ISOLATED SENTENCES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21529, 29 December 1931, Page 6

ISOLATED SENTENCES.

It was generally supposed that the evidence that was tendered to the special Economy Committee which was set up during the last session of Par liament was to be regarded as confidential. If witnesses were led to speak unguardedly in the belief that there would be no public disclosure of what they said, they have clear reason to complain that their confidence has not been wholly respected. The Leader of the Labour Party was. the first member of the committee to make public use of a statement by one of the witnesses when he asserted—and, in doing so, misrepresented the witness—that the committee had been informed by a banker that it would be possible to float a /loan of five millions in the Dominion. A statement attributed to another banking witness—in this instance Sir Henry Buckleton, general manager of the Bank of New Zealand —is said to have been freely quoted on the public platform during the election campaign, and the Pelorus Provincial Executive of the Farmers’ Union is exercised about it so' much that it is anxious to learn whether the quotation is authentic and, if so, how it is to be explained. Apparently a document purporting to be an official precis of the proceedings of the Economy Committee attributes to Sir Henry Buckleton the statement: “ Farmers ... a jolly good thing if some do come to grief. The more severe the lesson now the better for the country in the future.” Obviously a statement of this description, if made at all, was not made for publication, and equally obviously it may be quite erroneously interpreted when it is divorced from its context as it seems to be. If Sir Henry Buckleton really considers that there are some farmers who are not deserving of sympathy in their misfortunes, since they disregarded all the best advice in acquiring properties at grossly inflated prices and recklessly squandered their possessions, he is certainly not singular in the opinion he holds and there are a great many farmers themselves who will be in complete agreement with him. But the tenor of the ■observations which he made to, the Economy Committee cannot possibly be fairly judged by reference to an isolated sentence or two. In the absence of the context, these sentences are liable to a construction which might be completely altered if they appeared in their appropriate setting. The Dominion Executive of the Farmers’ Union may be expected to recognise this, and, recognising it, may reasonably entertain a doubt as to the expediency of communicating, with the Government and pressing for information on the point. Even if it is persuaded to pursue the matter further, it is hardly likely to interpret the

- ' - statement attributed to Sir Henry Buckleton as implying—as the Pelortw executive, by a delightful non sequitur, : imagines it does —that “ farmers ar® to blame for the changed purchasing power of money.” If politicians could be trusted to preserve the confidence f that is reposed in them, little storms in teacups of the kind which the Pelorus farmers seek to raise would be averted.