THE NATIONAL FARCE.

Observer, Volume XXXV, Issue 48, 7 August 1915, Page 2

THE NATIONAL FARCE.

Spoiling for Spoils,

IF William Sellwenk Gilbert were alive liis exuberant fancy would revel in the New Zealand political situation, but as Gilbert was ia true humourist and 1 declined to descend to mere farce he might reject the material as unworthy. Gilibert, if lie had been a newspaper reader, would have read! this paragraph first: "The twelfth submarine from Antwerp has passed the Scheldt land' has reached Zeebrugge" and would have noticed that it contained 1 twelve words. He might have turned the leaf and found three columns of matter containing among other things twenty-one startling headlinge and recording the fact or fiction' (or"Whatever it was before the (present situation was arrived at): "Coalition off"; while the eartiJv is ' torn with the bloodiest .%■ conflict the world has even, no man, in the New .ZealaVfdT"Ministry or outside it knows who will be the owner of this 'country in two years' time; thsse adult children, these insufferable egotists , irave and quarrel about their miserable little jobs. The relative importance of things is beautifully demonstrated by the twelve wordf notice of a great sinister movement and the three thousand word notice of the personal quarrel relating to ia bundle of politicians, the whole of whom are of less real consequence than a single infantry private.

* * * . In the political farce the public represent the paying audience and if the public were asked it would rather buy a ticket for a dog fight. The pulblic, quite apart from the large crop of political parasites who infest the land, don't care twopence whether Sir Joseph Ward or Mr Maesey is Premierj haven't the least interest in~T;hlpscramble for office; and are at this moment incurably bitter to politicians who play the

farce, with soldiers .for pawns and Royal Commissions for counters. The public, which employs these egotists who exude reams of selfish twaddle about their rights to political spoils are interested in one thing and one thing alone —that is the mental and! physical power of the Ailed armies to keep the British flag flying over British soil—that's all. Because there is wo other way known to politicians the party in power suggested such measures as would give the party out of power place without power. Indeed, the party in power strongly desired' coalition' for the purpose of holding its place, power and emoluments. A coalition would assure a longer lease for "Reform." * * *

As it is, the Liberal Party may possibly later declare that it is permissible to have a bid! for the whole hog by trying the House with a vote of no confidence. Presumably the whole boiling of political farceurs are now just as anxious to dip into a depleted treasury as- they were to do when that interesting cash box was full of scraps of paper representing the gigantic "surpluses" for which successive treasurers have been co noted. The duty of the politician at the present moment is to efface himself, to assume a modesty that does not belong to the ■breed l and to do his job like a Britieih gentleman without whine, or advertisement. There is not in . Parliament at the moment any man with a message for anybody ,but himself, not one capable of leading the people. No single war activity-.'in New Zealand 1 has been originated by a politician and no memorable achievementt of any kind whatever ca,n be laid to the credit of any- politician for many yeans.. The persistence with which these people occupy the chief place before the public i® disconcerting. They seem absolutely incapable of appreciating the situation and there is no difference between the avarice and consequence of the one party arid, the avarice and self-consequence of the other. The miserable coalition squabble represents a. new edition of , "fidldiing while Rome is , burning."

A Tory party not incurably bitten with the bug of self -interest would have instantly accepted coalition on equal terms as a, gentlemanly method of # stemming this' flood of trivialities in a time of Imperial peril. A Liberal Party not bound to a. policy of grab-all-you-can would! not have demanded "coalition, but merely that irres* ponsible officials and not hide-bound politicians should! run the army— for soldiers are still the most important consideration, even though poli : tici&ns believe that they themselves are of vital importance. Here and there in. New. Zealand; you will find groups of parasites discussing the political situation as if it- mattered. New Zealand would carry on much more to its advantage if it were tomorrow run by a board of six business men, directed during the war (as it is now directed) from London. It could be proved by any honest permanent State official that a politician is a man specially invented by a damnable system to impede national work. If. these soulless few who ceaselessly punish the country by stirring up miserable faction fights could inflict a general election on the country they would probably do it. For sheer dbwnright lack of patriotism the politicians of New Zealand are absolutely without peer. In fact, to use an expressive colloquialism, "they are out on their own."