it is largely because his independence has come into conflict so often and so seriously with his election pledges that he has confessedly lost nearly every shred of his political conscience. Now, a Parliamentary representative frequently gets along very well without a conscience, which is to the average politician ns useless and inconvenient as the' “vermiform appendix’? is to the ordinary man; but when a member professes to have a. conscience and admits that he is habitually outraging it, in order to keep tho letter of his platform pledges,, he stands self-condemned as a most unreliable representative in the eyes of those especially who chose him because of his possession of conscientious convictions. Accoi’ding to ordinary ethics, it was Mr Hutcheson’s duty, when he found that he must violate eithex* his pledge or his conscience, to resign his seat and give tho people tho option of freeing him from his pledges, or of finding another representative. Instead of doing that, he cultivated an elastic conscience, and ho has now publicly intimated that ho will stretch it to tho breaking point rath or than seek relief from his pledge; in plain language, ho will rather stifle the voice of duty than run the risk of losing his seat.

Tho conception of independence upon which Mr Hutcheson holds his seat is ono that binds him absolutely to vote for maintaining the present Government in power, while at the same time it leaves him free to deliver attacks upon it which may alienate tho support of men with more independence than ho possesses. For example, ho finds it quite consistent with his pledge to accuse Ministers of corruption, and infercntially of perjury, in connection with the scandal in the Marino Department; but presumably, if a vote of no-confidence in the Ministry should bo moved, arising out of that very matter, ho will feel bound to vote-with Ministers, against his convictions. Similarly, ho does his best to prove that the Levin State Farm is a discredit to the Departments of Lands and Labour ; yet, though ho may cause other members to table a motion against Ministers on that question, he himself would vote for their retention of office. Between the. devil of his pledge and the deep sea of his conscience the senior member for the city is in a most unenviable plight. We can understand an independent Liberal who would maintain the present Government in power because of his convict'en that, with all its faults, it is better than any other possible Government at present. Such an attitude does no violence to his conscience, no matter how much he may disapprove of certain points of policy or administration. But the man who only supports the Ministry because ho is pledged to do so, has no right to call himself independent or to claim even a trace of a political conscience. Mr Hutcheson has been such a good local representative, and such a. diligent, earnest and intelligent legislative worker, that we regret to find him in a position brought about ns much by others’ fault as by his own—which makes it almost certain that the electors will not again repose confidence in him. In his painful position, “something had to go.” but that something should not have been bis conscience.;