THE ART OF EVASION.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXV, Issue 16568, 4 June 1914, Page 6

THE ART OF EVASION.

We have reason to bo grateful that the pursuit of Conservative-Reform fictions has not entirely deprived us of our sense of humour. If we had taken seriously Mr Hcrdman's extraordinary attempt to evado the charges made by Mr G. W. Russell in connection with tho Public Trust Office there might havo been no words of indignation left for tho still more remarkable comment of tho Wellington Reform organ on the samo subject. Happily it was tho humorous and not tho ethical side of tho incident that impressed us and we are still able to enjoy tho sequel. Mr Russell's charge was that tho Minister of Justico had deliberately attempted to mislead tho members of tho House of Representatives on the subject of tho stnnual report of the Public Trustee. Mr Hcrdman's reply, made at a meeting at Hawarden, was that the business of tho Public Trust Office had expanded, that the salaries had grown by £7600 and that tho number of clerks employed had increased by twenty-seven. This information was comforting to the public who aro naturally interested in tho progress of the office and to the people who may have been afraid that the staff was underpaid, but it scarcely met Mr Russell's allegations. Now the Wellington journal, feeling doubtless that the Minister's reply was a trifle inadequate, comes to his rescue. It opens with an elegant description of the Member for Avon " thumping the table and bellowing" and then proceeds to the business in hand. " Now, apparently," it says, "ho is entertaining the Christchurch electors with a new and enlarged edition of the Public Trust Offico charges, as he chooses to term them." Tho entertainment, of course, is being provided by the Minister, not by the member, though the Reformers may not see it quite in tho samo light. The next sentence reveals what the Reformers choose to term the charges. "Those allegations," the journal explains, " were thoroughly' threshed out last session and the sum total of them is that, the Minister in charge of the Department exercised his right to frame tho policy of tho Department under his charge, as he was entitled, and as it was his duty*'to do." This is definite and convincing, so far as it goes, but as a reply to the charge or allegation that tho Minister suppressed a report and then denied its existence it may best be described, to avoid a harsher | term, as screamingly funny.