LOOKING TO THE STATE.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18691, 18 July 1932, Page 8

LOOKING TO THE STATE.

Democratic Governments having much the same characteristics all over the world, we may well stop occasionally to study in other nations faults which we tend to overlook in ourselves. In the course of the recent general election in France a political writer in Marseilles, M. Paul Barlatier, undertook to define the chief vice of French political methods. He declared that it was " the coherence of appetites in the midst of tho incoherence of convictions.” That sounds like a not too distant analogy to Dominion conditions. For a long time ’the inclination has be tin observable in France, as in New Zealand to magnify the resources and the benevolence of the Government. It is an old story, hut it might be repeated any day, of the French peasant who went to Paris and demanded to be allowed to see

“ i’Etat." lie had at home so often heard of the all-powerful State that he naturally was curious to confront it in person and find out exactly whal it looked like. In a similar spirit the crowds and lobbies which have moved on Wellington have made New Zealanders familiar with the common belief that it is only necessary for citizens to lift up their eyes to the capital in order to receive all the help they need, or fancy that they require. This is the kind of unrestrained “ appetite " which the French writer had in mind. When it shows itself in large sections of the country and among many influential groups, wo get what be called " coherence,” but we ordinarily describe as log-rolling. One particular demand upon the Treasury may seem indefensible, but when it is combined with a whole series of like demands the pressure upon Parliament becomes almost irresistible. Nothing can withstand it, In fact, except a resolute attitude on the part of the, representatives of the people and of public officials who have strong “ convictions ” which they refuse lo surrender at ITic behest of any class or selfish interest. Fortunately, such men appear in times of stress. The only way to head off a too greedy appetite is to hold hack the food on which it hopes to feed, in other words, there must he log-rolling for economy to countervail that for extravagance.