CORRUPTION IN PUBLIC LIFE.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR.'] SIB, With regard to Lord Robert Cecil's words given by you in the Spectator of September 4th, p. 331, on the sum of money to be spent by the Treasury as the Treasury may think fit, you quote corruption in France in this direction. You need not go beyond the British nation. In New Zealand money is voted and spent purely for political purposes at most times. It has also become the price of votes that a candidate shall promise local expenditure of public moneys, often on the most wasteful principles, so as to bring that money directly or indirectly within the reach of local men. Ministers are unfettered to a great extent in their distribu- tion of the votes apportioned to their Departments, and accurate statements are rarely given of how money is spent. This is proved by the fact of large sums being spent which are not voted, and which are not accounted for. If we make a system of leaving money about, we shall also make the thieves to steal it. That is the one thing England has been free from of late. And above all, the Government should beware of putting public moneys where they are open to a system of grab, or this Government will be remembered as the one that opened the door to that corruption which has happily been unknown for so many years.—I am, Sir, &c.,
L. P.
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