MR. WEBB’S OPINIONS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 September 1934, Page 12

MR. WEBB’S OPINIONS

UNDER-SECRETARY OF MINES. [special to “stab.”] WELLINGTON, September 12. The opinion that the appointment of Mr. A. Tyndall as Under-Secretary of Mines, was a mistake, was expressed by Mr. P. C. Webb, when speaking during the Financial Debate in the House of Representatives to-night. ' Mr. Web.b said he believed Mr. Tyndall was a very capable man, but at the same time, his knowledge of mining was very limited. There were in this country many mine managers with far greater knowledge of mining questions than Mr. Tyndall. The mining industry was so important that there should be at the head of the Mines Department, a man with a thorough knowledge of mining. Never-the-less, ho believed Mr. Tyndall was doing good work, but he still considered the appointment of Mr. Tyndall was a mistake. Mr. Tyndall was a recognised authority on road construction, and would have given greater service to the State in his capacity as Chief Engineer to the Main Highways Board, a position he held before his appointment as Under-Secretary of Mines. A man with sound practical knowledge would be far more useful in stimulating the mining industry. WAR RECOLLECTIONS. Sidelights on his attitude to conscription during; the Great War, were also given by Mr. Webb. He said that in the early stages of the Great War, when the German forces bashed their way into France, an appeal was made to New Zealand to supply 300 miners and tunnellers. More men volunteered than were required. He, himself, had refused to recruit men, although he himself offered his services, if the quota of miners was not forthcoming. When, however, the Government forced conscription upon the people, he stood to his convictions and refused to be coerced into going to the war, and as a result was sent to prison, and deprived of his civil rights for ten years. It was to the everlasting glory of the Australian soldiers in France that they voted solidly against conscription, the proposal of their own Government. Mr. Webb said that while he was serving his term in gaol, sixty members of the House of Commons, who were eligible for wai’ service, were not conscripted. New Zealand was the only country in the Empire that conscripted its people. He did not blame those who had been responsible for his imprisonment. No doubt they thought they were doing their duty. He felt very sorry for Sir James Allen, who was Minister of Defence at the time, and who was now an old man.

“Sir James didn’t always play as fairly as he might have done, but I don’t blame him,” Mr. Webb continued. “I believe he acted according to his lights. If my light led me to a prison cell, and his led him to councils of state at Home, it was, perhaps, due to differences in the lens through which we looked. I feel very sorry for Sir J. Allen. I went out by the front door —I was not kicked out—and I came back by the front, door, and I don’t bear one particle of antagonism toward anybody.” Mr Webb said he was sorry to hear the present Minister of Defence, Mr. Cobbe, expressing the same old sentiments which had been expressed in the same old way twenty years ago. It was sad to think that the Minister was still living in the past, and had failed to realise that “all that old stuff had gone west.” I see the Minister of Finance is in his place,” Mr. Webb added. “In politics, Mr. Coates and I are as far apart as the Poles. He thinks the capitalistic system is all right; I think it is all Gotten. But he has always been a big-minded man, and never allows petty party prejudices to cloud his mind. There are few men I can say that about.”