PARTY VENOM

Dominion, Volume 8, Issue 2468, 22 May 1915, Page 4

PARTY VENOM

« Both our local contemporaries appear anxious to embroil the Prihe Minister in a political controversy respecting the Bay of Islands seat when Mr. Massey is much better employed concentrating his attention on the heavy administrative tasks which the war has thrust on his shoulders. It is quito'natural that the opponents of the Government should seize on the Bay of Islands case as an excuse to belabour Ministers Mr. Reed having been disqualified and Mr. Massey having offered Mr. Wilkinson some time in 1914 a seat in the Legislative Council, here was the chance for the lilywhite Puritans of the Opposition. Had their party ever offered inducement to a superfluous candidate to stand down 1 Perish the thought. Had their leaders ever offered seats in the Legislative Council to serve a party end? Surely the records must lie. The great bulk of the public know quite Well that this professed indignation by the Opposition Press over the offer of a seat in the Legislative Council to Mr. Wilkinson is arrant humbug. The question that most concerns the public, if the public concerns itself at all over the matter, is whether or not Mr. Wilkinson was a suitable man to fill one of the vacant seats in the Upper House. So far as can be fathered from his past public career Ir. Wilkinson would have been a useful member of the Council, and his appointment, but for tie fact that it have cleared the way for a straight-out contest for the Bay of Islands seat, would not have occasioned the slightest protest even from the Opposition themselves. Our morning contemporary states that Mr. Wilkinson was offered tbe seat in the Legislative Council by Mr. Massey "on the condition that he should retiro from the Bay of Islands contest, leaving the field clear to Mr. Vernon Reed/;' This is quito nonsensical, but it is in keeping with much of the matter that has been written on the subject. It must be clear to anyone who troubles to think at all that Mr. Massey, assuming ho did make the offer, would have no need to impose any such condition, for tho simple reason that Mr. Wilkinson by accepting a seat in the Legislative Council would automatically debar himself from standing for election for the House of Representatives. To the average man the position will no doubt seem plain enough: (1) That the Government was compelled to make certain appointments to tho Legislative Council, and (2) that Mr. Wilkinson was a suitable and qualified person to be so appointed. This being the case,, the further fact that by his appointment a straight-out party contest for the Bay of Islands seat Would have been ensured surely Would bo an additional reason for making tho appointment. It could not be against the interests of the public to have in the Upper House a qualified and capable representative such as Mr. Wilkinson was reported to be; it could not be against the interests of the public to have a straight-out contest for the Bay of Islands seat. These were the ends which Mr. Wilkinson's appointment would have served. But it is not the interests of the public that the Opposition are concerned with. They are anxious to injure the Government in any way that presents itself, and they have few scruples, nowadays, in seeking to give effect to their desires. 'It is regrettable that they . cftinnot refrain from these "petty party" attacks while the war is so fully, occupying the attention of Ministers and the great bulk of the public.