MINISTER AND OFFICER.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18887, 9 December 1924, Page 11

MINISTER AND OFFICER.

CHARGES BY A MEMBER.

SIR FRANCIS BELL'S ATTITUDE.

[Br TELEGRAM. —OWN. CORRESPONDENT.]

WELLINGTON'. Mot day.

Further correspondence has passed between Mr. H. Holland, Leader of the Labour Party, and Sir Francis Bell, the Attorney-General, regarding the former's charges concerning the Crown Solicitor at Westport. In the course of a. reply to Mr. Holland, Sir Francis Bell wrote:— " I understand your contention to be first that a member of Parliament is justified in attacking from his place in the House the character of a public officer in regard not only to his public duties, but also to the conduct of his private business; secondly, that the Minister in charge of the department employing such public officer ought to consult the member of Parliament who made the charges as to the course the Minister should adopt in an inquiry rendered necessary by such charges; and thirdly, that the Min- ! ister is riot justified in arriving at a de- | cision whether his officer's answer to the charges is complete without consulting the member who made the charges. "I disagree with each of those contentions and X certainly shall not follow them in any department of the Government which is entrusted to me. It is my duty to the Dominion to satisfy myself whether charges made against an officer of any of my departments have been satisfactorily disproved and if I am satisfied, it is my duty to my officer to make public the result of my inquiry."