PARTY POLITICS.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXI, Issue 71, 7 November 1911, Page 5

PARTY POLITICS.

(To the Editor “Stratford Post.”) Sir, —While the spectacle of sonic otherwise estimable gentlemen indulging for party purposes in a mudthrowing contest may not lie an inspiring sight, still, party, as against non-party politics, even with a little mud thrown in, has for various reasons much to recommend. “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty,” and not to let the other fellow catch you napping is often the price of a scat lon tiie Treasury Boiicnes. While the sheathed claws of an elective executive might be productive of a more harmonious House, it is quite possible that this would be more than counter-balanced by the lack of efficiency following upon the non-incen-tive to light that such a system would produce. Where there is no criticism there is no life; where there is no life there is stagnation. Though I don’t for a moment infer that an elective Ministry would stop criticism, still, I maintain that it would minimise it to a great extent under existing conditions. The political being of the parties in the House depend upon thus keeping each other straight, and to alter'this would not be to the material advantage of a. young and growing country. Maorikind as a whole, has been fortunate in the selection of public men, and in this respect she compares more than favourably with sonic of her sisters in the Empire, and so long as her present standard is maintained, though it is not perfection, we can tolerate an occasional go with the gloves off, as being incidental to a virile House.—l am, etc., F. BELL.