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BELL-O-DRAMA

Referring to Mr. Bell's absence from the public meeting in connection with the proposed cottage hospital in our issue oI March 12th we said inter alia: “No deputation from the meeting waited on Mr. Bell, who was not even supplied with an official cony of the resolution passed, because, presumably, the conveners thought, as others did, that Mr. Bell should have made it his business to attend the meelW ing." That statement was correct then and is correct at the time of writing as no deputation has yet waited on Mr. Bell and neither has he been supplied with an official copy of the resolution. Further, there was no instruction from the public meeting that he should be supplied with a copy of the resolution. In continuation of his campaign ot calumny, an article headed “An Irresponsib'e Journalist” appears in the issue of tht of the 28th nil. and in this * Mr. Bell says “the statement made in the “Age" is false in its entirety” and he unfairly dragged in the President of the Chamber of Commerce and reported him 1 as saying that he repudiated the “Age” statement in the strongest possible terms and that he wouid bring the matter before the executive of the Chamber of Commerce at its next meeting. Knowing that Mr. Bell has handled the truth in a most reckless manner over this interview we deferred further criticism until we interviewed the President. Mr. Kenny states that he told Mr. Bell that it was not the attitude of the Chamber of Commerce to ignore him, but nothing was said as to why Mr. Bell was not supplied with a copy of the resolution passed or why a deputation from the meeting had not wiited on him. He said | nothing to Mr. Bell about repudiating me 1 statement of the “Age” that Mr. Bell had not been supplied with an official copy dt the resolution, neither did he say he would bring the matter up at the next executive 5, meeting of the Chamber. It was a matter in connection with Mr. Beil's alleged with- ♦ drawing of the Awanui Harbour Bill that Mr. Kenny said he intended to bring up. Mr. Bell deliberately distorted the President's remarks to serve as an excuse for his article "An Irresponsiolc Journalist.” Mr. Bell appears to be getting rattled!. In the same issus, in a clumsy attempt to be funny, Mr. Bell reprints some poor doggerel he alleges he "swung onto” the “Age” fifteen months ago. That has nothing whatever to d* with the present editor, but the doggerel was reprinted to glorify its great author, Mr. Bell, M P. In a note to the aforesaid doggerel he says I. B. W. is the name generally giyrn to the political party composed of Isitt, Bell and Witty. So Mr. Bell lias formed a party of his own after all! We thought it would come to that. But what will he do with the Reform ticket if it should be “pressed” upon him ? But to get back to the "poems.” Can

Mr. Bell tell us the name of the famous • author who enriched the world with the following, which we understand was circulated in Wellington last session, and which would lead one to believe that its

eminenfauthor knew Mr. Bell's penchant * for making trouble. It is about on a par with Mr. Bell’s classic, "The Knell”, and runs:—

Here lie the political bones of Allen Bell, Where he's gone to we can’t tell; If to the land of peace and love, Farewell to happiness above; If sunken to a lower level, We can't congratulate the devil. "UNSOLICITED” TESTIMONIALS. Like the purveyors of patent medicines, Mr. Bell believes in self-advertisement. He believes in boosting himself, even at the risk of losing his self-respect. Here is the latest example of the unsolicited testimonial, as the quack medicine inen aay. The following also appeared in the '♦Northlander of the 28th nit George Forbes, Cheviot’s M.P. writes:— “Many thanks for th“ copies of your bright and breezy publication. I have passed them on to the editor of our local pThunderer, as an example of what a lot of something can he made out ot nothing, a nd at the same time be kept interesting. Your fierce encounters with your reptile contemporary, are reminiscent of the clashes of dusky Kxitaia warriors of long ago. What a pity the weapons are only ■v fountain pens, and that there is no pot for * a goal. I scanned your column closely to see if I could find any falling off in your skill as a pseudologist, but I am happy to say that your hand has lost none Jof its cunning, and I look forward to the coming session of Parliament with pleasurable anticipation of mrny treats in store, when you, as you are certain to do, try your pinions again in the realm of fancy.” 4 Knowing George for a chronic legpuller, we can smile, but we feel sorry for the politician who has to depend on this sort of stuff for advertisement, and the childish vanity of a man who could print ,gt. But if Mr. Bell publishes any more letters like that the electors will be too tickled to vote on election day. We suggest the following as more suitable “puff” pars:— "Mr. Bell is a profound student of political economy and finance. His forceful articles appearing in that academic journal, The Norlhlander, am ’tint to an intellectual devotion at the shrine of humanity.”—Rhino C. Ros, Wellington.

