The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1940 Government and Public Opinion

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21821, 26 November 1940, Page 4

The Timaru Herald TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 1940 Government and Public Opinion

AFTER having been a spectator of the political scene in New Zealand for 70 years, Mr T. H. Banuehr, of Geraldine, has expressed the view that it does not matter much who is elected to govern, for ultimately it is public opinion that guides a nation on all major issues. To have this viewpoint expressed may not be heartening to those engaged in the welter of politics, since the politician for the greater part of his time is sustained by the pleasant delusion that he is the dog who wags the tail, whereas Mr Bannehr believes that the public is the dog, the politician the tail. This same idea has been more fully expressed by the late F. S. Oliver, one of the wisest English writers on the technique of politics. “If the politician would keep his followers loyal to him,” says Oliver, “he must be careful not to outrage their feelings of right and wrong. His course of action therefore is determined from the beginning by the morals of other people. Unless he can persuade his own party that his intentions are consistent with its standards of public conduct, he may as well go out of business. For the approval of his adherents is the breath of his nostrils, the wind in his sails; without it he can do nothing. An artist, starving in his garret because he has ventured to outrage the popular taste, may yet paint masterpieces; but political masterpieces can only be made by a politician working in energetic partnership with prevalent Spinion.” With 91 completed years of life behind him, Mr Bannehr is able to take a more dispassionate view of the country’s politics than most other people. He has discovered for himself the truth that in democracies it is the people who make the Government. The majority swings this way and that, but in broad outline the business of the nation, unless extraordinary circumstances intervene, continues in its usual way. They are minor changes, but if these are looked at in a long-term way they do not matter so much. Generally speaking an excessive swing in one direction is finally compensated for by a swing back. F. S. Oliver, again, gives his judgment. “Popular governments are short-lived plants,” he wrote. “The strongest of them soon begins to discover symptoms of old-age. People forget its past services and become unappreciative of the benefits it continues to confer. They weary even of its well-doing and turn welcoming faces to a change.” Those sentences should serve as a wall motto in every Cabinet room. It would save politicians from the danger of deluding themselves into the belief that one high-riding wave, unlike its innumerable predecessors, need not necessarily crash on the shore.