WOMEN'S FRANCHISE WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH IT?

Otago Daily Times, Issue 10306, 13 March 1895, Page 3

WOMEN'S FRANCHISE WHAT WILL THEY DO WITH IT?

No. IV.—Pomticai Lying (Continued). TO THE BDITOE. ' . "

Sir, —In my last I endeavoured to paint the "political liar" in such wise a3 to locus the attention of the wom&n elector on him, for his eradication from the political field is the first and most important step which any people can take to secure parity of action in the discharge of duty as a representative. "I said in my haste, All men are liars,". saith. David, the great king. Had he lived in the nineteenth century he might have made a similar remark at his leisure without infringement of the truth, particularly in a, colony. Whether the general freedom from the social restraints of older civilisations which obtains in new countries has tended to laxity in tamperitg with tha strict regard to truthfulness in every position of life is the reason, or that the spirit of democracy, flinging aside the supposed worn-out and tawdry trammels of, old-fashioned conservatism, soars glibly into new fresh fields of ethics, where moral conduct can be as freo from the wise restrictions of the paßfc ar, is physical procedure, it is in evidence in experience that unrestrained freedom is as dangerous to a State as is tha rigid coercion of an old world autocracy. The tyranny of the people is 01 all tyrannies the most dangerous and devastating .to a people. The United States of America afford an object lesson worth studying. . What a contrast is the political calibre of to-day to the yesterday of Washington? What a grand band of rulers were those early Presidents—the men of the revolution ? Brave, honest, capable; supported and assisted by representatives of the people chosen for their probity and capacity. The past illuminated by truthful patriots; the present clouded by lying demagogues. The past watched with the hope and admiration of the best human material in the old world as it voiced the ethics of a free, vigorous, nobler humanity; the present pointed at as the failure of degeneracy to reach those heights on which the golden beams of freedom's rising sun had beat with such promising rays—a democracy in the new world debased with all tho accumulated wrong and demoralisation of the ages in the old, without the redeeming features of high honour and public integrity, the traditions of the race. Out of a population of 60 odd millions, such as obtains in the United States of America, there are thousands of men of as high principle, cultured intelligence, and pure patriotism as can be found in the brightest societies of Europe, but they will have none of political life. The political liar, tha spawn of a demoralised democracy, is responsible for this. The cultured gentleman, the man of honest purpose, of untarnished principle, cannot, stoop to lying flattery on the stump; to a base prostitution of the position to gain it; and co he knows, however willing—nay, anxious—he may bs to assist in building up the future of a great nation, he stands no chance against the unprincipled demagogue. Kites prefer garbage, sound meat is not acceptable—they like it high. The pity of it is that, though there is a considerable and influential minority whose idea of government is for the State and not the party, they are tyrannised over by the log-rollers of the demagogues of both sides, and hence a country which opened its career with such golden promise appears, from what we oan gather from newspapers, to be steadily becoming the''prey of the human leech, the lying demagogue, and actually to be getting into financial straits, notwithstanding its almost immeasurable extent, inexhaustible resources, and msrvellously energetic people. I would earnestly nrge my fellow-electors, the women, to study this American problem, for of a verity the same elements tending to disruption and State bankruptcy are in operation in all the Australasian colonies. Time was when the Legislature of New Zealand was considered, and justly so— not by ourselves only, bub by the outside

educated world, —as superior to thai; of any other of the Australasian colonies— superior in culture, social position, moral and intellectual calibrs. It is questionable whether that time is now. In saving this, I am not referring solely to what with amusing irony is termed the great Liberal party. I do not believe in parties myself ; but with the knowledge I possess of the private histories of the public men of New Zealand from my long residence in the colony, I am perfectly certain the moral calibro of the New Zealand Parliament has deteriorated since that perfect English gentleman—New Zealand'o Bayard, s knight without fear and without reproach—Sir Frederick Weld, left the colony.

I have been rather prolix, I foar, on this point of political honesty, because it is the most important factor in the political and financial future of the coloay, and that I do not believe the majority of the mala electors understand its importance, or, appreciating, would sacrifice party considerations to public service.

As I have already said, I look to enfranchised woman to effect the reform. Education, social position, oratory, intellect, are well; but political truthfulness is the "one thing ceedfnl"— without it the others are bat dross. To quote Locke : " To love truth for truth's sake is the principal part of human perfection in this world, and the seed plot of all other virtues "; and, again, Froude : " Truth only emells sweet for ever, and illusions, however innocent, are deadly as the canker worm."—l am, &c, tfebrutiry 20. Walter H. Pearson.