“Mr. Bell is the ideal representative and is never likely to forfeit the confidence

placed in him on railway or other matters. His njlrftcal honesty is unquestionable. j r parliament he only speaks when he Ijls his views might oe of genuine value Empire; or occasionally to voice injustice to bis constituents, su-..i as construction of a railway when the want roads, and to object to the {Bjjjfcynient oi increased salaries to members Parliament, while money is so tight, fli* remarks are always concise and '.em-

Derate and free from personalities. He beli ves the general welfare of the people of the Dominion should come before any individual or company expediency.”— Lance Free, Wgton. By comparison with Mr. Bell’s brazen

elf-advertising even the light of the late Mr. Barnum pales into insignificance. And Mr. Birnum was running a circus ton!

4. In accusing the “Age” of having taken blocks from his litograph Mr. Bell struck a second discordant hote, the only discordant notes in the whole of the centenary celebrations. What do the descendants of the pioneers think of such a petty and unworthy reference ?

It is a poor commentary upon the work of the pioneers and their descendants to say that it required Mr. Bell to give them distinction and standing among the people of the present day. They had that before Mr. Bell came to the North, as any history book will show. His “Striking Tribute” in the Northlander looks more like a seif, applied tribute to his own blatant egotism. Another example of “pinching.” In Saturday’s Northlander appears an article headed “The Knocker”, which appeared in American papers years ago. It may be said to apply with particular force to the editor of the Northlander, and especially the lines referring to a badly edited paper. The other lines of the same paragraph have no application to the new Northlander, although Phoenix-like it rose again on the ashes of the old, said ashes hdving gone cold on the North during a period between September and January. What did the North do during those trying months! 1 If the old Phoenix is a sport it will honour its just debts and pay tile little j bill it owes the “Age”. Not that we care to press such a delicate matter, but times are hard.

Owing to pressure on space we are unable to deal fully with “points” raised by the Northlander, but we will hearken back on another occasion. We would, however, like to know how Mr. Bell lost his job as editor of the “Age”. The directors must have been mad to dispense with an editor whose hand has not even yet lost its cunning and who can spread his pinions in the realms of fancy. Was it because the directors wanted him to spread his pinions in the realm of fact? It was, he quotes, an historic day when he "was ousted from the office of the Age, and that the curse Mr. Reed and his friends brought upon themselves by their action on that historic day they would have to grin and bear for the next three years at least, and probably much longer” B-r-r-r-r! Before Mr. Bell gets hysterical will he please tell us why he was “fired” so hastily ? THE RAILWAY

In last issue of the Northlander Mr. Bell makes a further attempt to wriggle away from the statement that he advocated cessation of work on the railway at Okaihau and clouds the issue with a lot of verbiage. But he can’t get away from the fact that he did wire the Minister of Public Works urging him to defer further work on the railway. We reprint the following from the Age of April 23, 1923: ROADS BEFORE RAILS. Under the above heading the Auckland “Star” reports Mr. Allen Bell, M.P., for Bay of Islands, as being opposed to any further expenditure on the railway northwards from Okaihau. He is said to have met large gatherings of settlers in all parte and to have urged these settlers to support him in jettisoning an absolute railway policy. His alternative is to spend the money thus saved in building good roads in the Northern Counties. He has wired to the Minister of Public Works to defer making further arrangements regarding railway construction North of Okaihau until his (Mr. Bell’s) campaign in this movement is completed.

Mr. Allen Bell is an apostle of “The Good Roads Movement” and is admittedly a good advocate of the cause. But in this particular case we think his enthusiasm is running away with his judgment. The only way we are likely to get main roads sufficiently good to carry very heavy motor traffic is by the Main Highways Scheme. The northern counties are as yet thinly settled, and contain too many areas of non-rate producing lands, to bear the cost necessary to build such roads as would be required. Motor traffic tears ordinary roads to pieces, only concrete, bitumen, or some such roads will bear the strain. £54,000 was borrowed inMangonui County to build many miles of roads, which were to be tar sealed. Probably even the length of metal contemplated will be put down, without the tar sealing. And we question very much whether this length would stand heavy motor traffia. It has to be remembtred that the line has been surveyed from Okaihau onward, and that a certain amount of construction has been done down the hill towards the Waihou Valley. Personally, we see but little prospect of the railway, at New Zealand rate of construction, reaching Kaitaia inside twenty years.

But if the railway once reached Maugamuka it would tap a very large district. At the Tio the greater part of the Hokianga would be touched. At Mangamuka the Fern Flat Road would lead a large extent of country to the rail-head, whilst the Mangamuka Road would tap most of the best of Mangonui County. Broadwood and all the stretch of fine country adjacent would find Mangamuka railhead the natural outlet. By all means let us have the railway to Mangamuka, and that as speedily as possible. And even if motor carriage be what is claimed for it the railway would save the big pull from the Waihou Valley up to Okaihau.

