MINISTERIAL INTERFERENCE.

Opunake Times, Volume V, Issue 229, 13 November 1896, Page 2

MINISTERIAL INTERFERENCE.

The abuse of ministerial influence is being roundly condemned from one end of the colony to the other in connection with the present election. Under the flimsy pretext of “ educating the electors,” Ministers, so far as time will allow, are prepared to visit and address every hamlet and bush camp in the electorates of those opponents who have shown any spirit of independence in opposition to them in Paliaraent. In condoning their unwarrantable interference they cite that Mr Gladstone, and other leaders at Home give addresses outside their own electorates in order to place their policy before the people. In New Zealand Sir George Grey is cited to be the leading star in the same line. None of these, however, we feel sure, would feel complimented by the comparison. It is one thing addresing the public with a view to publishthe Government policy, but quite another for a Minister to drag his high office in the mud by converting himself, in the meantime, into an electioneering agent paying his travelling expenses out of the public funds and using the treasury chest for the purpose of bribing the disaffected parts. Should a candidate employ an agent and send him round on a similar errand he would soon find himself cmfronted with the Corrupt Practices Act and would be made to pay the penalty. There could be no objection to a Minister visiting the chief centres of the colony and there delivering addresses enunciating the Government policy, which combined with promises of expenditure, would likely influence the’ electors m their behalf generally, as such action would be above board, and as self-preservation is the first law of nature such a course might be justified. This, Ministers at Home do, and also leading politicians in the colony have done likewise. We cannot, however, imagine Sir George Grey or any other leading man so demeaning himself as to trot around lo the outskirts of any electorate merely for the purpose of trying to unseatn v particular member whose removal from Parliament would enable thorn to further run-a-muck. There are decencies in every kind of life which men are expected to observe, but this rule is totally ignored by the present holders of office who have so dragged down and lowered their high Ministerial offices that they are fast making New Zealand a laughing stock in the eyes of ail.