SPOILING PUBLIC LIFE.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXII, Issue 15715, 7 September 1911, Page 7

SPOILING PUBLIC LIFE.

PROTEST AGAINST OPPOSITION CALUMNY. [Frou Our Correspondent.] WELLINGTON, September C.

Tho Minister of Agriculture (tlie Hon T. Mackenzie) took occasion in the House this afternoon to deal with an Opposition newspaper suggestion that a grader had been appointed at Wanganui as a political bribe to the constituency. Ho followed the member for Wanganui (Mr J. T. Hogan), who had declared that a more scurrilous allegation he had never seen. It was a scurvy trick. Tiie Minister said that he agreed with Mr Hogan, and detailed the facts to show how unfounded was tiio allegation. Tile matter had, he said, a much more serious aspect than many members were inclined to think. This system of party abuse was, as had been said from a Wellington pulpit on Sunday night, degrading and corrupting politics and had a tendency to drive men out of public life who would otherwise have endeavoured to do good work. (Hear, hear.) The Wanganui case was not tho only instance of misrepresentation. Correspondence appeared in a number of papers continuously and systematically accusing tho Agricultural Department. This was eventually traced to a man Who admitted having written all the letters under a variety of pen names, pretending that different individuals held these opinions. This was tho way in which attacks on tho Government were manufactured. The public was not abie to get the proper perspective of tho work which was being done by tho Agricultural Department, because of the systematic misrepresentation which was carried on. Newspapers were supposed to assist and not retard the country’s progress. Nothing could have been more honourable or straightforward than the negotiations in regard, to providing a. grader at Wanganui. There was nobody available at first, and a man had to be trained for the position, it being inadvisable to bring a grader from Australia, owing to the inferior grading methods in vogue there. There was an offer to pay a portion of the grader’s salary locally, but as this was not done ill any other part it was not required at Wanganui.