MAYOR WITH BACKBONE.

Wairarapa Age, 15 November 1919, Page 4

MAYOR WITH BACKBONE.

It is not every mayor of a township who has the backbone of the Mayor of To Kuiti. He was asked to preside at a meeting to be addressed by the Parliamentary Labour candidate, and he declined. The following dignified letter, addressed to the Labour Party, explained his reasons:— i "I feel that as Mayor, and as such the accredited representative >of ; the people, I could not consci- \ entiously take the chair at a meeting convened by a party which, judged as a party by the public utterances of its Parliamentary leaders, is distinctly and decidedly disloyal. . . . Your party not only actively opposed the war, but in , every way possible hindered its due and proper prosecution. .1 need hardly remind you that, one of its

leading representatives, Mr. Webb, suffered imprisonment rather than serve, and his conduct was applauded, and not condemned by his Parliamentary associates. On top of all, the party organ has been guilty of condemnatory references to our brave soldiers, of which no right-thinking citizen >■ can but be other than ashamed. The purpose of the meeting being to assist in sending Mr. Broom to join with and act under the direction of the men whose utterances I havo referred to, I really must decline to assist. To do otherwise would be but to countenance the past conduct of the party leaders, and to affront the loyalty of the vast majority of the Dominion, and, above all, to insult the memory of our honoured dead. I write you this with some regret, but as a matter of both personal conscience and public duty."