We believe Mr. Bell has made a big tactical error in starting this campaign. The Public Works Department will poss. ibly seize on it as a pretext to cease fail-

way construction beyond Okaihau, and we shall probably be left in the lurch—our last state worse than our first. And is Mr. Bell unsophisticated enough to be- : lieve for one moment that the Department

will give him for roads the amount which has been, or wouid be, allocated for the completion ol the railway to Mangamuka. If so, verily, he hath faith beyond all things. BELL'S BLUNDER Under the above heading the “Northern News” of May, 1923, says:— "The Member for the Bay of Islands may congratulate himself on the almost instantaneous success of the first half of his “Stop the Railway and Bnild Good Roads” policy. The railway from Okaihau has been duly stopped, and the men are to be removed to Oniana, there to expediate the pushing of the Main Trunk line to Dargaville—the Minister of Public Works having a truer idea of the value and importance of railways titan Mr. Bell, who, in his zeal for good roads, has been guilty in his latest move of what Napoleon charactered as, worse than a crime, a blunder.” Mr. Bell has always been an ardent—though up to the present not particularly successful—champion of a better l oading system for the North, and in any effort in that direction he ought to have the active sympathy and help of all who have the interests of the North at heart. W ere there a fair probability ol getting the amount likely to be spent on railway construction diverted to road making there would be a good deal to say for the “Back to the Roads” policy. But to even hope to get railway grants diverted to this purpose will be beyond even Mr. Bell’s abounding optimism when he has a little more experience of Parliamentary life and the marvellous working of the official mind. Under the spell of Mr. Bell’s oratory, settlers, sick of the slow progress of the railways Northwards, and

eager to grasp at any chance of securing better roads, may lend a ready ear to a superficially attractive proposal of this nature. But Mr. Bell is sadly mistaken if | he thinks he has his constituency behind | him in his new policy. The North has clamoured too long and waited too long for the line now crawling northwards at the rate of less than a mile a year, to check even that slow progress. We want more roads and better roads; but this is not the way to get them. The railway has been stopped, but not a pound extra will in consequence be added to scanty road grants now being grudgingly doled out ky the Public Works Department. The scanty measure of justice done to the North of late years as the result of long and weary agitation will be largely undone.

For two generations the natural wealth of the North—its timber, its gum—was draiued largely to swell Southern prosperity ; the North was regarded as a country to be exploited and then largely abandoned, like a deserted goldfield, and meanwhile to have as little spent on it as possible. Too long the North sat supinely under that treatment, and now when the great potential value of the North is beginning to be realised, and something like fair treatment being accorded in the matter of railway communication there comes this check. Mr. Bell is doubtless actuated by the best of motives—it is a deplerable fact that half the mischief in the world is done by people with the best possible intentions. The pushing on with the railway to the Far North was one of the prominent planks in Mr. Bell’s lengthy election platform. The sooner he reinstates it and turns his energy in the direction of fighting for both good roads and good railways the less he will have to answer for when he next woos the electors.” THE HUMOUR OF ALLEN. Mr. A. P. Blundell, Horeke, expressed his opinion on the “Stop the Railway” policy thusly:— I have been reading the criticisms that have appeared in the local Northern papers over what they style Allen Bell’s blunder. It did not come to me as a surprise in any shape or form. He is always against the Government, it matters not which Government, as he states in his addresses he has no use for any party except to be up against it. Why it is only a year or two back when he had some scheme on at Kaitaia to bring over an Australian railway contractor to link up the line between Okaihau and Kaitaia. I forget the name of the contractor, but it was certainly in print. During his late tour round the district he had to find something to talk about, and his new scheme to Stop the Railway and get the money for roads took on in some cases. But he knows, or should know, with every person who is not quite devoid of intellect, that such a proposition is impossible. The money loaned for railways must be spent on railways, and he or the Minister in charge could not divert that money; and if he stops it being spent on the Northern line it will give some other line the benefit.

Then he proposes motor traffic in preference to railway traffic. Surely he is only joking. While the war was on and the big railway strike occured at home motor services were put on everywhere’ to meet the people’s wants, and it was proved conclusively then that where the distance was over 40 miles the motor service was unproductive, and run at a loss on a 60-mile radius, and then it was only mer handise carried. Stock were never in it.

If by any chance the Government did stop the railway it does not follow that we should get an annual grant for roading purposes equal to the railway grant.

