"NO APPOINTMENTS."

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXV, Issue 20113, 26 November 1928, Page 8

"NO APPOINTMENTS."

' In announcing a short session of ' Parliament to clear up the political position, Mr. Coates said that in the . meantime no appointments would be I made except such as were absolutely i essential for llic carrying on of the ■ public service. This assurance, 1 quite in keeping with his record for ' plain talking and straight dealing, : disposes effectually of two sugges--1 tions made in the period of waiting. ' Mr. Holland, characteristically, was ! first in the iicld. The day following the election, in commenting on the general position, he said it had been suggested the Government w.ould, before going out of office, make certain appointments to the Legislative Council, that this would be a very wrong thing, and a little more in his usual vein. By whom it could have been suggested, at that early date, except by Mr. Holland himself, is not very clear. However, he has been known, on other occasions, to manufacture a bogey for the purpose of tilting at it. He will only require now to say that but for his early protest such appointments would have been made for the process to be complete. He rarely deceives anyone, except possibly himself. A little later Sir Joseph Ward, without going nearly so far as Mr. Holland did, said that in the past a defeated Government had made appointments, and that such things should not be done. If he was simply determined not to let Mr. Holland have the advantage of him—and in the complete absence of any known ground for commenting on the possibility it is difficult to see for what other purpose he should have mentioned it—Sir Joseph Ward might safely have let it pass. It would have been in better taste, would have been a more graceful act, in both of them not to have raised the point at all. Their only achievement is to have Sir. Coates say publicly that he does not intend to do a thing nobody had any sound reason for alleging lie intended to do. The Reform Party in power has not piled up the record of appointments—not necessarily Council appointments—that belonged to some of its predecessors. There was no need to suggest that as one of its last acts it would depart from its established procedure in this matter.