THE GOVERNMENT PARTY

Southland Times, Issue 17427, 20 August 1913, Page 5

THE GOVERNMENT PARTY

NO RIFT IN THE LUTE. The special correspondent of the Mataura Ensign wires as follows : The New Zealand Times yesterday morning published a statement to the effect that there was considerable dissension in the Government ranks and that there was also trouble in the Ministry, one member of which was said to have left a meeting of the Cabinet somewhat hastily, slamming the door behind him. The same paper further stated that a Government member (one of the committeemen) had threatened to pull the chairman’s nose. This.whole paragraph is a gross fabrication. The Government is fully in accord and the party is agreed to the policy of the Government. In the lobbies yesterday tbe names of the parties who were said to have nearly come to blows in committee were freely mentioned. These two gentlemen named are the best of friends and never had an angry word in or out of Parliament. The whole affair, therefore, was manufactured in order to discredit the Government, which it absolutely fails to do. The Dominion this morning has the following :—From subsequent enquiries as to the beginning of the story it seems that the two members referred to must have been Messrs Eradney and Anderson. Mr Bradney is at Auckland, but Mr Anderson refused to take seriously the suggestion put to him by a reporter that ho came near quarrelling with Mr Bradney at a meeting of a committee. He disagreed with Mr Bradney on a question that was of great importance but neither of them had felt keenly about it, and neither of them had thought of losing his temper. Ho was good friends with Mr Bradney and had always been so. and the incident had not in the slightest degree disturbed their friendship. The whole story was a fabrication by on imaginative reporter.