The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1919. THE GREAT SUBSTITUTE

New Zealand Times, Volume XLV, Issue 10432, 10 November 1919, Page 4

The New Zealand Times. MONDAY, NOVEMBER 10, 1919. THE GREAT SUBSTITUTE

The great substitute for party government has been found and applied. We endured on Saturday the shock of referring to the disgraceful Butter Bribe, and our readers endured' the disgrace of being forced to think about a thing so sordid and mean. Their consolation and ours is that this Butter Bribe is a revelation* Of lato the public has been obsessed with a hideous cacophonous chorus" against the resumption of party government, a chorus led by the leader of the Reform party. Behind this chorus was a set of priggish homilies of mellifluous platitude. These elements iagroed that a substitute for the party system had been found, and they pooled their arguments to induce the electors to accept it. The real character of that substitute the Butter Bribe has revealed in a single flash -which has mado the political atmosphere for ever lurid- The substitute for party is polioal bribery, otherwise political corruption, otherwise devoting public money to promote sectional political interests. The revelation could not have been clearer if it had been specially arranged and stage-managed. It is beyond doubt convincing. Take tin's Butter Bribe. The war threatened the buttormakerawith ruin, for, as things were, they could not get a single pound of •f&oir product out of the country. They were saved from ruin by the Government commandeer of their stuff, which brought them immediate money at enhanced prices, and ships enough to givo life to the export on which their financial validity depended. With the fatuity of brazen ingratitude these people denounced their salvation as robbery and demanded compensation, i.e., payment of the cost rightly imposed on them of the adjustment between the interests of tho exporters and tho producers who had sold in the local market. What is more-, their representative speakers declared at various meetings of the Farmers' Unions that they would take rovongo for this justice by voting against the head of the Government, who happened to bo tho loader also of tho Reform party. What followed is illuminating. On behalf of that leader it was pointed out publicly that ho was not responsible, as the act of justice)—denounced ns injustice—had been performed in his absence. To make assurance doubly sure on this point, ono of tho now Ministers told his constituents not to blame the Reform leader, for he could not bo held responsible for what had boon done behind his baok. The sequel to that-is still more illuminating. Tho new Government reversed tho policy of justice ungratefully hounded aa injustice. It was not a promise to pay. It is payment Itself. ' Tho payment is £340,000 out of the Consolidated Fund, contributed by tho taxpayers who havo paid high prices for butter. These taxpayers have to pay £340,000 as compensation to tho butter-makors for being saved from ruin. Tho threat of the various conferences lias had its effect. "Don't shoot, Colonel," said the coon in tho Yankee story, "I'll come down." The Reform coon has come down with a vengcanco. , State bribery is thus established as tho substitute for party government. Moreover, care is taken that conccs-

■ sions of public money shall bo the monopoly of the Reform party. There is tho corroboration of the "misunderstanding" by which Sir Joseph Ward's promise, in tho matter of tho bonus to the Post Office employees is vitiated by tho proposal to refer that matter to some outside authority, a proposal subversive of Ministerial principle, -and insulting to the man who made the promise en the faith "of a Cabinet minute. Tho result is that 'justice is refused to tho most poorly-paid members of the Civil Service. On the other hand, injustice is done to the taxpayer in order to compensate the most prosperous of tho country's producers for being saved from absolute ruin. Could'there be moro glaring proof of the-policy of keeping in the hauds of the Reform party the great substitute for the party system or government? Bribery by concessions from tho public funds, the moneys contributed by tho taxpayers, is to be tho monopoly, it is now openly estahlished, of the Reform party. Thus they are the friends of monopoly. This is, however, but a new proof of the fact. There is still more light to be had Lout of tho facts of tho Butter Bribe. The act of just adjustment of the profits of tho prosperous butter-makere wna the act of the Coalition Government. The act was associated with the name of Mr Macßonald, the Coalition Minister who devised and carried out this perfectly right and proper arrangement, which protected tho taxpayer against extortion. By every conceivable rule, all the members of the Coalition Government ought to have supported thoir colloague. They ought to have tho courage to defend his act, for whioh they had made themselves responsiblo By thoir united assont. But what did thoy do? As soon as tho Coalition was dissolved, the Reform Ministers who remained in the Government of the country bowed Hko miserable cravens before the storm of wealthy ingratitude. They ought to have faced wealthy ingratitude, and spoken like moa to wealthy ingratitude. But they bent before the wretched storm. They declared their leader was not responsible because of his absence at the time their deed was done; they took shelter behind the labsence of thoiir leader. TSey behaved- like the dirty schoolboy who, having engaged in a row, becomes afraid of the oane, and whimpers, "Please, sir, it wasn't me." In order to save their skins, these leaders of a party which wants to abolish parties, and is ambitious to rulo by the great substitute, turned their backs on honour, loyalty, duty, courage, and crawled out of tho trouble they ought to have faced, crawled through the loophole of a £340,000 bribe at tho public expense. This shameful crawl was also at tho expense of their own. ex-colleague, who is a leading member of the Liberal party. The crawl, in fact, shifts tho blame for the baseless grievance of the butter men to the shoulders of the Liberal party. To justify the payment of a huge dole of public money in obedience to tho threat of a hostile vote, these people are mean enough to disavow their own Ministerial act. Suoh is the true colour of the great substitute for party government. We pointed out on Saturday the possible consequences in further compensation bribes to wool kings and others; bribes, in, fact, to anyone and everyone that has enough lack of principle to threaten a hostile vote. Can anyone venture to quarrel with, this perfectly legitimate deduction? The true' character of tho great substituto is too well ■ established for that.