The Star. MONDAY, MAY 21, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18468, 21 May 1928, Page 8

The Star. MONDAY, MAY 21, 1928. NOTES OF THE DAY.

A/f"R DAVY, organiser of the United Party, finds no dearth of candidates willing to accept the label of his party, hut he will have to be on the qui vive, in Christchurch particularly, against ambitious people who have no very fixed political convictions, hut a good eye for the main chance. We had the spectacle at last election of the Reform candidate for Avon announcing that he was a Liberal at heart, but that the Liberals had refused to accept him as a candidate, and that therefore he had knocked himself down to the party that was prepared to accent him. The political evolution of the member for Christchurch North, too, was a malter for merriment among those who had watched his unblossoming from the Labour bud to the full flower of a slavish follower of the Reform Party. Fortunately, the Liberal Party, although it has had its renegades, has not been easily imposed upon in the past, and the United Party’s selection of Mrs T. E. Taylor as a candidate for Christchurch North will give Liberals every cause for rejoicing, because they will he able to cast a vote for this particular candidate in the knowledge that she has lived her life as a follower of Liberal principles.

"PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION is to be rei-erted to by the City Council although the Labourites do not like it. They are pledged to it, however, as a plank of their national platform, as we pointed out when the Mayor was inclined to be non-committal about it, and there is no reason why the people should not have some of the good things of Labour’s policy when they have to put up with cranky ideas like the municipal market or the threatened “ improvement ” of Cathedral Square. It is not surprising that the Labour caucus has come to its decision about P.R. on a matter of purely party honour and not as a matter of policy. The system will feelingly persuade some of the Labour candidates what they are. It will prevent the rag-tag and bob-tail of any party from clambering into office at the coat tails of worthier men, and it may induce better candidates to offer themselves for civic honours at a time when there is a great scarcity of good men. Proportional representation gives to every party the full measure of representation to which it is entitled, but it also tends to obliterate party lines by securing the return of able, independent candidates. Its re-enactment may or may not give the city a better council than it has to-day, but at all events it will give the citizens the councillors they want, and we hope that no future council will be foolish enough to repeal it.

"PARTISANSHIP leads men into 'strange capers. When political feeling runs high, many men will draw deeply on their financial resources merely for the sake of being on the winning side. As a rule, however, in political campaigns, a man spends money, or a party spends money, as a form of investment, and that is one very substantial reason why all countries limit the amount a candidate may spend on election expenses. That is the reason why the Senate Committee of the United States is closely investigating contributions towards candidates’ expenses, and it is the reason, also, why the public of the United States may feel a little alarmed at the fact that four millionaire supporters of one presidential candidate arc prepared to go the limit in their contributions towards the funds that may be necessary to bring their campaign to a successful issue. In commenting upon this matter recently we pointed out that Lord Bryce ltad stated that the influence of rich men on representative government, had grown weaker in recent years. Nevertheless, it has been clearly demonstrated that party organisations in the United States exist to select candidates for office and to procure places of emolument for party workers. “ The practice of securing places for persons who have served the party in however humble a capacity,” says the Encyclopaedia Britannica, “ has sprung from the maxim that in the strife of politics the ‘ spoils belong to the victors,’ and has furnished a motive of incomparable and ever-present activity ever since the administration (1829-1837) of President Andrew Jackson.” The influence of rich men on political parties, or even the lavish expenditure of party funds in election year, must always cause uneasiness in the public mind because of the underlying danger that monetary contributions call for monetary returns. Of “ graft,” as Sydney is beginning to se6 it, New Zealand has had no public experience, but there never was a time when an intelligent interest in public affairs was more desirable as a preventive of maladministration than it is in the present age.