HAVE M.P.'S FORESIGHT?

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18960, 6 January 1930, Page 8

HAVE M.P.'S FORESIGHT?

To the Editor. Dear Sir, —An axiom that has survived the ages is that “talkers are rarely good producers, and good producers rarely talkers.” Unfortunately our suffrage system results in many quacks, who have failed in everything except talking, sitting at the unguarded helm of State.

A knowledge of economics and finance together with a breadth and length of vision, are the last things looked for in a politician, the “gift of the gab” being the only “dope” that at present charms the proletariat. I don’t deny that it is naural for the worker to like a good froth to his ale, but he should blow it off before he drinks. Some proof of knowledge and capacity should be exacted from each candidate before his nomination is accepted, and until that is done the standard of our administrators cannot be expected to rise. A lack of vision is strikingly concomitant with politicians, and in this connection it is amusing to notice in your Saturday’s issue how one of your contributors (an M.P.) is trimming his sails in regard to the tunnel road. About the year 1918 this M.P., with no more foresight than he now possesses, assisted in the strenuous opposition to the tunnel road campaign then proceeding . If he had foresight now he would see that it is too late to merely smooth his own path in case the tunnel road becomes prominent at next election. I suggest that he would be wiser to admit his earlier blindness, and throw in his lot now whole-heartedly with the workers for the tunnel road. It is interesting to recall, too, that another candidate who was, in 1908, deservedly unsuccessful for Christchurch East, but is now M.P. for a less particular constituency, scouted the idea of the tunnel road, when it was first brought forward to opposition to the then popular canal scheme. But that was in 1908, and who could expect a talker to have a twenty-one-years’ foresight?—l am, etc., A.D.