MR. FOWLDS'S RESIGNATION.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1229, 11 September 1911, Page 5

MR. FOWLDS'S RESIGNATION.

AN INTERESTING THEORY. ■ The Christchurch "Evening News" prints from its Wellington correspondent an interesting communication upon ';ho resignation of Mr. Fowlds. After pointing out that everyone wonders why the ex-Mimster did not wait 'until after the election,-and that it is obviously im- • possible that the considerations stated by him in his speech could not have tipped tho scale against the big consideration that he would expose himself to reproach and indignation, the "News's" correspondent records a statement niado by him by a student of,politics who claims to have deduced . tho trne% reason for a resignation for which no satisfactory reason has been published. ■ "You . will remember," said this ' critic to the "News" representative, "that when Mr. Fowlds and Mr. M'Nab were appointed to the Ministry tho No-License party said: 'Well, we have two good men in the Ministry now.' They expected that Mr. Fowlds would bo specially alert to guard tho No-License interest against Cabinet hanky-panky; and then there are many other interests dear to him which could not bo- considered safo with the Seddon Cabinet. Now, it seems to me that Mr. .Fowlds has been all these, years deliberately, sacrificing himself, by appearing as the colleague and defender of a set of Ministers not deserving of public confidence, :to his anxiety to present the Ministry going far astray. His friends, when I have laughed at the absurdity of - tho position of a Free-trader, Prohibitionist, Anti-gambler, and so on in a Ministry, opposed to all those positions, have always said to me, ■' 'Well, Mr. Fowlds keeps them partly straight, anyway.' That this was his own conception of his function it is difficult to doubt. In a. way, his behaviour has been admirable, for, look at the ignominy he has had to endure, look at the things he. has had to cay or do or .defend. "But,- you may say, this doesn't account for his sudden weariness. 'He might just as well have gone on being a watchdog. No doubt; but that merely raises tho question: Why did he get out as soon as Sir Joseph Ward came back? Hore is my explanation: Sir Joseph Ward, quite as much as Mr. Seddon, though .in a different way, has been the whole Ministry. You know bow evident it has been, many times, that.his colleagues have not been in his confidence. Well, my opinion is that Mr. Fowlds discovered, 1 during the Prime Minister's absence, things he did not know before. He had his eyes opened to recklessness and unsoundnesses that he did not believe in when they were suggested by the Government's critics. And since he was at bottom attached to sound principles of government, this would naturally prove. the last straw. ■ His testimony to the honesty of the Government? Road it again. Note' its brevity and nofo the niggardliness of it. Of course ho had to say something like that, because ho is responsible .for its'actions, unless ho comes out frankly and repudiates them, saying that he, got out just .as soon as he found them out. And he does, not s>>e that there is any necessity for that. You must know," this critic concluded, "that the finances are worrying tho Prime Minister. There arc several millions of bonds to bo renewed this ■year, and the usual throo or four millions to bo raised under the Acts. Morocco, and the strikrs, and other things, have rather bothered the Government,, and no doubt Mr. Fowlds could say something interesting about the financial arranecments of the past six months if he liked."