"TRUE LIBERAL" AGAIN.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3139, 20 July 1881, Page 3

"TRUE LIBERAL" AGAIN.

[To THE EdITOE OP THE DAILY Tb____A_H.J Sir,—The hon. sec, an ex-treasurer, and a member of the committee of the Liberal Association, have attempted to give answers to the queries which I asked in your open column, but I leave it to the members of the Association to judge whether those answers are satisfactory or not. At the first meeting of the Association rules were adooted, one of which was that the officers should be elected half-yearly, and another was that tbe members should meet monthly for the consideration of the current political and social topics of tbe day ; at the halfyearly meeting also it was provided by rule tbat a statement of the accounts of the Association should be submitted to the members. Now these rules have not been carried out ; it a member asks why not, he is met with the evasive answer that if he had gone and humbly beseecbed Officer So-and-so he would have gained the desired information. But why have not the adopted rules of the Association been adhered to ? and why have a certain number of gentlemen arrogated to themselves the functions of perpetual officebearers ? The solution, I think, is very simple. Mr MacDougall, Mr Carnell, and Member of the Committee, evidently believe that in themselves only is centred the great truths of Liberalism ; that no other persons are capable of holding Liberal viewß but them, and that the cause would perish in this town but for their exertions. The principles of Liberalism only require dissemination among the people to ensure their adoption; secret meetings are only necessary when illiberalism is in the ascendant, or when the autocratic views of a tew will not bear the light of criticism. 1 ask the Liberals of Napier not to be hoodwinked or led astray by Bpecial pleading or abstruse argument, but to consider seriously—(l.) Whether these gentlemen have loyally carried out the trust confided to them when they were elected to office ; (2) have they any right to assume offices which they do not legally hold ; and (3) are these the kind of leaders which we should follow ? I say no, and the sooner the Liberals of Napier show that they have severed every connection with such autocrats the better it will be for the cause.—l am &c, A True Liberal. July 20, 1881.