GISBORNE SEAT

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXX, Issue 21150, 19 July 1943, Page 2

GISBORNE SEAT

NATIONAL SELECTION

MR. BARKER AVAILABLE

REPL.Y TO DEPUTATION

His willingness to enter the ballot for the selection of a National Party candidate to contest the Gisborne seat at the forthcoming general election was announced by Mr. H. H. Barker,

editor of the Gisborne Herald, in replying to a large and representative deputation on Saturday evening. Several speakers referred to the work which Mr. Barker had done mr the district and to the reputation lie had acquired through his writing. Ik' was urged to make his sendees available. and was promised that if he did so ho would receive whole-hearted support. In replying, Mr. Barker said the decision had not been an easy one to make. He was not a politician either by instinct or inclination. A weightier consideration was that even to attempt Lo enter public life necessarily' meant that he must not only resign Ids present position, but must also face the fact that it virtually meant the end of the career to which he had devoted nearly the whole of his working life. He had always felt, however, that no mail was entitled to consider only his own interests and desires: he owed some duty and was under some obligation to the community in which he lived. He had always regarded his newspaper work as a form of public service, and if it was considered that he was capable of giving 'service in a wider sohore he felt that, if it were possible for him to do so, lie had no right to refuse at least to make the attempt. Those who knew him and those who had read what he had written over a considerable period of years, Mr. Barker added, would not need to be told that he would never be content to be a mere party politician. In no circumstances would he be just a '■yes-man” or party hack, and he gathered I'rorn what had been said that that was the last thing that was desired. In this attitude there was nothing inconsistent with support for the National Party, which was composed of a body of men who were bound together by certain fundamental basic principles: but, who otherwise were entirely free and unfettered. It was not desired of them that they should sacrifice their individuality' or their independence of thought and action. One other point lie desired to make was that he 1 would never seek to represent any one section or class in the community. If it came to that point and he were elected to Parliament, he would pledge himself only to act at all times according to the dictates of his conscience and in the interests of all classes and of the district as a whole.