"POLITICAL GIFT"

Evening Post, Volume CVIII, Issue 117, 13 November 1929, Page 10

"POLITICAL GIFT"

HIGH CQMMISSIONERSHIP

EDITORIAL COMMENT

(By Telegraph.)

(Special .to "The Evenins Post.")

AUCKLAND, This Day. ■ The "New Zealand Herald," in an editorial, says: "The selection of Mr. Wilford illustrates how persistently the parties in power look to the political world for the High Commissioner. It has always been done, and, if the latest indication is any criterion, it always will be done. If ever there were circumstances suggesting a different course, they exist now. The party in office is less able to spare a vote or to risk the loss of a seat than ai>y has been since the position was i first created, yet it takes a man from I active political life and sends him to London. The party itself can be left to judge the wisdom or folly of this course, from the party viewpoint. To all others the appointment is outstanding as an example of the -way the office is made a political, generally a party, gift.

"These general observations . convey no reflections on Mr. Wilford's fitness for the position. He is an active, vigorous, and able man, with a fine presence, strong personality, and a wide range of interests. Nobody can doubt that he will bring enthusiasm and energy to the task he is being sent to undertake. A strong sense of the dramatic tends to make Mr. Wilford too exuberant in expression sometimes, but he is also sensitive to the atmosphere of his surroundings, a quality which should act as a useful restraint in the formal world where his work will lie for the next few years. Armed with these qualities, ho should have no difficulty in' creating a favourable impression on taking office and maintaining it thereafter. He follows a High Commissioner who has proved highly acceptable personally in official circles, and has set a high standard for his successor. Thus Mr. Wilford. inherits goodwill, but he also shoulders the responsibility of preserving and ex-' tending it. The man who approaches the position with enthusiasm should ask for^nothing better."