THE FIGHTING FOUR AT PETONE.

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume XLIX, Issue 12593, 6 September 1905, Page 8

THE FIGHTING FOUR AT PETONE.

At tho meeting of Messrs. Taylor, Fisher, Laurenson, and Bedford, M.H.R.'s, at Petone, on Thursday, Mr. Fisher was asked: When are you going to resign? , Mr. Fisher replied: Thero's as much prospect of my resigning as there is of the sun not coming up in tha morning. (Cheers). Mr.* FiJfer also said: The people of this colony have been under the impression that there was only one man in tho country who could fight, but we arc going to let you know there are half-a-dozen. We arc not going to let things slide. . . . No public man in tho House, with the evidence in his possession that I had could have failed to tako up the attitude that I took up. (Cheers.) Under tho same circumstances ho Avould do exactly the same a^ain. Mr. Taylor, in the course of his remarks, explained tho general attitude of the New Liberals towards the Government and its weaknesses, and coming to the voucher case, said he was now drawn into it because he represented tho four Christchurch men whom the Premiei' had threatened to severely deal .with. But while he (Mr. Taylor) was in the House he was going to see fail* play. (Cheers.) A civil servant was also a taxpayer, and was not paid to* keep silence if he thought a crime was being committed. His first duty was not to his political master, but to tho taxpayers of the colony. (Applause.) Ho was not going to allow tho Premier or anyone else to fire these four men out because they did what they thought to be right—and still believed to be right, as shown by the telegram ho had that day received from them, and which ho then read,, amidst prolonged cheering.