Page:Notes on New Zealand (1892).pdf/264

254 absurdity and weakness as a method of ruling and legislating for a people are more strikingly apparent. The distinctive parties are not known as Liberal and Conservative. The principal points at issue are Free Trade and Protection, the Education question, and, of late, to a certain extent, Woman's Suffrage. Sections of voters follow individual leaders, and when one man gets into power he brings in the same bills that he opposed when out of power. It is a perpetual scramble for office, and legislation is initiated more for the purpose of keeping a party in power than for the good of the country.