"HOIST ON HIS OWN PETARD."

Auckland Star, Volume XLV, Issue 163, 10 July 1914, Page 4

"HOIST ON HIS OWN PETARD."

CHARGE AGAINST PUBLIC SERVANTS. A MINISTERIAL REBUKE. ißy Telegraph. —Parliamentary Reporter.* WEI/LIKGTOK. Thursday. In the cour.-e of liis contribution to ;hp Address-in-Reply debate to-night, the member for Taumarunui waxed very wrathful at what be. termed espionage .imonK public servants or. behalf of Hie Opposition. "There are." he said, "men in the Public Service who are paid spies of the Opposition, paid by tho Government to <ri\-e information to the Opposition. These —agitators I call tbe-m—do everything possihle tx> injure the CJovernment. Grants are being wasted in a shocking way. overseers are fooling with the co-operative labourers and acting as spies for the Opposition. Mr. Davey: Have you reported it to the Minister? "Yon leave mc alone: T know what I am doing! -, retorted Mr. Wilson truculently. "I say there are men in the Public Service of this type whose one object is to discredit the Government." I'nfortuna.telv for this loud assertion by Taumarumii"* member, it fell athwart the well-known rigid scruples of the ■ Hon. Mr. l-'raser for uncompromising accuracy. "If Uie lion, gentleman will formuhi-te cliarftee against these officsre. {livin;: names, work affected, and localities, 1 will have a searching inquiry, anl see that it doe; not occur again." said the Minister of Public Work-, adding. pointedly. "But. I am bound to say, that some individuals have already complained to mc. paying they could not pet work because the gangers would not pi\ r> it to them when tendered. I made inquiries, and "the very men who made t.ni> <H->mplaints positively declared that ;hey knew nothing about the matter, and had never made any oomplainU. T feel it my duty to make this statement in view of the ban. scntlenihn's remarks." concluded Mr. Fraecr, amid loud Opposition applauac.