The Star. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1908. POLITICS AND BRIBERY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 9212, 15 April 1908, Page 2

The Star. WEDNESDAY, APRIL 15, 1908. POLITICS AND BRIBERY.

There is an interesting article in a recent issue of the "Morning Post," discussing the question of the basing of politics upon duty instead of upon bribery. The writer suggests that anybody who has followed the course of politics in Great Britain during recent years must have been struck by the fact that the greater part of the/ controversial advocacy which is lavished upon people consists of the offering of bribes to various classes of the community. " And when Parliamentary elections occur," he adds, " there seems to be in each constituency Doctors of Politics, whose skill is called upon carefully to diagnose the degree of receptivity possessed by the voters for this or that dose concocted of an appeal to selfish interest." He holds that an absence of a plain issue of duty towards country as against opportunism in the form of getting something in return for their votes is creating a growing distaste among the people for party politics. " "This orthodox feature of party politics," he continues, "is so well established, despite the frequent failure of the spoken bribes to solidify in fact, that it may seem ridiculous to suggest a reversal of this oldestablished nostrum for vote-getting." The writer points to Japan as an illustration of a country where duty takes preference over all other considerations, and expresses the opinion that no one who has read the full and authentic accounts that exist of the training of the Japanese people by Japanese statesmen — not politicians — can doubt the wisdom of the policy of putting duty before bribery. The old adage that "convictions hinder a man's career" is far too literally interpreted in much of Britain's political life, and the number of politicians who are in the game for what is to be got out of it is far too great. The " Post " holds that so far as can be foreseen with regard to the Empire's international relations there is good reason to believe that British men cannot afford the present ignoring of duty to country. In the long run, whether of a man's life or a nations existence, there is no motive so powerful for good or for success as duty. The whole splendid greatness of the nation has been founded by men who regarded duty as their sheet anchor. "Unless we awaken to this sense of duty to country," continues the " Post," " and teach pur politicians that we consider their bribes as an insult, there is grave cause to fear that the risen sun of Japan in the East, may, before many years have passed, be followed by a dark sunset in these islands of the "West." Something of this has its application in Now Zealand itself. Parochialism is, after all, only a form of bribery, and there is little, doubt that parochialism iB too strongly marked a feature of our political life. The policy of the greatest good for the greatest number sinks into absolute insignificance when Auckland requires a new railway to a mountain top or Otago requests a million of money for the watering of her arid plains. The pull of vested interests plays a similar part, and we can only be "thankful that these issues exist among us in a comparatively mild form compared with their prevalence in other lands. Politics is altogether too human a game to be I made a religion. /