THE PREMIER AND MR COLLINS.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CIV, Issue 12323, 13 October 1900, Page 9

THE PREMIER AND MR COLLINS.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir,—Your article in Saturday’s paper on Boy Collins and Schoolmaster Richard show’s that, you are dieting in concert with rebellious and disobedient scholars. I would advise you to take care, or you will 'be a mate for the late chief of “ Hansard,” You have no idea what a great and powerful master can do when- once aroused I have often thought that a boy ■ showing signs of a tinge of colour on the upper lip should have his discharge made out at once and be told to .get, not to other benches where manhood with* some is considered to be established, but get home to his people to be made a dull man of, or be kept there to lick jam spoo'ns and do Other odd jobs instead of licking boots in Wellington. When I said I was glad I did not go to school now, you thought I was joking, but after reading thait account of Mr Richard’s wrath as described by ycur correspondent, you must confess I was justified in what I said. He salt silent, says the paper, and looked as though prayers had not been said inside the walls for a w’eek. In fact, he looked himseif. Boy Collins has grown rebellious, and was ordered out of his presence. Collins did not go, and shrieked, “l am not a little boy, I’m grown big; it’s not me voice, it’s myself, it’s me intellect. What for did you go and let my people know what I had been saying? I don’t care; I will get double the votes for the stand I am taking.” And so he went on interrupting his instructor and benefactor until the school became more like an inferno of lawbreakers than a heaven for lawmakers. Boy Collins, if you had only known what thait vote against increase meant, would you have acted differently? “ Taylor hated me,” said the 'Master. Not a bit of it, Taylor liked the people better than he did the selfishness of an individual, .and voted according to his conscience, which should be the guide of every’ politician.—l am, etc., GEO. BARTY*

V ■ TO THE EDITOR. Sir, —I beg leave to differ from some of the /views .expressed by your , correspondent, “ True Liberal,” in bis defence of our senior member’s present attitude towards the Premier. He says : —“ Mr Collins, by asserting his right to independent action on matters of detail, has revealed the rocks on which we are drifting.” Exactly, but “ True Liberal ” can scarcely term the Ministers _ Salaries Bib, Chambers of Commerce Bill; and the clause exempting the Government Railway employees from the provisions of the Industrial Arbitration Bill, mere matters of 1 detail. At least, Mr Seddon didn’t think so, and .1 imagine no one else thought they were. Now, I maintain that Mr Collins, by virtue of ■ his electioneering tactics and pledges, had no right whatever to deliberately adopt a course of action hostile to the will of his party leader, and likely to block the passages of his measures. In short, Mr Colling' has placed himself in the position of an Independent Liberal, in which role I will easily, prove he is grossly inconsistent. Firstly, did he not, for more than six months'prior to'the last election stump the city and suburbs in selfadvertisement, denouncing Independent Liberalism and its devotees as the plague of party politics, ostensibly with the object of damaging the chances of the two Independent Liberals then members for this city? Amd yet he is not long in Parliament before he takes up the very same stand he had pre-vinu-’y emphatically condemned. Secondly, did not the local branch of the Government Electioneering Association (otherwise the Liberal and Labour Federation—formed by Mr Seddon’s paid organiser), adopt Mr Collins as its very own pet candidate? As a matter of fact, this so-called federation was set going for the sole purpose of helping our senior member into'Parliament. Thirdly, with this very object in view, did not the Premier cause to be circulated throughout this constituency some forty thousand copies of an Independent Liberal members’ speeches, delivered in opposition . to the despatch of the First Contingent to South Africa;? This electioneering trick had its desired effect, and I never heard that Mr, Collins ever objected to such contemptible means of damaging his opponent. And yet he is so ungrateful to his benefactor that he .actually takes up the same independent ipositlon on other questions ; as his ’ despised predecessor. But, lo and behold, his righteously indignant party boss mow uses the" very identical tactics to injure him in the eyes of his constituents. Serves you fright, Mr Collins, I say. Fourthly; for about six months previous to his election, Mr Colling posed before the electors as an out-and-out supporter of Mr Seddon as the head of the Liberal Party. He denounced all independents as'traitors, ha lauded'Mr Seddon to the skies'as an ideal LiberalTeader (he recently admitted this), and promised,to act as his faithful follower. The people had other colours to choose from—Conservative and Independent Liberal —(one of these latter you , declared has done nothing to forfeit the supipbrt'.df the. Liberal electors), :biichose, i by a large majority, Mr Collins, as the most pronounced supporter of the Premier, about one-half, the people voting for him.' Now, I tl.iluk I have conclusively proved that Mr Collins has deluded his supporters and belied his electioneering,promises, for

his electors undoubtedly voted for him as a'. Seddonite party-main-in-preference to the . self-confessed Independent Liberals. They selected him to support the Premier in' aft , points, which course the other candidates refused to follow. Therefore, I consider that if the Independent Liberal represe'nta- -

tives of this city in the last Park ament, wer® traitors to the Liberal cause, as some-oLMr Collins’s friends wrote in your columns, then Mr Collins is a double-dyed traitor, ■ Whd thoroughly deserved all the castigation-bis party-boss heaped upon him.—l am, etc., CONSISTENCY. (Oiir correspondent has .entirely misrepresented the attitude taken up by Mr Collins during the elections, but dftr readers will have no difficulty-in correcting his misstatements for themselves;—Ed, : ■ “L.T.”j ■ 'A/;