The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Dec. 11. PARTY GOVERNMENT.

Southern Cross, Volume 5, Issue 36, 11 December 1897, Page 8

The Southern Cross PUBLISHED WEEKLY. Invercargill, Saturday, Dec. 11. PARTY GOVERNMENT.

Party government is an old and well established mode of transacting the political business of the country, and any other method of accomplishing the same work may appear hopeless, at' least to some. Whigs and Tories are old English battle cries, and the parties forming the successive Parliaments ranged themselves under these flags respectively as naturaly as possible. Liberals and Conservatives are later designations of the same, political parties, only more consonant with modern thinking. They are the terms in almost universal use in our colonial politics. About the only exception to this rule is found when a member of the Liberal Ministry wishes to speak with emphasis of Opposition journals. We then hear of the “Tory Press.” Liberal and Conservative are only relative terms, after all. The Conservative of today, in most cases, would pass as a pronounced Liberal twenty years ago. The law of environment as surely affects the politician’s creed as do the inventions and improvements in agriculture the methods of an ordinary modern farmer. In human institutions there is no such thing as absolute fossilization—some Eastern people possibly excepted. Conservatives of to-day will be Liberals in the near future. As a matter of fact, it resolves itself into a question of degree. As applied to England to-day the party designation is probably an index to foreign policy

more than anything else. And individual attitude of such men as. Disraeli and Gladstone accountslargely for this limited .distinction,. As far as our .present Parliament isaffected, they are all Liberals and they are all Conservatives. On some points each member is a Liberal, and on other points every member is a Conservative. Given a fairly educated and capable ; .body of men in matters political, commercial, or ecclesiastical, or anything else, and a section will be found wedded to things old and of long- established ase, while another section will be strongly biased in favour of things new, involvings change. There may possibly be a gain in this everrecurring division of opinion. At times it may retard things desirable, bat it ensures testing before adopting. A strong Opposition is generally regarded as a good thing in Parliamentary work. The Government then cannot so easily have its own way. It will be held in check. At every point it will be made to supply the reason why for its measures. Should the measures be doubtful this is very desirable. If they happen to be the right, the best, strong opposition means waste and delay.. Probably, in a vast majority of cases, the contending parties are simply fighting for office more than for anything else. It is not so much the question of policy- as it is that of office. Our Parliament has now been in session for a considerable time, and a little while ago there were signs of its possibly running into the New Year. Later indications show that it will end before Christmas. The House has been sitting long enough in all reason for the actual amount of work done, or even aimed at being done. Of big measures, involving weighty consideration, the Old Age Pensions, and Technical .Education,, nearly covered the ground. On the latter measure, both sides of the House seemed to be equally favourable in their support. This shows that we are becoming nationally awake to the importance of this subject. We have been lagging behind here, while Germany has moved ahead, securing as a consequence great commercial advantages. On the Old Age Pension subject over a thousand speeches were delivered,, and there were as many different opinions as there were members in the House. One gets the impression at times that if our representatives were reduced from seventy to thirtyfive, better work would be done, with a great saving in cost and time. The whole population of our colony would not make one third-rate city in England, and yet we insist on having machinery extensive and expensive enough to do the work of legislation and governing tor millions. The battle of the Estimates ran intoweeks,.. and yet nearly every vote was carried in its original form. The expenditure of vast sums of money ought not to be rushed through, but the amount of time spent over it indicates that our methods are not perfect. Is party government a necessity ? There are other bodies invested with legislative and executive functions where parties are quite unknown. And yet they do their work well, and with fair expedition. Our municipal councils are such in miniature. Our larger ecclesiastical gatherings manage to discuss thoroughly and dispose of weighty questions without ever having the signs of parties. If somepolitical Peter the Hermit were now to appear amongst us and preach a crusade against party government, he would be likely enough to make converts.