SECRETARY FOR LABOR.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LI, Issue 9138, 10 July 1906, Page 5

SECRETARY FOR LABOR.

REQUEST FOR MR TREGEAR'S REMOVAL.

PREMIER REFUSES TO ACCEDE

[PBBSS ASSOCIATION.!

WELLINGTON, July 9.

The Premier, Mr Hall-Jones, has> written to the secretary of the New Zealand Employers' Federation acknowledging receipt of the letter of the 20th ult., asking that Mir Tregeair should be removed from bis office as Secretary of Labor, on account of a letter he had written to a friend in America, expressing certain, Socialistic views. The Premier, in reply, says that the letter referred to was a private one to a farieaid, that it \ras not signed by MrTregear in his official capacity, and that the supposed copy of the letter was not a true copy, sentences written by Mr Tregear having been omitted, and other sentences inserted. Mr Hall-Jones gives examples of this, and says that to wrest from the letter an attack on the New Zealand Employees' Federation is perverse and unwarranted. No accusation, concludes the Piremier, ot even inference has hitherto reached the- Government that Mr Tregear had failed in carrying out his official duties with discretion and impartiality. "I cannot concur in the principle you expound, that the Government has the right to interfere with the private expression of personal opinions held by its officers. Under the circumstances, I do not consider it to be my duty to take the action you suggest."