MR PAYNE'S PLEDGES.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLVII, Issue 205, 30 August 1913, Page 6

MR PAYNE'S PLEDGES.

EXPLANATIONS AND A CHAL-

LENGE

:,' Mr J. Payne, Member for Grey " Lynn, took an opportunity during the i , Imprest Supply debate in the Houso 'of Representatives on _ Wednesday ', s evening to revive the subject of a let- | ter containing a pledge which he sent 'I to the present Prime Minister soon . ' after being returned for the electorate . |of Grey Lynn. He said -that he i honestly admitted that he told Mr S Massoy that he would support him on ;; a no-confidence motion, but he held : \ that, in the first place, Mr Massey , i ) had no right to ask him what he was ■ > going to do, and subsequently ho had \ found that Mr Massey was a "politi- ) cal prevaricator of the truth." IMr Payne withdrew this term on . ' being ordered to do so by the , , ] Speaker. Instead, he said that Mr I ! Massey had misled him. He did not \ remember sending any letter to Mr ! Massey, but if he had he would . I guarantee that the date of it was subj ; sequent to the second ballot. ;Mr Massey: Of course it is. '; Mr Payne went on to state that [ I when he came down to Wellington he ■found that Mr Ma,ssey's "innuendoes" ' i about extravagant borrowing were ; without foundation. He then con- : j sidered that ho was entitled to go back | 'on his "word of mouth." He chal- ' longed any member on the other side :of the House to produce a single line , showing that he had pledged himself ' before the second ballot to support j Mr Massey. While he was speaking \ [ IMr Payne offered to sit down while i ; :Mr Mnssey road the Wter to which \ ,ho referred in <a, recent debate. \ '■ 1 The Prime Minister took no other \ notice of the offer than to say that '

it would be descending from the sublime to the ridiculous. At the time the House was in the middle of a debate on the subject of naval defence. Mr Massey raised the matter again on the third reading of the Imprest Supply Bill. He produced the letter from Mr Payne to which he had' referred. It was datedi January 11, 1912, and stated, inter alia:— "I may say that there will be no , wavering on my part in connection j with voting the Government out on a no-confidence motion." Members: Judas! I Another statement quoted by the Prime Minister from the letter was: — "I shall use my best endeavors: to see that there is no vacillation on the part of other Labor Members." Mr J. Payne, in reply, challenged Mr Massey to produce a single line of newspaper report to show that he had pledged himself to his constituents to vote for the Massey party. (Derisive laughter). This was a material part of the case, because it was a man's pledges to his constituents' that bound his actions. The letter, he said, was a document "without consideration," and was therefore invalid and illegal. An hon. Member: Did you get any consideration from the other side ? Mr Payne said he had not. He had not even been asked to vote for the other side by any member of the Liberal party.