SHUFFLING OR HONESTY ?

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume II, Issue 278, 26 March 1889, Page 2

SHUFFLING OR HONESTY ?

Thb next session of New Zealand Parliament wi(l likely be one of more than ordinary interest, for we are told that the Ministry are determined to stand or fall by the measure relating to the reduction of members. This means that twenty-one of the present members of Parliament will be ordered to retire to the dreary wilderness of common-place life It now remains to be seen how far the pledges of last session will hold good. Is it likely that those constituencies affected will calmly resign themselves to the endurance of a measure having for its object the good of the country and not dealing with the pettifogging considerations of teaparty politics. Like the drowning man snatching at a straw there are members who we fear will disregard their pledges when they find that otherwise it will mean their enforced retirement from public life. They may make a virtue of necessity, and complacently submit to the inevitable, but we must remain in expectancy. A reduction of the number of members is urgently required, and there is reason to hope that the taxpayers are resolute upon this point; if there is any consistency in their actions we can be fairly assured that the much neeeed reform will not be delayed, but we dare only hope for what ought to be regarded as a certainty.