THE OPEN COLUMN.

New Zealand Times, Volume LXX, Issue 3862, 4 October 1899, Page 7

THE OPEN COLUMN.

THE LEG! SLAT I Vr. COUNCIL. The time draws near (writes “Settler”) for the appointment' of sundry senators to the' Upper House. ' It is generally supposed that a fair number of new names will ho submitted to his Excellency. Whether this is so or not, I wish to point out that at present this province (Taranaki) is> and has been for years, very inadequately represented in that august assembly. . ,We have only two representatives iri the Council. , Both are/very .estiriiable gentlemen, but it is no disparagement to them to say that they are getting old, and are not quite so active as they used tp be. It is high: time we, had one or two more members there. Mr Seddon has, I suppose, as large a percentage of supporters here as anywhere else. But jf.am bound to say that there is a certain amount of dissatisfaction in the district, which such an appointment would do much to diminish,' by showing us he means to do what is right and fair to the province.

THESE BE THY GODS, O ISRAEL. : “Tgnotus” writes: I thank the “Times” Parliamentary reporter for giving us in brief a sample of the views held by those clay gods of the Democracy, Messrs Hogg, Fisher and R. McKenzie, on the “spoils to the victors” question. It appears from the speeches of these fine Democrats and reflectors of the views of their respective constituencies, that they are so disgusted with the alleged habit of Premier Seddon of giving the pick of Government billets to their .opponents, that They find their ■ allegiance badly strained, and the burden of their whining Js that if Mr Seddon doesn’t knock off this disagreeable habit they will desert him and go over to the Opposition themselves. By so saying, Messrs Hogg, Eisher, McKenzie and Co. prove to demonstration their utter unfitness to be in Parliament. They say, ,;in effect: “Mr Seddon, if you will prostitute your high position arid give billets to the Toms, Jacks and Harrys who support us at our elections, be they fit or unfit, we will support you ; otherwise we will walk over and join the people whom over and over again we have charged with just such a prostitution of their high offices in days gone by.” So this is what the Democracy; has come tp! The Premier has kept these/men about him, apparently, by these services. Now, as he approaches his political doomsday, he has recanted, arid decided to give fair play to, his opponents ; /but as he has sown so must he reap—a servile brood, of "place-hunters who have been living on the game may be expected, on their own showing, to turn upon him and rend him politically at any moment. If the excuse - is mad© for these men that they are only playing a bluff : hand..*in', the .dirty. political game—that they .are trying to blind the constituencies "by a, show of iridignatidn, arid by' ..stating as a fact that which is' an obvious pretence, viz., giving it lorth that spoils are being given to the losers, when, they are fully ’ aware that that is an obvious and- fraudulent misrepresentation-—docs that not only prove even more strongly' their utter unworthiness of the confidence and' regard of their fellow ; men ? Is it not pitiable indeed .that the first fruits of the Democracy should be blighted and stunted in growth by the presence in the legislative garden of such an outcrop of political parasites and. weeds? I would say to the electors, When the proper time arrives, apply the electoral fumigant, tear robt and branch; see'that not one of these excrescences which are polluting the Deihocracy is left politically alive. INHERE ARE.OUR CITY FATHERS?, j “Parliamentary” writes: Who is resppnsible for the disgraceful state of the footpaths in Molesworth street ? There, wp see one of the leading tnorouglnares partly paved, partly gravelled, and,, with tjip exception of a few business frontages; riearly all under water-when it rains heavily, and visitors ban' hardly believe they are walking in the Empire uity. Awake! awake! ye City Fathers, and redeem your reputations. ■