Where I do blame Mr. Bell is in this: when going round the district he was the guest of the Hokianga County Council tor the express purpose of giving him a knowledge of our requirements, and a knowledge ot the county by personal observation, and at most of the meetings

I of the settlers he addressed them on his ■ new scheme. It was not an electioneering I tour, and in no case was his scheme put ■ to the vote to give him the assurance that : he took on himself when he wired the Minister of Railways to stop all further expenditure as a new feeling had come over the North as a whole. That was misleading. A new feeling had come over him; and he will have a lot more nt w feelings beffna die s»ssion closes. Motor se vice- is a very nice proposition but it must be put before us as an economic proposition. When we can inaugurate a moto- service to comnete with the rail we wiH support him; hn'these are facts. I ha v travelled be b.. 1 hin these distances and 1 will see if the average man .can afford the luxury of motor travel: £ s d Rail Okaihau to Whangarei ... 0 [5 0 Motor Okaihau to Whangarei... 4 10 0 Rail Okaihau to Auckland ... 150 Motor Okaihau to Auckland... 6 to 0 The rail charges are not quite correct as the present price bv the Public Works train from Okaihau to K dkohe is only a minimum charge, but they are quite near enough for comparison. The motor time to Whangarei was ahead of the train, but for the through journey the train and motor were about the same. Now to show how inconsistent his arguments are: The only thing f see he lias done since lie has been in the House is to ask the Minister of Railways to put a fish truck on the Northern train. Why did he not get a motor lorry ? It would go from Opua to W liangarei and back for about £ls, where a railway truck would cost £i/10/-. Again farmers shifting stock from Okaihau to the Freezing Works get them railed for 5/- a head—l oeiieve lifting 200 and 300 at a lift. Motor service to the Freezing Works would be about £2 a head and lift, say four at a time. The huge prices we are getting for beef would warrant the motor service in preference to the rails, wouldn’t it, Aden ? Ism only surprised you never thought about an aeroplane service. You could get to Auckland for about £:8 by aeroplane and 1 get stock to the Freezing Works at a loss 1 of about £5 a head. Try it; it would take 1 on.

AH farmers are like that, they would sooner give £7/10 to motor to Auckland than £l/5/- by train. As tar as their stock is concerned they wouldu't hesitate a moment in paying £3 to the Freezing works instead of 5/.. We’re all like that —I don’t think I

I should not be a bit surprised to see in next week's Auckland papers a telegram to the Minister of Public Works to this effect; “Stop all railway construction in the North, also all motor traffic ; changed feeling entirely in the North ; adopting aeroplane services and damn econotn c issues.—Signed and stamped at ICaitaia.” [Northern News] Did Mr. Bell at that time sav anything about honouring an agreement made by his predecessor. Mr. Bell now says that he “most emphatically dissented from the proposal that the Okaihau northwards line should wait until the branch line from Kirikopuni to Dargaville was completed.” Will Mr. Beli deny that, during a recent session, he accompanied a deputation urging that the Kiriponui-Dargaville line be completed at once.

The "Age” is glad to hear that Mr, Bell is now doing his duty in Parliament regarding this railway, but his neglect of duty at the right time lost the North its railway for years. If work on the line had ceased before Mr. Bell sent his wire urging cessation why did he not urge that the line be gone on with. His vote at that time k pt the Massey Government in power and if Mr. Bell had asked (and he wauld have been fully justified in asking) that the line be proceeded with to Mangamuka an i authorised to Awanui the Government would have most certainly have agreed in preference to going to the country as a resul • of the loss of Mr. Bell’s vote. Mr. Bell was badly fooled over this, and thus the North lost its great chance. It will be no use for him to turn round and say that it was not an honourable thing to embarrass a government and put the country to the expense of an election, because the North knows quite well that Mr. Bell would have done both if it suited him. We again agree with Mr. Bell that the public are the best judges of his action—the great, sound British public—Actions certainly do speak louder Uiasi words. And again the editor of this immaculate, family j jurnal reiterates that he is doing his best to assist in getting the line constructed from Okaih au an I his efforts a: a practical and constructive as desired by Mr. Bell. The plain truth is certainty good enough for the average elector in the North.

Permanent link to this item

https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/NORAG19250409.2.8

Bibliographic details

Northland Age, Volume 24, Issue 50, 9 April 1925, Page 3

Word Count
3,876

BELL-O-DRAMA Northland Age, Volume 24, Issue 50, 9 April 1925, Page 3

BELL-O-DRAMA Northland Age, Volume 24, Issue 50, 9 April 1925, Page 3

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