A QUERY FOR THE PREMIER.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 271, 7 April 1898, Page 3

A QUERY FOR THE PREMIER.

TO TUE EDITOn. Sir,—On the result of the Wellington election becoming known, the Premier was reported to have said that there were " many who now declared themselves Duthieites who would not have dared to have styled themselves such previous to the election." This serins to me a most peculiar statement for the " Liberal " Premier of a British colony to make. It is tantamount to saying that if he knew of any differing from him he would have found means to " pay them out." Will Mr Scddon inform us if the report was a correct rendering of his statement ; and, if so, what he meant to convey by it ? —I am, etc.. Colonial. We notice that our correspondent is not alone in taking exception to the Premier's remark, for we clip the following from a Southern contemporary : Mr John Duthie, M.H.R., the newlyelected member for Wellington, in speaking nt Auckland, said that during his election campaign, he had had the greatest difficulty in obtaining meti to work on his committee. An.l why, simply because they were afraid to shew their hands against the Government. This statemeut is borne out by Mr Scddoa himself, who speaking in rnge and unadvisedly the day following the election, stated that there were many that day who owned themselves Duthicites, who the preceeding day would not have flared to avo>v themselves as such. Dared was the word the Premier dared to make use of. He by that word has challenged the right of the voters to vote according to their consciences. A voter at the ballot box, under our present constitution and before that constitution becomes still more Seddouized. can and will dare anything, and Mr Seddon knows this. In the ballot box lies the safety of the people of New Zealand from the danger of a b'eddonian dictatorship that now threatens to overwhelm them. The ballot boxes of Wellington gave out an eloquent protest—all the more eloquent, all the more pathetic, because of the silence of the voters themselves, who awed by the domineering authority placed over them, had registered their votes in fear and trembling, and who next morning seeiug their cause had triumphed, had " dared" openly to express their sympathies with the cause of order against tyranny ; of democracy against autocracy.