Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1939 DEMOCRACY TO-DAY

Patea Mail, 14 August 1939, Page 2

Patea & Waverley Press MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 1939 DEMOCRACY TO-DAY

IT is generally conceded that the present is an age of progress, die world progressing at a more mpnl rate than ever before in its history. The last hall: century can show developments in in ore than one direction that at one Lime would have been deemed. mipussii.de, in iact in suggesting them one would have run die risk or being eon,-adored insane. r'or example, what would nave been thought oi! anyone claiming to be able to lift into die aii’ a huge machine weighing Lous, and not. only lilt it into the aii', but keep it there for hours, and in that time make it cover over a thousand miles.' 1 .Again, what would have been thought of an individual who claimed to have a machine which would enable a two-way conversation to be held between a person in dug-land ami another in Australia, and another person in New deal a ml to be able to overhear the two people talking. And yet both the ■aeroplane and the wireless are accomplished facts, it is interesting to note too, that whilst progress has been made in various directions, no progress has been made with regard to the government -of the people. As a mutler of fact, it is the other way about. in more than, one country to-day, progress in tin; Arm ol government has been, backwards, in some cases almost revrriing to the primitive. Experiments have been ' and are j ,ii being tried, but so Jar there has been, no form of Government found to equal that which is to be round under the British Hag. So far as freedom, Justice and security are concerned, those people who live under the Union •Jack are the freest people in the world. Tiny know that they can do as they please, provided no injury is done or likely to be done to anyone. They know, too, if there is no judicial tribunal to hear their ease, they ran appeal to the Parliament of the people, their Parliament —and its members will sec that, justice is done. In particular the people who live under the British flag too, cannot bo arrested and imprisoned for any length, of time without being brought to trial. There is no such, tiling as political prisoners, who in many hundreds

of easc-s, in countries under Communistic rule, are arrested and executed without a public trial, and uiten without any semblance of a trial at all. It is not so very long ago that a woman of ~uud family, who had offended one of the present day dictators, was arrested, thrown Into prison, aad actually beheaded without any public trial. And this in a so-called democratic age. True democracy may lie bi Icily deiined as government of the people, by the people, and for the people, and this is brought about by a system of universal suffrage which does not always act the way intended. For example, candidates for Parliamentary honours are able to make all sorts of promises from the hustings prior to an election, which they have no intention of fulfilling. In addition they can keep in the background all manner of things that they intend to do, such as extra taxation, which if they Avere known prior to an election Avould result in very few of them being returned. It is true of course that the electors would have the right of turning these representatives out when the next general election came round, but it is equally true that once elected they could, if they wished, prolong their term of oflicc for an almost indefinite period or until the people took the laAv into their oavu hands, and removed them by force. There Avould therefore appear to be no remedy for the people, short of rising up in a body and demanding that their representatives resign their scats. Modern democracy demands that the people shall be governed according to 1 heir desires, and if a party is returned to power composed of members Avho act contrary to the wishes of the people, then they should resign forthwith. The only safeguard against having a parly in power acting indefinitely against the wishes of the people, is 1o have embodied in the Electoral law a provision that if a majority of the electors in any electorate petition, for a new election, the scat is declared vacant forthwith, and a new election is held. Every parliamentarian would then be careful to keep his. pre-election pledges knowing that he would lose his scat if ho did not. But there are so many arguments against the 'fright of recall” being granted to the people that it is doubtful if ever such a thing would be the law of the land. In the meantime the people must perforce be content Avitli democracy as it stands, knowing that it is better than either dictatorship or Communistic rule.