THE CASE OF PROFESSOR GILRUTH

Otago Daily Times, Issue 14784, 17 March 1910, Page 6

THE CASE OF PROFESSOR GILRUTH

Ix compliance with the request of the jlinister of Agriculture,, we reproduce tiiis morning from Hansard the material portions of the speech which lie deliverel in the House of Representatives on the. 21st December last when the question if the treatment of l'rofessor Gilruth by the Government was under consideration. We are disposed to think, however, tint the Minister would serve the purpose of the Government better by allowing the whole matter to drop as far as possible into oblivion than by continuing a discussion upon it, His speech was torn completely into shreds by Professor Gil-, ruth in the letter which was published ill our 'Esue. of Saturday morning last, and the feeble and unconvincing attempt which Mr Mackenzie made, in one breath to excuse the Governmfent and in the next to justify it, does not gain in impressive' ness through the mere fact of its being repeated. Jlr Mackenzie contrived in the first place to cast doubt upon Professor Gilruth's statement that the Government of the Transvaal proposed to offer hiiu an appointment at a salary greatly in excess of that of which lie was in receipt in New Zealand. This was, .in the known circumstances of the case, a particularly ihabby attitude for the Minister to adopt. It was, moreover, entirely gratuitous, since Sir Joseph Ward had in the preceding sossion admitted the receipt by the Government cf an offer of a position for Mr Gilruth that, was superior to that occupied by him in New Zealand, but had- said, as a reason for its refusal to transmit the offer, that the Government ".objected to an interference with its high-salaried officers in the performance of their duties in this country. And in effect Mr Mackenzie supported the view that, "if the offer was," he said, "ever made at all," tlu Government was fully entitled to refuse to communicate it to Mr Gilruth. We need not comment- further upon this than to express the opinion that an extremely | high-handed illegitimate exercise of its power on the part of the Government was involved in its deliberate decision to stand in the way of the professional advance, ment of a valued public servant.