The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1911. MR. M'NAB'S "CHALLENGE."

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1298, 29 November 1911, Page 6

The Dominion. WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 1911. MR. M'NAB'S "CHALLENGE."

Mr. M'Nab is making a. very scrims mistake, if lie imagines thai loud and empty challenges and profuse allusions to "scoundrels" will in any v&y weaken the firm conviction of the public that the Government was guilty of ji. breach of trust in its dealing wit.lt the Mokau lands. The nubliti lias drawn its conclusion from the following indisputable facts: — (I) That it was easier for the Government to purchase the land for the State, if it had so desired, than to gc through a complicated and roundabout performance, in order to allow the land to pass into private hands find permit certain private individuals to mako a very large profit out of the transaction. (2) That in order to enable the land to pass in a block into private hands a clause was slipped into the Native Land Act oi 1000. tho effect of which was to enable the Government to over-ride tho provisions as to limitation of area. (.'!) That this clause, essential to tho issue of the Order-in-Council, was devised after Mn. Herhmak Lewis had begun to negotiate for the land. (\) That the Government's action was in direct opposition to its professed policy of hostility to large holdings, (o) That by allowing the land to fall into private hands, the Government jiVesented to the speculators the very large profit on re-sale that could have been conserved to the State, or handed over to the Natives by the State if desired. (6)_That there was no real obstacle against acquisition by thc_State that did not lie against acquisition by private, persons. Nothing thiit Mr. M'Nab or anyone :lse can say can shake those facts, nor can any quantity of rhetoric whatever prevent the public from seeing, or, rather, persuade the public to doubt, that the Government ictcel in a manner entirely contrary to the public interest, and in circumstances that must give rise to feelings of deep uneasiness. Now we find Mr. M'Nab, evidently ■jecausc he fears that as a Govcrnnent candidate he will be beaten by :he hostility oE the Palmerston electorate to the Government responsible 'or the Mokau deal, shouting furiMisly in an endeavour to confuse the ssuc. He said that Mr.. Massey tinted that he (Mr. M'Nar) used his nflucncc with the Ministry to get the government to issue the Order-in-Douncil, and then proceeded in this •idiculous strain: "Jlr. ilassoy might." confimied Mr. It' Nab, "be in the habit of making there itatemonts about public men of this :ouni"ry. If (hat is Mr. Mnsscy's inluendo—and it is—l am not fit to rer-re-icnt any person in tho Councils of this louutry or any other part of the world, jrrauso T am a scoundrel if thnt is true. I jay if thnt innuendo is untrue the, man :hat made it is in (lie same way 'himself -a scoundrel for making it. (Prolonged ipplausc and cheo.Ting.) 1 am prepared :o do this: If that is the innuendo I nm jrcpared to go before, any court thnt ran je appointed to examine tho charge, Mr. Unssey to prove tho innuendo and I to lefend it. If he proves the innuendo I vill go out of tho politics of this coun:ry for ever, and if he does not provo lint then he goes out of the politics of this ■ountry for ever. (Great applause.) I.et it be sudden death for tho scoundrel, ivhoever ho is." Wc arc really sorry that Mn. M'Nab should fancy.that "Erclcs's vein" suits him. It does not suit him in' the least. The thing that requires to he said, however, is 'that Mr. M'Nab over-estimates the simplicity of the public if he imagines that this hollow bombast can mislead anybody. Let us put it to Mr. M'Nab this way: He thinks that, Mr. Massey cannot "prove tho innuendo"; but docs he think that he is at an advantage here? Mr. M'Nab assures the public that he had no communication with the Ministry, and the Ministry will of course back him up. But just as Mr. Massey can prove nothing, in a strict sense, beyond the Order-in-Council, and _ the absolute accuracy of his statements, so in' the same strict sense Mr. M'Nab can disprove nothing. The "challenge" of Mr. M'Nab's is thus as farcical as a challenge to disprove that tho volume of the ocean is so many thousand cubic feet. Mr. M'Nab knows this. He knows that the whole matter is one for the public judgment. And he knows that the deep discredit into which the Government has fallen is apart from Mr. M'Nab's connection with the affair altogether. If Mn. M'Nab never existed, the discredit of the Government would remain. Why, then, is Mr. M'Nab so injudiciously crying out that cither he or Mr'. Massey is a scoundrel 1 Because he knows that the Mokau deal has further emphasised the insincerity and devious methods of the Ward Administration, and has turned votes against the Government, and that it will injure him, not because he is Mr. M'Nab, or because he is a member of tho syndicate, but simply because he is a supporter of the Government that acted so much against the public interest. Mr. M'Nab protests too loudly and too much. Nobody ever thought him a "scoundrel' or suggested such a thing. Even il he had pressed Ministers to issue the Order-in-Council he would merelj have been acting within his rights! But lie says that if he had used influence with the Ministry to get the Order-in-Council issued he would be a "scoundreh" Very well. Admitting that Mr. M'Nab used no influence, did the Government issue the Order-in-Council by an inspiration: Or did somebody else ask the Government to do so? We can leave those somebodies to discuss the ethics of their proceedings with Mr, M'Nab. The fact is, as wc have said, the ex-Minister is simply shoutins "Fire!" in order to divert'attentioc from the real issue.