"THE POOR CANDIDATE"

Wanganui Herald, Volume XXXXIII, Issue 12583, 2 October 1908, Page 4

"THE POOR CANDIDATE"

This is what the Sydney Telegraph thinks of the "gagging clause": The New 7ealarill Government has included a clause in the new Electoral Act prohibiting all discussion m the Press or on the platfirm of the policy of parliamentary candidates whose election has to be decided by a second ballot. This extraordinary application of the gag is explained by the At-torney-General as being "desirable ji *he interests of poor candidates." The interests of the mere electors who want to know what they are voting for are not deemed worthy of a moment's consideration. So, if an impecunious candidate gets a false view of Ms policy put before the country, no one is to be allowed to put the poor fellow to the expense of bolstering it up against those who wo aid expose its fallacy. This affords another audaciously clear example of how politics are now coming to be 1 regarded as existing simply for the benefit of the politician. Everything possible is done to favour the member already in possession. He is given a free railway pass to canvass his constituency with, while the outsider has to pay his fare like an ordinary traveller. He has the advantage of all the advertisement obtained by the publication of his parliamentrj speeches in "Hansard" and the press, but the new man. who endeavours to equalise matters by obtaining as much publicity for his views as possible during an election, is stopped by a limit to the amount that may be legally spent on such work. And now, so that "the poor candidate" luay be further protected from the enlightened elector in New Zealand, it is proposed that even newspaper comment on his policy snould, under certain circumstances, be prohibited. Only a small logical extension of this principle would be required to gag the electors altogether, .and hand d'ver to the torturer anyone vlio presumed to point out a flaw in the poor candidate's arguments, lest he should be put to the expense of covering it up. It appears as if what is called "advanced democracy ' was moving in a circle, tnd that those 'who claim to be leading it were now on the backward curve."