NOTES OF THE DAY.
It is ii (lisnppoinlnioiil. Ilial, Mit. I'oWLDS has nut Iil'lm) iibli: to l;iko his beating in a manful and clicitful spirit.. His dcfwit In- ;iUril>iil.i;s, i'.i a stittemuiif, to the Aucklaud pross, ty "a passing wave of mental alifrvalioii. ' Jt fs iiiconccivable to him, knowing his merits as he does. Unit he, Mil. JunvLDS, could possibly l)c dcfcatril by pcoplu in (heir w'nscs. riicre would be nulhing to. say about, tile defeat of other m?n, ordinary earthly politicians; but to object, to Mn, Fowlds, lo vote against him, and lo decline his services in Parliament—why, it is proof positive of stark staring lunacy. "When next Mr. Fowlds seeks the suffrages of the Grey Lynn electors, they ought to remember this. Perhaps they will show themselves to bo more insane than ever. And if Mn. Fowlds contests any other seat, the electors will be wise to reflect, that if they reject him, at least one person will have a poor opinion of their mental condition. Not content with this, Mr. Fowlds made this extraordinary statement, which we venture to say is not excused by his chagrin and wounded vanity: I think it is the finest thing which lias happened in New Zealand in my time to get all the monopolists, land, li(|uor, etc., into one camp, as we have got them nt this election, and Mr. Mass«y is entitled to all the gratification ho can get out of the moderate success which the combination has brought to his party. Ho was doubtless remembering Mr. Lu)YD-GKoi:y;;'s statement about "the big fats in a trap at last." He would have been wiser to remember some very well-known facts. Are there no landowners in the "Liberal" camp? ive seem to remember a Mn. M'Nab. Arc there no "Liberals" interested in the liquor trade? Has Mr. Fowlds so soon forgotten Mr. AnTiiuE Myers and Mr. Vigor Brown, whose support ho was glad enough to have for four or five years? And is not his own name, and that of iuost of his late colleagues, standing as tho names of in a public business with the names of an army of what ho calls liquor monopolists ? Mr. Fowlds is insulting the public's intelligence. But wo forgot—he is_ beaten, and the country is therefore plainly a country of lunatics, without intelligence.
The public will bo much interested in the scene that took placo at the Auckland Uailway Station on Friday night, when Sin John Findlay left for Wellington. "During a lull in the cheers" of his friends, wo are told, "Sin John Findlay bade his supporters au revoir." That may be merely his pleasant way o£ letting them know that he may some day, when his private business takes him to Auckland, meet them and tell them oiicc more what splendid fellows they we. Or it may mean that he .hankers after another fight—a possibility that appears to bo strengthened by this further cxtraei, from the report of tho affair: "Later, in reply to repeated cries of 'Come hack, come back, Kir John !' he said: 'Will you return me if I come back V 'Yes,' roared the crowd." We fancy, however, that the bulk of tin; people in the Parnell district remember what tho tlicn confident candidalc said to them on September 2G, reported in a Press Association telegram published on September 27: "My acceptance of nomination, for Parnell,' he said, "will involve my resignation from the Legislative Council, and ii' bwiten, liiy retirement from Ihe Cabinet and public life. 1 have been told by many men in tho Lower House that if they had-a safe seat in the Ministry and in (he Upper House, us I have, they would not imperil those advantages by appealing to a general election, but iii this step the last thing I want to do is to vnuiit any spirit of either courage or sacrifice. K I win I shall have the wider iield of action, and I hope of Usefulness, I so much desire. If I fail I shall return to private life with its many attractions and to. an honourable profession. There is nothing disturbing in (his latter prospect." There is really nothing to prevent Sin John Findlay from standing for Parliament again in any district he chooses. But the passage we hav< quoted should, we imagine, go very far towards preventing his election. If beaten, he said, it meant his retirement from public life. We shall sec.
A matter of some importance at tho present moment in view of the position in which tho AV.AiiD Administration has been placed as the result of the general elections is its intention in regard to the High Commissionership and Legislative Council appointments. It would be very interesting to learn from Sii! Joseph Wakd whether he intends to do anything in connection with the filling of any vacant.offices while his Government does not hold (he confidence of the country. When the Atkinson Government was defeated in 1890 it made a number of appointments to the Legislative Council which—while the appointees were generally approved, so far as their personal qualifications went— were very widely condemned owing to the circumstances under which they were made. So strongly did members of Parliament feel concerning this act of i a defeated Ministry that '10 of their number waited in person on the Governor, Loud Onslow, with a petition of protest. An attempt was even made to bring .forward a motion of censure on the Governor for having agreed to the recommendation of his advisers in making the appointments, but the motion was ruled out of order. His Excellency went into the matter very fully in a dispatch fo fhe Secretary of State, dated February :?, 1891, and published in the appendices to the journals of Parliament, .in which he made clear the difficulty of his position. A passage occurs in this dispatch which is well worth quoting at the present time. It is as follows ! I do not think it is seriously maintained in the face of tho constant practice, in England for defeated Ministries to advise her Majesty to create peers, that there has been anything unconstitutional in my action, but f-o far as I can gather there is a el rung feeling that in the colony the practice which obtains in England of making Ministerial appointments before vacating office i= not 0110 which Xew Zealand Ministers should bo encouraged to follow. If 1 have interproted that feeling aright public opinion will bo strnug enough to prevent its recurrence. In colonies possessed of such democratic institutions as manhood suffrage and triennial Parliaments, In nddit.i<m to a numerous and universally rc-.ul pny?, public opinion is not slow to assert itself or to c.wuto nummary punishimmt on the .Ministry or party which has acted contrary to its wishes. The reply of Loud Knm-tsfoicd, tluSecretary of State for the Colonies, was brief and to the point: I am of opinion, ho said, that in accepting the iidyicu U'lulorcil to you by ycur l/u(l.-liip's ro|H>n?ilj|c Ministers imcli-r the circumslaiK'OS described in your (lispatchi's you acted. strictly in acwirdiinti! with the Constitution of the colony; but 1 do m<f. (lovire lo bo understood to oll'er any opinion upon the a.-tion of your Ministers in Itnderiu;; that advice.
A good many people are speculating just now as to how far tho Ward Administration will attempt to follow the vnr.y bad precedent laid down by I heir preiluuessors in office. It will be a bad day for the "LibpniF party if anything of Ihe kind should happen.
Permanent link to this item
https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/DOM19111218.2.13
Bibliographic details
Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1314, 18 December 1911, Page 4
Word Count
1,258NOTES OF THE DAY. Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1314, 18 December 1911, Page 4
Using This Item
Stuff Ltd is the copyright owner for the Dominion. You can reproduce in-copyright material from this newspaper for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0 New Zealand licence. This newspaper is not available for commercial use without the consent of Stuff Ltd. For advice on reproduction of out-of-copyright material from this newspaper, please refer to the Copyright guide.