The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1935. SIR ALEXANDER HERDMAN’S LUCK

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 79, Issue 199, 26 August 1935, Page 6

The Wanganui Chronicle MONDAY, AUGUST 26, 1935. SIR ALEXANDER HERDMAN’S LUCK

ALEXAXDEIi HERDMAN timed his re-entry into the political arena with consummate skill. It was quite a dramatic success to step down from the Supreme Court Dench and denounce the Government in measured terms. Further, it appeared quite clear that the politician in him had not died while he was occupying the Beneh seat in the Supreme Court; it lay dormant. This spirit showed a reawkening in his tirst political speech: a lawyer, and particularly a Judge, is specific and is expected so to be. But what of a specific nature was there in Sir Alexander Herdman’s speech of acceptance of nominationNothing at all save the expression of determined opposition to the present Government. Surely this was thin fare on which Io feed the public! But it was sufficient for the occasion. Had he been specific in his charges the Government’s supporters would have had something to answer, but as it is Sir Alexander has left his opponents nothing to catch hold of. Had Sir Alexander’s speech been left alone it would have been effective by reason of the position of the speaker himself, and also by reason of the speed with wliich he made it after his retirement from the Beneh. But that was all. His good luck has been in that Government supporters would not let him alone, they have persisted in keeping Sir Alexander firmly in the public mind long after his speech, if left to itself, would have been forgotten. Even the Prime Minister has assisted in this regard, and the spectacle of a Reserve Bank director in the political arena is as striking as a Supreme Court Judge engaging in the same activity. Few men. when staging what the sportsmen call a “comeback,’’ have been so favourably aided as has been Sir Alexander Herdman.