A FERTILE INVENTION

Press, Volume XLVIII, Issue 14525, 29 November 1912, Page 6

A FERTILE INVENTION

The Opposition journal which accused Mr Allen of appointing as Director of Physical Education a man who "enjoyed" h:s (Mr Allen's) "personal friendship," and who was "on terms " of social intimacy with several mem- " bers of tho Cabinet," is pursuing its characteristically serpentine course now that it has been proved that both these statements are pure inventions without a- shadow of truth. We showed that Mr Royd Garlick was quite unknown to Mr Allen until the question of the appointment camo up, and that so far from being "on terms of social intim"acy with several members of the '"Cabinet," ho is not even acquainted with any of them. We also protested aga:'nst the vilo insinuations of " American jobbery, corruption, and " graft," contained in the same article Tho journal in question now coolly says:—"We do not wish to mako a " point of the Minister's private rela-

• tions with his new officer. Apparently " our friends are relying on some " subtle distinction between personal

" acquaintance and official intimacy " which is obvious only to very superior " people and does not materially affect "our argument." The only distinction we attempted to draw was between truth and falsehood, which is by no means Jb subtle as our contemporary appears to find it. It asserted that Mr Royd Garlick was given preference because he "enjoyed the personal friend- " ship of the Minister of Education " and is 'recommended by come of the *' medical profession.'" "When it is shown that Mr Garlick was personally unknown to Mr Allen, who, in fact, never spoke to him until he saw him officially in connection with the scheme of physical education, the inventor of the fiction coolly abandons it without a word of apology or excuse. But having been bowled out in one misrepresentation, the journal cheerfully proceeds to manufacture another equally gross. "Wo knew," it said, "that certain " influential people had exerted themI " selves on behalf of Mr Garlick, and " that Mr Allen had been impressed by "their representations." If this means anything at all it means that Mr Gartick was not appointed on his merits, but as the result of the solicitations of persons who brought personal influence to bear on the Minister. This is just as untruo as the- assertion that the appointment was given by Mr Allen to a personal friend of his own. The plain facts are that Mr Allen, who was anxious to get tho system in working order as soon as possible, wonl to considerable pains to find out if there waa. a competent expert in Now Zealand capablo of taking charge of the work, ond as the result of his enquiries, confirmed by hie own judgment after ho had asked Mr Garlick to call on him, to decided, as /ho has said, that ho liad got & good man on the spot, and he could not do bettor than secure him for the post. It was only after considerable hesitation that Mr Garlick consented to give up a more lucrative private practice and accept the position. We havo only to add, in conclusion, that it is -with considerable repugnance that we have de-

parted from our usual custom of leaving the malicious misrepresentations of «i section of tho Opposition Press to their own refutation. Judging by past experience, it is very probablo that this plain statement of fact will be mot with further perversions, and further attempts to creat© a prejudice by insinuation where it might not be safo to venture on a positive assertion. It

is a thankless task to try to deal with

a newspaper which as soon as it is convicted of ono misrepresentation

immediately invents another, and to whoso fecundity in this respect apparently no limits have bcon set by Nature. Wo trust, however, that this exposure of its methods will enable the public to judge at their true value any similar attacks which it may make in future on the probity of our public men.