A STRANGE SELECTION.

Dominion, Volume 3, Issue 865, 11 July 1910, Page 6

A STRANGE SELECTION.

Mr. W. Dinnie, formerly Commissioner of Police, is, according u> sOiiie \cry positive btutumchts in me press tuat nave so \iu gone uueuiitraclicied, to be given Uμ o± a iuaori Land board. We simu.il only be on.aigiiig ou whut must be obvious to e\ery intelligent perura were wo to spend much oi our tpucc if) showing now grotesque tudi ail appointment would be. A gotd many people will sympathise viV.i Am. UntxiE persona.il,,. , , jor he his just' passed tluuuga troublous times; but it would he quite wrong 1-0 that for tho sake of doing sumeUang [or that gentleman the public interest siiouid ba £<i scd.-miuously ignored. Jin. Lhnnie curt i.uow 110tning whatever of the Native lands quooLion; he is in consequence quite unsuiifd for a post that requires in n-j a v.J-J uequiuntcmea with tho Maori lauguutp, Maori customs, and the Native land laws; and although lie may nut know this, the Govoiii-nent knows it perfectly 'weil. So.t.c of our contemporaries I have bsfiii endeavouring to express tie amazement with which they 'heard tho tirst announcement of the impending appointment, but we do not intend to follow their example. For one thing, we are not amazed. Why should \Ve be? The "Liberal' party is the same "Liberal" party that it has boen for years past, as defiant of the public interest as ever it was; as ready as ever to make improper whenever its private designs require such appointments to be made. The leopard does not change his spots. And when it makes wrongful appointments to places visible to thejiuohe eye, can anyone doubt that it uses to the full its power of making improper appointments to the little billets that nobody ever hears on \\hafc in worth special notice is the light that is thrown by the Government's intention respecting Mn. DiNSiE upon the attitude of Ue Government towards the" Native lands question. This* will not, of course, be the first time a totally unsuitable man has been placed m charge of a Native Land Board or Court. How much sincerity can there be in the professions of the Government when it can do things like this? No doubt tho Government has private reasons for wishing to make this singu'ar appointment; it is so very singular an appoint.nent that those reasons must be very strong ones. What can they bal