ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1919. WITH OR WITHOUT INTENT?

Marlborough Express, Volume LIII, Issue 166, 10 June 1919, Page 4

ESTABLISHED 1866. The Marlborough Express TUESDAY, JUNE 10, 1919. WITH OR WITHOUT INTENT?

While the deputation- which put the case for soldier settlement iii Marlborough to the Minister for Lands recently was preparing, to gey to Wellington the Member for Wairau was addressing a letter to the Hon. Mr Guthri© urging..him to-be on his guard against land speculators •and. commission agents. The protest, that was expressed at the meeting of the Patriotic Association last week against his action is quite a, mitural sequence. It is a pretty state of affairs to have the Member for the district standing back and shaking his head in virtuous dubiety while a number of leading citizen.^ .arcV pre-, senting the Government, with a scheme designed in all honesty—and at the cost of much time and' atten-.j tion to practical details—to serve the interests of the soldiers waiting for an opportunity of getting on to. the land. True, Sir McCallum's. sapient advice to the Minister as to the manner in which he should run his part of the- business, of the State was in no way specific!—it contained no direct allusion to the Marlborough movement, coming; no nearer to this district, in fact, tiian the Waikato; but, as Cap-i tain Cuttle used to say, "time application lies in the bearings-on it/:'. .If •t'ne Member did riot mean that the; Minister should put two and two together,—and color is given- to this suspicion by the fact, that Mrv-McCal-luTil did'not accompany the deputa^-t-ibii though he was invited to do so— he cjertainly'left. it very .open for him to forni that impression* At the best his gratuitous piece of philosophising on the1 well-^rorn question of protecting the public interest from exploitation was peculiarly ill-timed, It may have been nothing more than an unfortunate - coincidence, and in that case, of coui*se, the Member may be expected to be quite ready promptly to oounteract ;t. At least ho could b& asked to correct jany prejudiciall asspciation. <>f ideas that-his> action may have created in Goyeinmeht circles. If he cannot see hig-.way to make that, concession .the inference must be that he ,1-eally; wished-to place the 'deputation? in an unfavorable flight. : that-was,-luV.;motive, he himself best knows the amount of: sincerity behind .% but -he will Grid'it extremely" difficult , ; to defend his methods. Mr" ftJcGalluni • may/say it is not incumbent on him tt> declare 4 himself in regard to any particular Marlborough movement • for. ■ soldier settlement one way -_or> thp > : other, •. that he is at...liberty : to': deliver;>a set, of abstract principles without being^ called to accpurit, that -he is-.- neither for nor against the .scheme ■ launched "• by the joint committee; of the Pat-: riotic Association, and itho Repetriation Committee.. Under ordinary circumstances: the right to this attitude could not be . reasonably\ denied to the' Member,' but as. thingsi are hehimself ;has placed on the representative of this constituency in "Parliament they onus of-saying' whether. he-'----is for or..'"against ilie important effort iio\v being made to do ,iustice<!to the men who represented the .community at the;.war front. Our own' view is that^ even in ordinary circumstances the Member for the district ought to ■be associating himself actively, with ■the campaign that the deputation so ably advalice<l, and 'that he., would have 'appeared to better advantage iii a policy of co-operation than he does in his attitude of ! critical detachment. However, that is iot the particular point under discussion jiU-st •now. Tho Member has virtually. been challenged to say ivhet,her his? _ warning to the Minister i-as,', or ,was not, intended to be read fin conjunction \vifch the deputatioii's .mission.' If he can say ethat lie hM no such intention, he will, ,> iiu doiibt, . realise. that a disclaimer is fairly sdue! to,the citizens who consider— isixd rightly so—that their good faith'ajhdjbusiness judgment, have been broiight .under, suspicion. W'3 have dealt with the matter somewhat emphatically, but we think that a most regrettable injustice- has been done to the patrioticminded men who have devoted so muclutimo'and investigatioix to what is generally regarded by : experienced fanners and business men as it, splendid proposition; and, moveover, Mr McCallum's action, taking O ne view of it, demands some special attention as an abuse of the ethics that- govern the relations of tho Member for the district—whether he be Mr MeCallum i or anyone else—to the- activities of his constituents. Supposing, for • the sake of argument, that the Member has a, really . conscientious and wellfounded objection to the essential ieatures -of any particular public movement, or to the lines ' along, ..which it ?s beinp; directed, has he any right to set up his own individual judgment in'opposition to the gener;i,l Feirsr- of the community, and'use his influence to circumvent the popular will?