REFERENCES TO THE DEAD

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12929, 27 July 1905, Page 5

REFERENCES TO THE DEAD

ATTACK BY THE PREMIER. MR. MASSEY'S REBUKE. [liY TELEORAPH. -SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.] Wellington", Wednesday. The tendency of the Premier to refer" in disparaging terms to politicians who are no longer in the land of the living was shown this afternoon. In the course of an argument with Mr Jos. Allen, Mr. Seddou indulged in a thrust at the last Atkinson Administration. " The party to which the lion, gentleman'belongs," said Mr. Seddon, "endeavoured to strike the deadliest blow at our education system which has ever been struck since the system came into force." ' •Mr. Allen: What blow was that? Mr. Seddon: Why they reduced the capitation and made'it apply to the strict average instead of the working average. They got the finances of the country' into a mess and then tried to put things right at the expense of the school teachers and school'children. .-.'■.. ■. . . Mr. Allen said that it was the parly with which the Premier was connected which got the finances "into a mess, and the Atkinson Government had to put things right. Mr. Massey, in alluding to the remarks of the Premier, said that-this was only another instance of the Premier's habit of referring in a slighting manner to politicians who had passed away. Sir Harry Atkinson, he said, had done good service to the colony, and his memory would be respected when the name of the Premier had been forgotten. Mr. Seddon: He tried to destroy our education system. Mr. Massey said he noticed that the Premier, in one of his Otago speeches, had referred to the historical compact which had been entered into some years ago by four Auckland members (now all passed away)' with the Government of the day. The Premier had endeavoured to make political capital out. of this against the present Opposi'tion party. He (Mr. Massey) thought that if the gentlemen who gave the document referred to to the Premier knew to what use it had been put they would not bo able to lie quiet in their graves. .'; Mr. Seddon : It was given to me for that purpose. ~"/•'"'. ~ ' ■' Mr. 1 . Massey said that may or may not have been the case. ' Mr..Seddon interjected something about the conditions of the compact. Mr, Massey said that one of the conditions was that there should be an Auckland mem-" ber in the Cabinet', and another was that justice should be done to the North of Auckland. Surely there was nothing wrong about that. ,-,'■-■! . - ■ ' ■-. .•*