MR AGAR'S CONSISTENCY.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18890, 15 October 1929, Page 10

MR AGAR'S CONSISTENCY.

To the Editor Dear Sir, —No one will assert that Mr C. P. Agar is a fool or «. :ad man by the many and varied expressions of opinion he offers on public questions in New Zealand, and if only “fools and dead men” keep to their opinions and never change, Mr Agar cannot be accused of consistency in regard to his views on the Arbitration Act When he was wooing the electors at the 1927 Christchurch City Council election for the office of Mayor, he was a strong supporter of the Conciliation and A bi tration Act and was emphatically op posed to the repeal of the Act That declaration was made at the Choral Hall at the first meeting of the Citizens’ Association's candidates held in April of that year* I have always been a strong supporter of arbitration, and the-efore at that meeting I put the question to him. “That as the farmers of New Zealand were strongly advocating ‘he repeal of the Act, would he, if elec'e • and the question came up in the c»nu cil, vote for ’ts repeal?” Mr Aclaad. the chairman, said he would not allow me to put the question to Mr Agar “It,” he said, “was a national question, and not a municipal matter ” But while the chairman and I arvued the matter, Mr Agar got up on his feet and said he would not burk the question, “but that he was a supporter of arbitration and would not vote for its repeal,” and I said “Thank you; that’s all I want.” Of course, Mr Agar was se?king the votes of a large number of electors who were supporters of the Arbitration Act That may have had something to do with his emphatic declaration But t' ■* 'hehai d Tories of the A 'socia ed ( ur ers of Commerce art ano*ner C;. con altogether Jt is too late n the day Mr Agar to go back to ;he savage man’s dull or physical force, or to make the work crs beasts of burden. Education has been doing its work and tfco worker is a thinking being and becoming quite as capable as Mr Agar and hi? associates of solving economic problems.— I am, etc.. W. T. THOMAS. Woolston.