MR. FISHER AND HIS CRITICS.

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1519, 15 August 1912, Page 4

MR. FISHER AND HIS CRITICS.

THAT LEGAL HEM. In reference to tho criticism of the transaction between the Government and tho Crown Solicitor at InvercargUl, in regard to business in connection with the htato Insurance Department, the Minister (tho Hon. F. JI. B. Fisher) points out that it has not been the practice of tho Government Insurance Department to give its work exclusively to any Crown Solicitor or to any other solicitor. The extraordinary feature about this transaction is Hint Cabinet should have issued anordor directing that nil business should go to Mr. Macalister, to the exclusion of every other solicitor in lnvemirgill, without even consulting the head of tho Government Insurance Department. If the Crown Solicitor at Invorcargill was not receiving enough business as Crown Solicitor to warrant his continuing in that position, it was, nevertheless, unjust to penalise the State Insurance Department in order to subsidise an officer that In. auother Department was being underpaid' by the State. Tho effect ol tho edict issued by the Ward Cabinet, says Mr. r isher, has boon that tho legal profession in Inyereargill were informed that if they introduced any business to the Government Insurance Department, ie. any mortgage business, they had to put the whole of tho work through the hands of a rival solicitor in the person of Mr. Jlacalister, and this had ail' injurious eject upon the business of the State offica, Naturally, thoso solicitors introduced their uusuiess, and their applications for leant in those quarters where they were allowed lo transact their own clients' huaness lho Minister of the day was advised, after the Cabinet 'minute was passed, of tho bad effect it would have upon tbe business of the Department, but notwithstanding this warning tho muiuto of Cabinet had been strictly acted upon until seven days ago. Mr. Fisnor said lie noticed among other criticisms of his own remarks one published in an Opposition newspaper, stating that tho Hon. H. D. Bell, at present a member of the Cabinet, is Crown Solicitor in Wellington. • That, said Mr. Fisher, is absolutely contrary to fact, a Crown Law Department having been sot up in Wellington some years ago, and the whole of tho Government business having been taken away from Mr. Bell's firm. But, even when Mr. Bell was Crown Solicitor .in Wellington, his firm never transacted tho business of tho Government Insurance Department, tho Department being always free to place its work with any legal firm introducing business. "I have no desire," added Mr. Fisher, "to make any reflection upon Mr. Macalister in his lecnl capacity, but I do most emphatically say that the Cabinet did great injury to the business of tho Government Insurance Department, and it is not conceivable that such action would have, been taken except at the instance of Jlr. Macalister, wlio thereby scored a point over all the other nicmbere of tho legal profession in. Invercargill.' A singular point about the whole matter is that this Ministerial edict wos peculiar to Invercargill, and applied to no other town in New Zealand. .