THAT TESTIMONIAL.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 523, 2 June 1909, Page 4

THAT TESTIMONIAL.

Sir,—l have .carefully read the history of British rulers from tho year 43 a.d. down to tho reign of our late.Queen, and find that many of them had to_ resort ;to various methods wioif pushed into a tight corner. Sometimes they were voted out of office with a club, sometimes the electors' Chopped their heads off and tried them afterwards. A few of them shifted over to Franco till things quietened down a bit. Another took up his quarters-in a swamp, and still another had to shin up an. oak tree till ho got a chanco to got' away. , But none of them,' so far as I can learn, ever resorted to the cheap-jack trick of permitting their friends to send paid men round for' signatures. The testimonial going the rounds just now would bo right enough to advertise a quack medicino, but it is playing altogether too low' down when it applies to such o serious matter as the squandering of four, millions of. money that we haven't got.. Mind you, I would he ono of tho first to sign a genuine testimonial for a good cause, but I do object to the canvassers approaching the paid workers of the State. I do not blame the men for signing it, because they dare not do ot&erwise, as everyone who refused would be a marked man. Looking over the names on the ono that I saw, about 80 per cent, wer'o those such as I have mentioned above Excluding tho names of those who could not very well refuse.to eign, I would guarantee to get a counter-petition signed in Wellington alono outnumbering the Ministerial one by ten to one.—l am, ©to., ■. . ' MayiSl. , \ .. J ' R