Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1903. ONE-LEGGED DEMOCRACY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 7535, 11 August 1903, Page 2

Wairarapa Daily Times [Established Quarter of a Century.] TUESDAY, AUGUST 11, 1903. ONE-LEGGED DEMOCRACY.

" A Tired Australian " writes in the last number of the Review of Reviews an admirable essay upon " One-legged Democracy " ; that particular species of Democracy under which we live in New Zealand —the sham which bids fair to injure an otherwise wealthy and prosperous Colony. "One-legged Democracy" is equally in evidence in the various Colonies of Australasia; and New Zealand, as far as true Democracy is concerned, is not one whit better off than its neighbours. This Colony may crow louder than some of the States of the Commonwealth, but its semi-Democratic condition is much the same.

In one sense, the Colonies of these Southern Seas enjoy groat Democratic advantages. They have, in a large measure, realised the ideals for which Chartists fought in the past century. There were five planks in their charter'— (1) One man, one vote; (2) Constituencies uniform in population ; (3) Voting by ballot; (4) Annual Parliaments ; and (5) Payment of members. With the exception of annual parliaments, the dream of the Chartists has become a reality in this part of the world; and yet Democracy has not triumphed, and all we have to show is a baiting, one-legged Democracy, of which no one can he proud.

Tho essentials of a two-legged Democracy are—(l) The rule of the people as a whole; and (2) The largest measure of private freedom of che individual, consistent with the welfare of the people as a whole. The first leg is, in New Zealand, somewhat shaky; and the second is a shrivelled limb, for persooal froedom is disappearing from the land. If we scratch our one-legged Democracy, we find benoath the skin a distinct oligarchy —a Government in the hands of a few men. We might even go further than this, and say we discover the Government in tho hands of one man. If we assume that there be 800,000 people in New Zealand, wo find that the rulers count I—a glorious 1; and tbat the ruled number 799,999 people, As " A Tired Australian" puts it, "The pyramid stands on its apex."

The Parliaments of all the Colonios of tho Southern Seas are more or less ruled by Labour Members, a minority which legislates for the few at the cost of the many; a minority which talks freedom and abolishes it. In New Zealand, for example, 17,000 Unionists rule 55,000 registered workers. In a true Democracy tho 55,000 would rub tho 17,000; but ours is only a one-legged Democracy, and the ono leg is anything but a satisfactory limb. We almost fail to discover in our present House of Bepresentatives ■■ a single member who carries out the well-understood and expressed tenets of a trup Democracy. The pure Democrat has not yet been bred in New Zealand, and we question whether he could live in its political atmosphere.

" A Tired Australian " is sevore on even the Commonwealth, and its new Conciliation and Arbitration Act, based very much on the New Zealand model. He says it will create a sort of industrial Czar, who, by a single drop of ink on the tip of his pen, will be able to cbangc the wages, the hours, and conditions of work; in every department of the complex industries of Australasia; an amateur Providence in .the name of freedom, throwing all the old definitions of freedom overboard. He claims that the, ultimate ideal of the Labour Party is socialism; that every employer of Labour will be abolished, and that every farmer who owns the land on which lie is growing | wheat, or pasturing cows, will be driven] off his acres.

" A Tired Australian " concludes his essay with the following pregnant words: " Now, if it be a question of a class against tho nation, it is also a question of a nation against a class. If this issue be onco realised, the dominancy of the Labour Party will be over, and Australia will be what it pretends to be, but at present is not, a true Democracy." We oan only hope that this issue w' 1 yet

como to be realised in New Zealand and that this Colony will be master in its own house, and not allow itself to be dominated by a Labour Party.