POINTS OF VIEW.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 203, 28 August 1935, Page 19

POINTS OF VIEW.

THE ONLOOKER'S CASE. SIR A. HERDMAN AND MR. SAYEGH. The letters that have recently appeared in your columns advocating the election, to Parliament of Sir Alexander Herdman, on • the ground of his self-sacrifice in retiring, and of Mr. Sayegh, on the ground of the alleged wrong suffered by him, at the hands of his fellow councillors, are examples of a common and pernicious fallacy; namely the conception of public positions as prizes to be competed for by the ambitious or meritorious, and existing for their benefit. It cannot bo too strongly emphasised that they exist, or ought to exist, solely for the benefit of the public; and no individual, whatever his merits or his wrongs, can have any claim to them, or is entitled to feel himself aggrieved if they are denied to him. As regards Mr. Sayegh, it was the duty of the Labour members of the council, when ■selecting their candidate for the position of deputy-Mayor, to choose that one among their number whom they honestly believed to be best fitted for the office, without allowing themselves to be influenced by any other consideration. Had. they shirked this responsibility and sheltered behind the Labour Representation Committee it would have been a betrayal of their trust—even if it were not common knowledge that the manner in which that committee carried out its task has provoked deep and widespread disapproval. Not knowing Mr. Sayegh, I am not in a position to form an opinion as to whether or not his colleagues were right in passing him over; but, even if they were wrong, he has no grievance; the grievance is not his, but that of the citizens who were deprived of his services. M. ALDIS.