VICE-REGAL OFFICE

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23858, 12 July 1939, Page 12

VICE-REGAL OFFICE

NEXT APPOINTMENT “A LEADING BREWER? ” CONCERN EXPRESSED BY CLERGYMEN (Special to Daily Times) AUCKLAND, July U. A suggestion that the Government may appoint a leading brewer to succeed Viscount Galway as Gover-nor-General of the Dominion was brought before the Auckland Presbytery by the Rev. J. D. Smith tonight, when he was presenting a report of the Temperance Committee. “ Some of you will have noticed,” he said, “that it has been reported that it is the intention of the Government to follow the example of Australia and, instead of having an overseas British subject appointed as Governor-General, that a New Zealand subject will be appointed, and that strong pressure is being brought to bear upon the Government to appoint a leading brewer to that position. I take it that the usual procedure is being followed of throwing out a feeler to see whai sort of an effect it will have on public opinion. “ I hope,” Mr Smith said, “ that every one of you will take the trouble to write a letter to the Prime Minister (Mr Savage) and tell him what you think about the proposal. Nothing, in my judgment, could bring the law of the country into greater disrepute than to have a brewer appointed as GovernorGeneral. —(“Hear, hear.”) There is no trade in the country that is responsible for more breaking of the law than the liquor trade. For one who is intimately associated with its affairs to be appointed to be the supreme citizen of this country would lower the standard of order and decency more than anything else.”—(Applause.) Several members of the presbytery expressed a desire to know the source of Mr Smith’s information and whether there was anything behind it. Mr Smith replied that it had been a matter of general talk for some time.