MR. GILRUTH'S RESIGNATION.

Dominion, Volume 1, Issue 264, 31 July 1908, Page 6

MR. GILRUTH'S RESIGNATION.

Although some references have • been made in Parliament to the resignation of Mr. Gilruth, the chief veterinarian of the Agricultural Department, there are some features of this loss of a valuable officer which require more notice than has been given to them. AVhen questioned in the House on Friday of last week, Me. M'Nab professed entire ignorance of the intentions of Mr. Gilruth. On Tuesday, following upon tho cabled announcement of Mr. Gilruth's appointment to an. important post in Australia, the- Minister made a statement that cannot be "regarded as in any sense satisfactory. .He had known, ho said, " everything that had gone on," but he had heard nothing from Mr. Gilruth personally. " Until an officer,", ho went on, " communicates with me what his intentions are, nothing will be done by me in regard to that officer. There is no man in this country and no man in this Assembly that cannot be done without. Anyone who works on the assumption that ho cannot be done without, and that the Department will run after him, should know that the condition of things at the present time is not such that the Government would endorse any action of that kind." Mr.' M'Nab is usually such a reasonable man, that it is difficult to believe that he was governed by such a ridiculous idea of Ministerial pride as this. Tho note of petulance in tho Minister's statement, indeed, suggests that he was not at all sorry to get rid of one of the best officials in his Department. Mr. Gilruth, for his part, was probably anything but anxious to yemain. Since Mr. M'Nab knew everything that had gonp on, he must have known that Mr. Gilruth has before now received offers of foreign .appointments of a much more lucrative character than that which he ; has filled so well in New Zealand. The increase of £50 in his salary was, therefore, in the face of known facts, almost derisory. Mr. Herries said on Tuesday-that if he had been Minister, and had read-the paragraph relative to the rumour of Mr. Gilruth's impending resignation, he would have sent for tho Chief Veterinarian at once._ So, probably, would most people in similar circumstances. It is known that there has for some time been a good deal of friction between Mr. Gilruth and the Minister, arising out of an unintelligent tying of the hands of this unusually capable and expert officer. It is to be hoped that Mr. M'Nab will abandon his strange ideas respecting official etiquette and Ministerial, aloofness. By'most people that aloofness will be regarded as unreasonable obstinacy.