THOSE PIGEON-HOLES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXIV, Issue 16326, 23 August 1913, Page 10

THOSE PIGEON-HOLES.

The member for Nelson, whose independence was so admirable in the eyes of the Reformers until he exercised it in favour of the Liberals last year, mentioned the matter of the pigeonholes in tho House of Representatives yesterday. People, he said, had been under tho impression that if they put tho Reformers into office the pigeonholes would bo ransacked and the truth concerning the Liberal administration made plain. The fact that nothing had come out of tho pigeon-holes to damage tho former Government’s reputation had convinced the people that they did not change for the better.” Nobody who lias watched tho desperate attempts of the Reformers to entrench themselves in office will believe that any corner has been left unsearched. It is easy to imagine the assiduity which Mr Fisher, for example, will have displayed in pursuit of scandals and “jobs.” But all his efforts have failed and the Reformers have been foroed to give tbeir opponents a “ clean bill in the form of a silenoo which is none the less significant because it is so very ungenerous. Small wonder that a young member liko Mr Atmore, entering politics at tho moment when tho air was filled with tho unpleasant savour of the Reformers’ insinuations and innuendoes is at little pains now to disguise the contempt lio feels for politicians who gained office by means of falso accuse tions involving tho personal honour of their opponents. There must be a good many thousand people in tho dominion who feel with tho member for Nelson that tho neglect of tho Reformers either to prove their charges or to withdraw them is a political incident with an exceedingly nasty flavour.