Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

Rangitikei Advocate and Manawatu Argus, Volume XXXII, Issue 8863, 13 July 1907, Page 2

Rangitikei Advocate. SATURDAY, JULY 13, 1907. SECOND EDITION. EDITORIAL NOTES

ON many occasions the party in office have loudly and insistently proclaimed that their motto is ‘‘Trust the People.” But they certainly do not live up to the motto, which has only served to delude the electors. Once seats are secured every effort is made to take power from the people, and prevent the free expression of the popular will. Indeed, of late years this prevention has been applied before elections, by the utilisation of a political secret society to do‘‘underground engineering, ’ ’ and by ‘‘selecting’’ candidates approved by its organisers and its chief Panjandrum. Other instances of lack of trust in the people are frequently afforded. For instance, we find ovofy Minister voting against a proposal to have the Legislative Council elected on a popular basis, and be really representative of the people,‘.instead of being merely an echoing chamber, a dumping ground for rejects whom the people would not trust with the management of their affairs in the Lower House. But the latest proposal of the Premier goes dangerously far in its aim at depriving the people of the power they possess. It is contained in the Rotorua Town Bill, which proposes to deprive that locality of the privilege of selfgovernment, and give its entire control to one man—the general manager of the Tourist Department. The privilege of making paths pleasant for tourists is certainly not sufficient recompense for loss of self-govern-ment, and the substitution of autocratic rule. It would be better to abolish the Tourist Department altogether, or oven to do without the visits of the tourists. It is proposed to vest in this one man all the powers of Borough Councils, except borrowing, and also to give him any other powers that may ‘be delegated by the Governor, and all the assets of the town council are to vest in the Department. The Act is to come into operation on April 1st —if Parliament contains a sufficient number of those who are said to have reason to regard that date with peculiar significance. We strongly protest against this proposal to abolish the freedom of the people who happen to reside and hold property in a centre much frequented as a tourist resort. The proposal shows that even if the politicians are prepared to trust the people, they are not themselves entitled to be trusted as guardians of the freedom of our institutions. This is even worse than such actions as the ‘‘£4o steal,” and others which have been perpetrated without the sanction of the people being obtained.