HOW SLANDERS ARE STARTED

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2551, 27 August 1915, Page 6

HOW SLANDERS ARE STARTED

There are very few people we imagine who have not realised ere this that the member for' Grey Lynn must not be taken too literally nor too seriously in his public utterances. Because of this he has been allowed that. latitude in Parliament which is too often extended .to men of extravagant speech, whoso opinions carry no weight and whose wildest charges and accusations are usually passed over with that shrug of the shoulders which bespeaks con : temptuous indifference. . So it was that on Wednesday evening when Mr. Payne made-the amazing and utterly baseless assertion' that the mother of tho Attorney-General was a German, the House'was inclined to laughter rather than to treat the charge. seriously as a slanderous statement. calling for the severest censure. It is 'very well known amongst Mr. Herdman's intimates that both his mother ana father and their for' bears were Scotch, and. that so long back as their descent 'can be traced into past generations there has not been the faintest suggestion of there being any foreign blood in their veins.. This fact could have ' been ascertained easily enough by anyone really ooncerned'on tho subjcct; but instead tho member for Grey Lynn, under cover of the privileges of Parliament, went, out of his way ,to' pass what in these times can only bo regarded as a very cruel slander on a- widely-respected lady, who is still living in New Zealand, in an endeavour presumably to do tho son an injury in the eyes of the public. Such is the manner in which, unfounded slanders are set in circulation, and members apparently are unable to sec how such incidents must lower Parliament in the eyes of the country. Mr. Herdman very properly refused tft treat the incident as a thing to ijc laughed at, and gave Mr. Payne's assertion the unqualified and emphatic answer that it deserved.