AGAIN!

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXXIII, Issue 15901, 12 April 1912, Page 6

AGAIN!

The “Otago Daily Times” can have seen only a briof summary of the Minister’s remarks when it took the Hon Thomas Mackenzie to task yesterday for having stated at Stratford that nono of the allegations made by Mr Hine, which formed the subject of a parliamentary inquiry two years ago, had been proved. Mil at Mr Mackenzie said, of course, was that none of the improprieties which were implied against the Government in the allegations were proved. He might have gone further than this and said they were all disproved. It was clearly shown by the evidence adduced at the inquiry that Ministers had no knowledge whatever of the transactions that were very properly condemned by the committee. Mr Mackenzie’s excuse for referring to the unsavoury subject was furnished by the persistent efforts of the Opposition to make the public believe that the Government was not altogether free from blame in the matter, a.nd that there was a good deal more in the “ Hine charges” than was allowed to see the light of day. Unfair tactics of this kind deserved the very strongest condemnation, and Mr Mackenzie was not afraid to speak his mind.

It would have been absurd for him to have said that none of the allegations were proved. Several of them were proved, and the members of the committee were unanimous in censuring the offenders, but our southern contemporary knows as well as we do that the attempt to involve the Government in the scandals utterly failed.