The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1899.

Timaru Herald, Volume LXII, Issue 2977, 14 June 1899, Page 2

The Timaru Herald. WEDNESDAY, JUNE 14, 1899.

— _ We were much impressed with the £ difference between the speech delivered by Mr John Hutcheson at E Timaru and that which he subse- i quently delivered at Temuka. At i Timaru his indictment against the administration of the Seddon Government was particularly hot and j heavy. He spent a considerable j portion of the evening m exposing ] the " scandals " which had been brought under his notice, includ- ] ing those m connection with the < Marine Department, and he made no secret of his opinion that ' the Premier was • the person ; who was chiefly responsible for what had occurred. At Temuka he again mentioned the scandals, i but" he dealt much more tenderly with the Premier. He was m fact highly complimentary to the Premier, and said that the chief fault which he had to find with the head of the Government was his autocratic method of conducting the affairs of the country. No doubt Mr Hutcheson regarded that as a serious evil, and so far we agree with him, but not m his classing maladministration as a thing of secondary importance to autocracy. Both are bad m the Government of a country, but, if we had our choice, an autocracy exercised justly and impartially by a man of ability, who really endeavoured to do his best for all classes of the community without regard to his own personal interests and ambitions, would please us better, and would have infinitely more beneficial • effects than any kind of government , m which maladministration was triumphant, and jobs, scandals, corruption, ; and self-seeking, were matters of every day occurrence. However, it is something that at Temuka Mr Hutcheson admitted the i evils of one-man government, and declared that they must be got • rid of. We should have thought that the best way of attaining that desirable end would be to turn the offender out of office and put m his i place someone who would govern constitutionally. But according to Mr John Hutcheson that remedy is not available either m this Parliament or m any that may hereafter be elected. He attributes all ' the evils attaching to the conduct of public affairs m New Zealand to the system of party government. He believes that the autocracy, the jobs, the scandals, and the selfseeking would all disappear on - the inauguration of an Elective Executive. The present Parliament contains a few more members who [ hold the same opinion, and here and there throughout the constituencies may be found little knots of electors who cry " hear, hear." But the great majority of those who . have thought about the matter at i all are strongly opposed to the proposed change, and see no reason for breaking away from a system under which such splendid things have . been accomplished. But to return to Mr Hutcheson for a moment. He does not admit that there is such a thing as Seddonism as distinguished from any other administrative Vism." He says that one side of the House is no purer than the other, and that both alike are blameworthy m the matter of administration. Further, we understand him to mean that the same sort of thing must prevail m the future ; that is to say, that the Parliament to be elected m the course ' of the next few months, and its successor, and so on, will be composed of like materials to the present Parliament, and, under the g party system of government will go 8 equally far astray. Drop party go- " vernment, he says, and have Elective Executives, and a perfect cure '. will be effected. We cannot at prer sent spare space to argue the case as against the system favoured by Mr Hutcheson; but surely it was t for him to prove its superiority 1 over the system which prevails at present. He did not do so, nor has it been done by any of the other would-be innovators, m New Zealand or elsewhere. The people may be perfectly sure that as long as they - send as their representatives to Parliament men ready to condone and even applaud administration .such as that which has disgraced the Seddon Ministry, the , evil will flourish whether there i be an Elective Executive, or the \ party system be continued. Under } an Elective Executive each Miny ister would be to a large extent , independent of his colleagues, if • such they could be called, but we ;» cannot see that his standing m that a position would be any guarantee of y his political honesty. On the conf trary, it seems to us that his comr parative isolation would make it g easier for him to rule by Seddonism s within his own Department. Fancy six or seven head-centres of Seddonism. One is more than the country ought to be called on to bear. As to the Premier's autoct racy, which presses as a curse on • the colony, it could not exist for a 1 day if the so-called Liberal party a did their duty. They could long s ago have brought the Premier back B to his political bearings, or better '• still, they could have stopped him m his first attempt to achieve an . unconstitutional position. With two or three exceptions they did nothing but fall down and worship. Most of them are down^Tiis feet I still, and some are fotfhg trodden on. They are m fesr lest through i his influence they,|ose their seats lat the General Election. Mr HutJchesonmay rest however,

that m spite of all that has come and gone party government i 8 not played out either m New Zealand p or at Home. If at the approaching General Election the people are true to themselves and send to Parliament a higher and honester class of representatives, Seddonism d will be blotted out ; and whatever C set of men are called to office there will be no more marine and other „ scandals, and one-man government will disappear.