LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1065, 2 March 1911, Page 6

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.

NEW ZEALAND AND THE CORONATION.

Sir, I would liko space to refer to certain aspects of the position you have taken on the most interesting "question of the day—the representation of the Dominion Parliament at the Coronation. As 1 understand it, your attitude is one of - splendid isolation." Evidently believing that the invitation from the" British Committee is liable to result in a raid on the public moneys, you stand aloof on tile whole question, lest your approval of tho visit of any member of our Parliament should be misconstrued into approval of the whole performance and used against you when , next session the Opposition duly accuse tho Government of wasting time. But surely your duty is higher than this?

.Rumour has it that the l'rime Minister last December intimated to certain favoured members of his party the news ot this invitation that has just been connrmed, and hinted to them the advisability of being ready to accept it Humour is a lying jade," but it is extremelv likely that the personnel of the eight who finally take advantage of the invitation will he such that only "hole-ln-the-corner methods would ever secure them place in what should be a representative selection of our legislators. The unusual source and character of tho invitation surely demand that only men whom tho nation could honour should represent us as its accentors. But rumour says that only members of tho Assembly have been approached to share it. I would, if this is true, draw attention to the transcendent claims of tlice legislative Councillors to such an honour: Slr , Charles Bowen and the Hon. Ormond and Stevens. All three are ex-Jlinisters ot the Crown 111 this colonv, men of unblemished reputation and brilliant intellectual gifts, giants who were strivin" for the political welfare of our Dominion bo.orc tho present-day politicians had left their mothers' arms to enjoy the educational advantages bequeathed 'to them by Sir Charles Uowen (to whom we owe'such a great and lasting debt of gratitude for our present system of education), and to share 111 the prosperity made possible by the efforts of the Hon. J. D. Ormond, who secured peace among tho Maoris and gained for the whole white peoplo tho respect of those dusky warriors. To tho ILon. E. G\ J. Stevens we owe tho inception of our Public Trust Office, the first in the world. The mere recital of the baldest details of the political careers ot these three gentlemen and of the portfolios they have held stirs the imagination like a roll of drums; and I feel that any body lacking these men and purporting to represent our Parliament is as Hamlet without the Prince of Denmark.

To descend to a less pleasing plane I would ask if it is true that the legal case which was advanced as an excuse for the Attorney-General's visit has been indefinitely postponed? Rumour says so and certainly there has been a tendon'™' lately to farewell the Hon. ,T. G. Findlay as an accredited representative of the Dominion at the Coronation, and as a possible recipient of Coronation honours —I am, etc., HOMILY.