The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th, 1902. BRIBERY.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XXXXVII, Issue 11739, 17 September 1902, Page 4

The Wanganui Chronicle. "NULLA DIES SINE LINEA." WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 17th, 1902. BRIBERY.

The House of Representatives appears to have failed utterly to grapple with the thorny question of bribery at elections , The definition of what is a "candidate" has been postponed sine die, and, as the law stands at present, any candidate may purchase votes for a consideration at any time prior to his nomination, provided the payment be made before his nominatio > papers are sent in. The legality or otherwise of election expenses does, not depend upon their nature, but on the date on which they are paid. Such a loop-hole for corrupt practices can be only taken advantage of by the man with the long purse, and we should have thought that the united wisdom of our legislators might have found a way out of the difficulty, without the clumsy expedient of an .indefinite postponement of the question. Whether any given expenditure by a parliamentary candidate has been made with a corrupt object might very properly have been left to the discretion of the Election Petition Court, which would have to be satisfied that such challenged expenditure was a legitimate one, and not made with the view of unduly influencing votes. One door, at any rate, has been left open wide enough to make bribery safe and easy. That the House does not take a \ cry serious view of the question of bribery is further exemplified by the flippant manner in which it dealt with the member for Patea's amendment. Therattempt to put down wholesale bribery was looked upon aa a very good joke; the- stability of the whole Seddonian system would bo jeopardised if collective bribery were to be made a penal offence There may bs a distinction, but there is no moral difference between bribing a whole constituency by promises of a lavish expenditure of public money and bribing an individual out of your own pocket. It is notorious that the constituencies which return supporters of the present Government are in a far better position for obtaining grants from the public funds than those which are represented by members of the Opposition. No secret is made of the fact that members unblushiugly appeal for support, because, being of the right colour, they can squeeze more money from the Government, We do not pretend

to claim that the particular amendment framed by Mr Haselden was well worded, or that, his idea of punishing a Minister ivith imprisonment and hard labour, for bribing a constituency, with promises of favoui's to come, was a practicable one, but .'t did direct public attention to a very real evil, and one which gives immense power to an unscrupulous Minister. On the. eve of a general election, as well as at other tim.es, Ministers are to be found actively interfering with the conduct of elections, and often deliberately setting aside the choice of the people in favour of their own nominees. It may b3 urged that the ballot enables a voter to ignore the instructions of government electioneering agents ; it happens, however, that absolute faith in the secrecy o/ the ballot is not universal, and whether or no, a? human naturs is constituted., there are always people who will vote for the candidate who can influence best the distribution of public money. It would be premature at present to say who will be the Government nominee for Wanganui; it is quite possible there may be several aspirants to Ministerial patronage j such a plethora of eligible politicians, as we notbi in an adjoining .constituency is a source of embarrassment to party wire-pullers.