INSINCERE IF TRUE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume IX, Issue 1635, 27 May 1887, Page 2

INSINCERE IF TRUE.

To the Editor of the Star.

Sir, — Major Atkinson, when before his constituents on Wednesday evening, 20th April, 1887, said : — " I shall do my utmost to avoid a second session, but I feel that another session is almost inevitable, and I say that the Government have no excuse to offer for having brought it about. The whole cf the fault will lie at their door, and the whole of the expense and inconvenience will be chargeable to their accouLt. The above noble sentiment was applauded, but, had some the courage to have laughed, the Major would said : —"I presume it is intended to cast a doubt on my sincerity. Well, ladies and gentlemen, I have not a word to those who doubt my sincerity; except to them I say by all means doubt it, and have nothing to do witu me, for if I was guilty of insincerity I should be an unfit person to represent not merely this but any other constituency." It is just five weeks since be told us that be would do his utmost to avoid a second session, and, notwithstanding our member's statement, the Press Association says that Major Atkinson made the following statement in the House of Representatives, May 25tb, 1887, on the no confidence debate : — " He said the Government might aek for a dissolution, and he hoped they would get it in order to go to tbe country at once. He said the House should vote irrespective of consideration of causing a second session." Can this be true or is tbe Press Association tooling us ? — I am, &c, Ha wera^ H. R. Bakes.

To the Editor of the Star. Sir, — In the report of Major Atkinson's speech in your columns a quotation appears which has escaped the memory of many ot us here. Will yon kindly tell as through the medium of yoar columns who the " Luddites " were, and what is the political allusion in the words " blue flies ?"— I am, &c, M.O. Hawera, May 24. [The Luddites were the machine breakers in the north of England, who, in 1811, under stress of high prices for food and scarcity of employment, went about breaking the machinery then being introduced. The riots were not quelled until thirty of the ringleaders had been executed. The " blue flies " are beyond us if there is any political allusion in the lines referred to, which we doubt.— Ed. Star.]