The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning. Tuesday, October 14, 1890. TORIES AND THE “GAG.”

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 518, 14 October 1890, Page 2

The Gisborne Standard AND COOK COUNTY GAZETTE. Published every Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday Morning.

Tuesday, October 14, 1890. TORIES AND THE “GAG.”

Be just and fear not; Let all the ends thou aim’st at be thy country's. Thy God’B, and truth’s.

The general election is approaching. A wild wail of despair has. gone forth from the journals representing the great rings that control the colony. Parliament has sunk into decay, the giant intellects of the old days are retiring in disgust, party government is a failure, and the panacea for all these evils is to put on the gag, give to these monopolies the further monopoly of freedom of speech, and then all will go smoothly and well. That is the burden of the doleful strain that is now being chanted into the ears of the electors, while hand-shaking and general good-fellow-ship has become the order of the day. The comic element is introduced for the special enjoyment of those who pull the strings from behind the scenes: they actually have the self-assurance to claim a monopoly of wisdom and honesty, all who differ from them being denounced as fools and branded as traitors. These seem unique grounds upon which to conduct an election contest, but they are not new at all. It is only a repetition of tactics employed by the same party before each and every election, so as to hide the real questions upon which the attention of the country ought to be concentrated. There certainly could not be a much worse session than the last one, but who is really to blame for it ? No one but the disorganised Government who stopped at nothing that would enable them to cling to office. What wonder that the few firebrands of the Opposition took extraordinary means in face of such an extraordinary condition of things. We do not wish in any degree to excuse them from the blame they must justly bear, but the blame should be fairly apportioned., It is utterly ridiculous to sa y that because last session was bad party government is a pronounced failure, or to say that because a few men have delayed business therefore must the gag be applied. The great fault is that too much attention is paid to petty little things, and the greater subjects are allowed to drift on until they become lost to sight. One of the points that are being made most prominent during the election is that the “ cloture” must be introduced next session, and naturally it has the support of a member who has boasted putting the country to no small expense by getting through ‘fluke’ legislation for the special benefit of the proscratinating owners of bad native land titles. One session has been sufficient to convince tfrls ardent Tory that even with his presence Parliament has deteriorated, and with or without his presence next session the “ gag ” ought to be applied, and freedom of speech be suppressed—the “ gag ” of course to be in the iron grasp of the party of monopoly. Because a few men are accused of wasting time the glorious privilege of freedom of speech is to be withdrawn, and in future it will be possible, whenever an objectionable measure is being squeezed through by the representatives of the banks, to force the minority into submission, and place the measure on the statute-book before the taxpayers have even had time to digest its contents. That is of course if the party of monopoly gets the further monopoly into its hands. And if the members of Parliament are to be gagged when-it suits the convenience of those in power, why not go a step further and set up a Censor of the Press, as is the case in Russia ? The libel laws are now so bad that a journalist often finds it necessary to suppress much which ought not to be suppressed—the proprietor of the Woodville Examiner has been involved in a lawsuit because he had the courage to publish a Parliamentary report on the question of “ dummyism ” in land. But these restrictions will surely not satisfy those who wish to suppress the liberty of speech. Evil breeds evil. The sloture has been brought into force in the House of Commons, and therefore it must be adopted in this young country. Strange to say the same people tell us that there are no defined parties in New Zealand politics, forgetting that if such be the case there can be no one held responsible for the manner in which the gag is employed, and the country is at once left to the mercy of those who consider that might is right. Going so far as to admit that the cloture may be wisely used in the Imperial Parliament, where the _ two great parties know that their position may be at any time reversed, the circumstances are at present quite different hi New Keahndi the Govcrmneat of

which seems to consider its main duty to be to cling to office, and does not scruple to further that purpose by postponing the general election beyond a date which had been distinctly pledged as the outside one.